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  1. Home
  2. Programs
  3. Full-Time +Flex MBA
  4. Academies
  5. Entrepreneurial Innovation

Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy: The leading edge of business and corporate innovation

Whether you want to start your own venture, help a small company grow, or join the expanding field of corporate innovation, the Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy will show you why Fortune ranks the Kelley School of Business as a top entrepreneurship program in the United States.

 

Students in the Academy discuss how hands-on experiences and insights gained from Academy activities and innovation leaders helped their careers.

Description of the video:

Donald F. Kuratko, Director, Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy:

The Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy is designed as the experiential components of a student's classroom education. We feel we're an elite academy and so we feel that only the best innovative minds get in. I always put a challenge out to students that if, in fact, you believe that you do possess the capabilities, then we expect them to apply and interview. I think it's a very difficult academy to get into because you really have to pass some high hurdles, the final one being an interview with me.


Andrew Knerr, Full-Time MBA student:

Being in the Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy gives you a really great hands-on experience, really great practice with innovation and business planning. This is an experience that you're not going to get just inside the classroom. You're hearing from people that have been there and done that.


Jaspreet Dhamija, Full-Time MBA student:

If someone is interested in creating their own business or launching their own business and they want to experience what would be the different challenges, this is the place to be.


Andrew Knerr:

The structure of the Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy is such that you start off in your second year with a week of working with a venture capital firm, where you think about some of the ideas that they're trying to possibly invest in and you build those out with a team of other members of the Academy.


Donald F. Kuratko:

In the High Alpha Challenge, one of the things that we've tried to do is have the students actually go down to Indianapolis to the High Alpha offices. This is not just some case study project, this is real life because the decisions they make are going to be used by High Alpha and implemented, so those decisions are extraordinarily important, and that's why the work the students do is extraordinarily important.


Jaspreet Dhamija:

This was a really great project where we were taught that somewhere in the lifetime, later on, we have to make decisions based upon limited data, as well as within less time.


Andrew Knerr:

Second semester, we go on a trip to the San Francisco Bay area where we get to visit a lot of startup companies, and this is an experience that you wouldn't have outside of the Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy.


Donald F. Kuratko:

The Velocity Conference is deep immersion. We've gone to places like eBay or LinkedIn and we go in and not only do we get the tour, but then we sit down with some of their chief innovation officers and learn about corporate innovation. We have a mini mentoring day. Eighteen board members from the West Coast all come and we break down in tables. So our students get to visit with these top professionals and exchange their cards and get to know these people and they get to know you and try to help you in your career.


Jaspreet Dhamija:

I would say that I got my summer internship because of what I learned through the Entrepreneurship Academy, as well as the connections that Dr. K helped me make.


Donald F. Kuratko:

Today, every corporation talks about innovation as their mantra, so if we can show our students some of the implementation ways and the things that they can actually use inside of companies, I believe they're going to escalate their careers faster because organizations want to promote those types of people that have the entrepreneurial mindset and understand how to implement that.


Andrew Knerr:

I think at the start, I thought about innovation and entrepreneurship as just a way to start a new business. And now, the way I think about it is that entrepreneurship, it's kind of an ongoing practice.


Donald F. Kuratko:

The experiences they get through doing the work with High Alpha ventures, through the Velocity Conference experience, the deep immersion, we're setting them off in the right direction.

Is a career as an entrepreneur or corporate innovator for you?

During your Academy experience, you'll learn how to apply innovation to your own business ideas and to firms and organizations. You will:

  • Learn how to raise capital and perform due diligence in analyzing companies or industry gaps
  • Work on teams as consultants for two venture capital firms
  • Learn from and network with venture capitalists, angel investors, leaders of emerging high-tech and fast growth companies, and professionals involved in the entrepreneurial process
  • Attend the annual Velocity Conference, cohosted by the Kelley School and the University of California, Berkeley, to immerse yourself in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem
  • Receive ongoing mentoring from the Academy director and Academy alumni

Learn about the Academy and entrepreneurial careers

Dr. Kuratko introducing a webinar

Gain insights about the Academy, careers in corporate innovation, and the “possibilities of entrepreneurship” from Academy alumni and program leaders.

View webinar

Learn how to prepare for tech-related business roles

A slide presented during a webinar

Gain insights for careers in the tech sector from a Kelley MBA student, alumni, and faculty.

View webinar

Questions? Contact us.

Donald F. Kuratko

Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy Director
dkuratko@iu.edu

Donald F. Kuratko, the Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship, professor of entrepreneurship and executive director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, is considered the national leader in the entrepreneurial field.

More opportunities to build your career

Check out the Innovators Club to explore the entrepreneurial tools needed to examine, evaluate, and launch new ventures. You'll interact with the Kelley community and beyond in support of entrepreneurs.

Help us continue to strengthen the Entrepreneurial Innovation Academy and the next generation of business leaders.

Give now

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