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Leaders, take heed: There really might be no time like the present to launch a new product or service.
“This is a time when a lot of businesses are hunkering down,” said Chuck Bamford, a professor of entrepreneurship at Queens University of Charlotte and business consultant. “Typical competitors are not looking to do something new or different. … Providing you can financially afford it, take this as an opportunity to test out ideas and try to be innovative.”
For employees, many worried about job security, he urges learning to think of how their job can improve the company's standing with customers. A programmer at a bank, for example, might never have direct customer contact. But if the programmer makes things run more smoothly at a branch, that could help attract and retain customers.
“Everyone has got to figure out some portion of their job that directly relates to a customer parting with money,” he said.
Bamford, a mainframe programmer in the 1980s and later a business analyst with a bank, is part of the push behind Queens' Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, which officially opens this month. This semester, Queens added undergraduate minors in entrepreneurship. The university also has a graduate level course and an executive MBA offering that spends a year developing a plan for a new business.
The center, part of the university's McColl School of Business, plans a public program this fall on fostering innovation in a challenging economy.
The new center will have two “entrepreneurs in residence,” who will work with students, providing practical business experience. One is Louis Foreman, founder of Charlotte product development firm Enventys and creator of the Emmy Award-winning PBS show “Everyday Edisons.” The other is Joan Zimmerman, chief executive of Southern Shows, which produces the Southern Christmas Show and other major exhibits.
Entrepreneurial leadership skills are useful for people who want to start a business but also are increasingly valued by companies looking to encourage innovation – and manage change.
“Regardless of the current economic state, all businesses should be looking toward the future, toward where they want to be,” Bamford said.
