Myths vs. reality for business students

Some entrepreneurs don’t always realize is that innovation isn’t simply having a good idea, it’s doing the work to make it happen.

Oliver Schlake, Clinical Professor of Innovation Entrepreneurship at UMD’s Smith School of Business uses
drones as an example.

While drones are an attractive technology, an innovative business must have a concept of what to do with drones.

“For a convenience store owner, if it’s not a large chain, it makes absolutely no sense to use a drone as a technology object,” said Schlake.

Schlake predicts consumers will more likely have their own personal drones.

“In five to ten years, you’ll sell a house with a Tesla charger as a special feature, and a drone port on top,” he said. These personal drones would carry out pickup tasks for the consumer, offloading the cost of drones from companies, he predicts.

Innovating not only how businesses operate, but how consumers operate around businesses, is not new.

“[Innovation can] cut costs in an enormous amount of ways. It doesn’t get enough press, but that’s the part where a lot of companies should get really excited on,” he said.

This sort of thinking translates well into Schlake’s work in the classroom. “A lot of the students are driven by these rapid gains of, ‘oh we’re going public, oh, we’re millionaires’. There’s a misconception, of course, in terms of speed. What I try to instill in them is kind of a grinding attitude,” he said.

“The early stages of entrepreneurship are really boring. Most people you talk to don’t think your idea is great,” Schlake told What’s Working in Washington.

To give students more context about the real world of entrepreneurship, Schlake encourages them to “get out with their ideas. Go out and talk to as many people as possible. Believe nobody — because everybody has an opinion, and expert especially have only one opinion.”

“The successful [entrepreneur students] go out and pitch at conferences, they are out on our Fridays when we have pitch events… these things don’t come on their own,” Schlake said.

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