This is the situation of entrepreneur - EB2 and filed AOS received EAD (Employment Authorization Document). Is it possible for a person on EAD status to own a business and work as CEO of their own business ? Probably not as EAD For employment based green cards, the green card applicant uses AC21 and may use his/her EAD to work in a similar job that was filed in I140 case.

Here is great discussion from a post by stevesmith155 in Hacker News. Few options that seems possible from comments are -

1) Use o-1 visa - Something similar to EB1 and who qulifies as extroadinary people.
2) Set up a company in India and use B1 visas for visits to US and basically forgo green card in us

I feel if the guy is married the other option would be to incorporate a company name on spouse name as spouse should have got EAD.

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Entrepreneur released 2008 MBA rankings in Entrepreneurship for both undergrad and graduate programs in US. In Graduate programs Babson took #1 spot where as DePaul University took #2 honors. I'll be graduating from DePaul MBA, Entrepreneurship in 2009 and its good to see that the school is ranked on top in the 2008 list. University of Illinois, Chicago also made to it to this years top graduate list with #6 ranking.

In Undergrad programs University of Houston is #1, Babson college is #2 and DePaul is #6.

The rankings are based on these surveys and graded accordingly -- Enrolled students, % of them who started a business, Percentage still in business, Faculty who are entrepreneurs, Recent grads who started a business, Percentage still in business,Scholarships,Number of entrepreneurship clubs, Mentorship programs and Business plan competition

Here is how Depaul University fared from the survey results :




Here is the top 10 list from both the programs as ranked by Entrepreneur

Undergraduate:

1. University of Houston
2. Babson College
3. Drexel University
4. University of Dayton
5. University of Arizona
6. Temple University
7. DePaul University
8. University of Oklahoma
9. University of Southern California
10. Chapman University

Graduate:

1. Babson College
2. DePaul University
3. University of Southern California
4. University of Arizona
5. University of South Florida
6. University of Illinois, Chicago
7. University of California, Los Angeles
8. Drexel University
9. Chapman University
10. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Labels: Depaul, DePaul University, Entrepreneurship, list, MBA, Rankings

SCAMPER is an acronym for • Substitute • Combine • Adapt • Magnify • Modify • Put to another use • Eliminate • Rearrange • Reverse

SCAMPER: This tool helped me to think of changes I can make to an existing problem ( What to do with my MBA?) to create a new/modified one. I used these changes either as direct suggestions or as starting points for lateral thinking. Using SCAMPER here has helped me define new possible career paths. Many of the ideas may be impractical or may not suit the career in Entrepreneurship. However some of these ideas became good starting points for finding solution to my problem.
Demonstration of SCAMPER:
SCAMPER gave me this summary of good points:
• Substitute - use of internships, substitutes experience? Prior-Experience? Domain Knowledge?
• Combine - integrate MBA and previous technical degree? Career plus promotion (combining purposes)? New Business or Acquisitions? Assortment of Industries – Tech, Manufacturing and Banking?
• Adapt – Copy what other my school Entrepreneurs are doing? Is my company R&D best fir for my entrepreneurial career? Emulate Technological evangelists?
• Magnify – Become a CEO? Unique skills? Use MBA School’s rankings reputation card? Duplicate successful entrepreneurial CEO’s resumes?
• Modify – To fit my personality traits? Income stream from many sources? Convert passions into income?
• Put to another use – Copy one passion idea to other ideas? Name, Recognition, Create jobs for others?
• Eliminate - Eliminate the BIG ideas, start with small ideas? Simple ideas break it into small ideas?
• Rearrange – Get degree first and launch career later or vice versa? One idea implementation per day?
• Reverse – Positive – autonomy with ladder of success, Negative – Bankrupt, Stress and No life?

Labels: Entrepreneurship, MBA

I used Mind Mapping creativity tool to apply to the problem at hand -"How my MBA in Entrepreneurship/Change Management prepare me for a career in Entrepreneurship".
Reasons for choosing this creativity methods:
Mind Mapping - By using Mind Maps, I can quickly identify and understand the structure of a subject and the way that pieces of information fit together. Mind Maps also provide a structure which encourages creative problem solving, and they hold information in a format that my mind will find easy to remember and quick to review.
Also Mind Maps are more compact than conventional notes, often taking up one side of paper. This helps me to make associations easily. Also If I find out more information after I have drawn the main Mind Map, then I can easily integrate it with little disruption.
Mind Maps are also useful for:
* Summarizing information;
* Consolidating information from different research sources;
* Thinking through complex problems; and
* Presenting information in a format that shows the overall structure of my subject
Remembering the shape and structure of a Mind Map can give you the cues you need to remember the information within it. As such, they engage much more of your brain in the process of assimilating and connecting facts, compared with conventional notes.

Demonstration of Mind Mapping:


Hope this helps some one who is struggling to decide what to do with their MBA.

Labels: Entrepreneurship, MBA

This post is all about clearly defining the problem statement for "Career in Entrepreneurship"

Problem or Opportunity Identification

Generic Problem Statement:“I wish I knew how my MBA in Entrepreneurship prepare me for a career in Entrepreneurship”
Now to choose Entrepreneurship career I may think I need to start my own business. The most significant reason I believe for considering a career in entrepreneurship is the personal satisfaction that often comes with owning your own company, right? Starting ones own business is how to start career in Entrepreneurship? Well, I think I better look a little more deeply at this problem before I instigate a huge effort requiring lots of resources to start a business because I’m going to be very disappointed if that’s not the solution.
Forming a Problem Statement:
Answering the following questions will help me look at my problem more deeply, and will probably help me get at the root causes.
Who? [People who currently are facing this problem or been in this situation before] – Those who wish to start a business and to implement decisions about their Entrepreneurship career. People who create new opportunities that generate benefits for the organization. Entrepreneurs who are likely to be involved in novel startups, and with fast-growing businesses. A student who wants to capitalize on their accumulated skills and experience. A hobby driven student: to enable them to keep doing the thing they enjoy most. A student who wishes to stay in a specific geographic area, or to have flexible hours. A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. Individuals who score highly on these measures - need for achievement, need for autonomy, drive and determination, creative tendency and risk taking.
When? [Timescales to start a career in Entrepreneurship] Start a business straight after graduating or later in the career when I have built up more knowledge, skills and credibility?
Where? [Where to start a career as Entrepreneur?] With Current or New employer, Self start or Franchise a business, Existing or in New technology, Targeting Niche or Industry wide markets, or in an early stage venture.
What? [What can I do with a degree in Entrepreneurship?]
Entrepreneurs recognize and evaluate opportunities and thus become venture capitalists, investors, attorneys and marketing specialists.
Why? [Why a career in Entrepreneurship?] Become part of the decision-making and empowerment, it's about following ones passion and doing something to make the world a better place, It is feeling of greatness to know that my contributions have a positive impact on the company.
The answers generated make me reconsider the problem. After I look more closely at the issue, it appears that just starting a business is not one of the main options for starting career in Entrepreneurship. This makes me think that starting own business and succeeding is not easy: Risk is bigger (about 70% of new businesses close down within 3 years. Risks are higher ). I think the problem can be found in the where and the why. Start off in employment to build experience. It is possible that one problem has multiple roots. Fortunately, I don’t have to make that decision just yet. The information gathered now will prepare me for applying creative tools later on.

New Problem Statement:

“I wish I knew how my MBA in Entrepreneurship prepare me for a career in Entrepreneurship” “I wish as an MBA student in Entrepreneurship I was more aware of the challenges in creating my own business to succeed , starting off in employment to build experience and networking to increase skills and knowledge, when combined may help me in preparing my career in Entrepreneurship” My new problem statement will help me come up with solutions that address the root of the cause not just the symptoms.

I'll discuss in future articles of how to apply creativity tools to this problem and solve the question in hand "How my MBA in Entrepreneurship can prepare me for a career in Entrepreneurship"

Labels: Entrepreneurship, MBA

In the book ‘the myths of innovation’, Scott Berkun debunks common myths about innovation. This book opens with a chapter that talks about - "Is it really that Newton found 'laws of gravity' when he saw apple falling to the ground" - Author gives explanation of why this is a myth that sold very well for ages.These myths are mostly human short cuts or quick fixes our minds take to help to transmit (promote) the information to other people. Innovation is not something that can be processed and manufactured and I felt Berkun did a great job in describing these realities in the book.This book should not take you long and can be finished in one sitting of 3 to 4 hours. Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun

Some of the Book’s key messages for managers:

Decision making: How does a manager know whether a hot new technology will succeed or fail? How managers commercialize an idea? These and other questions essential to producing thoughtful marketing/new product decisions and approaches are considered in the history of innovations and most importantly how they became successful. Examples come from the history of technology, business and the arts and tell how knowledge/ideas convert to commodities. Business managers will find this an important key to understanding and aids them in their decision making.
Collaboration: Good managers facilitate collaboration that has a huge impact on the success of innovation in the corporations. The best ideas derive from a mix of self-awareness and the ability to recognize and explore opportunities when they arise. Berkun talks about how good managers set up an environment which fosters creativity and innovation, how innovators are able to build off their prior experiences and a number of other critical factors. Political shielding: the appropriate role of managers in innovation; in the chapter #7, "Your boss knows more about innovation than you", Edison provided his team of researchers with the political shielding they needed in order to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

How does this can book help you plan or reconsider your own personal creative journey in your work or career?

Whether we work or not at creative companies like IDEO or Google, myths described in the Berkun’s book provides a set of practical insights that will help anyone come up with ideas or combination of ideas that can be applied to one’s own settings. I always thought creativity is something to be born with but Berkun has done a great job by debunking many of cherished myths that hold many people like me back from innovating. This book made me rethink and question the stories of innovation that have become part and parcel of our culture and society. Once we solve this riddle, then I believe it's possible to truly understand how innovation occurs, and how we all can play a part in that.

Two significant “take-aways” from the book.

Berkun captures thought provokingly the difference between what we've been led to believe about innovation as opposed to how it actually works. For each myth, Berkun uses the actual stories behind a variety of innovations, using innovations whose stories we think we know. The examples I took away from the book include the following:
Edison and the invention of the light bulb: Berkun uses Edison and the invention of the light bulb throughout the book to support several points. In the chapter #9, "Problems and solutions", Berkun points out that city had just invested millions of dollars in gas lighting. Realizing this, Edison did not frame his problem as "make a working light bulb," but "make an electricity system that cities can use to adopt my lights.” Framing the problem in this way properly identified the challenge that Edison needed to overcome to make the light bulb successful and that it's rarely a single person that is the source of innovation. In chapter#5 - "The lone inventor" Berkun points out that many inventions are created by different people relatively simultaneously. Edison was not, in fact, the first person to invent the light bulb. Two other lesser known inventors have that distinction.
Newton and his inventions in field of physics: Newton is credited for many advances in the field of physics. But he's as much a product of his location and time as he is of his studies. Born in a different country or 100 years earlier, Newton doesn't exist as the key figure. But that's not to say that his ideas would have never been uncovered. Others working in the same field with the same surroundings could likely have traveled the same path. Innovation is hard work, and it's a process, not a moment in time.

Summary:

Innovation is unpredictable. Berkun suggests ways that it might be cultivated. One should strive to define a problem precisely. Perhaps advantage is that no one else sees it as a problem or where it is believed that a solution exists for the problem. Then, try to tackle it. How some inventors got their ideas? As Berkun puts it, sometimes, clarifying a problem starts you on the road to innovation.


Click me Myths of innovation text book

Video: Book Author Berkun talks about his latest book

Much of what we know about innovation is wrong. That's the bet this talk takes, as it romps through the history of innovation, dispelling the mythologies we've constructed about how we got here. This talk, loosely based on the upcoming O'Reilly book (May 2007), will help you to recognize the myths, understand why they're popular (even if you don't believe in them), and how to use the truth to help you innovate today.

Labels: Creativity, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, MBA