GOAL: Provide entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to graduate students.
Especially relevant for students
who hope to work with or become entrepreneurs at graduation or in the
future or participate in policies of entrepreneurship.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE: Graduate students from any school on campus.
OVERVIEW: This certificate program offers a suite of
courses that span business entrepreneurship courses and the
curricula of several colleges and schools at UW-Madison. This
certificate program emphasizes skills in entrepreneurship along with the
ability to analyze the role of entrepreneurship in society.
Entrepreneurship in this context refers to the process of imagining
opportunities and taking action to create value through new ventures, a crucial life
skill.
Further, new firm creation can be a critical factor in global
economic growth, and entrepreneurial capabilities can be crucial in
bringing new technologies and services to society.
Many capabilities underlie the ability to foster and lead new
ventures, including knowledge of organizational forms, financial
evaluation, legal and structural options for creating organizations,
market and need evaluation, the ability to work with founding teams and
strategies for organizational growth.
A student who has completed this certificate
will have good foundational skills in recognizing promising
opportunities and building a new organization or venture to create
value.
FAQs
There is no additional tuition required to receive any of the certificates.
You must take foundational courses in the Wisconsin School of Business. You may then complement that work with additional courses from the lists shown for each certificate.
For example, the Graduate Certificate in Strategic Innovation requires students to take MHR 715 (Strategic Management in the Life and Engineering Sciences) and at least one course from a set of advanced Wisconsin School of Business courses. The four-course certificate program may be completed with two other courses from the Wisconsin School of Business or elsewhere on campus from the selected list on course requirements.
In addition, you will be expected to participate in opportunities to apply the knowledge, such as the Schoof’s competition, the G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition, or other projects.
As one example, a law student who wants to work with small business or start-up clients might take these courses: MHR 722-Entrepreneural Management, Fin 757-Entrepreneurial Finance, LAW 854-Clinical: Law and Entrepreneurship, and LAW 953: Law and Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship
- Focus on graduate student who will start a new venture, will work for a new venture in the near future, or wants to gain long-term entrepreneurship knowledge.
- Students gain basic knowledge about designing, planning, and funding new ventures; assembling a founding team; completing legal forms for new ventures; determining the growth of young ventures; assessing intellectual property issues for start-ups; and understanding market assessment and development.
- Good fit for student with strong interest in new-venture formation who wants to become effective in understanding entrepreneurial processes, the related skills, and the role of entrepreneurship in society.
Strategic Innovation
- Focus on graduate student who will work on innovative projects in existing organizations.
- Students gain knowledge about imagining and researching markets, managing new product development process in an existing organization, research and development, organizational creativity, business model innovation, intellectual property, and society-level innovation systems.
- Good fit for graduate student with deep expertise—in science/technology or the arts, for example—who want to innovate in existing organizations.
Both
BOTH certificates emphasize the business context, and BOTH can be used to probe sustainability and social-mission goals.
The graduate certificates are available to all University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate degree-seeking students (excluding special students).
No. Business students pay a tuition surcharge to support these services, so certificate students should use the placement services of their home departments.
Yes, but a student may not use the same advanced Wisconsin School of Business course to acquire two certificates (i.e., MHR 715 - Strategic Management in the Life and Engineering Sciences, MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management, and MHR765 - Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship cannot be counted for more than one certificate).
No, courses taken to fulfill certificate requirements cannot be taken pass/fail.
Barry Gerhart, MHR
Anne Miner, MHR
Ray Aldag, MHR
Dan Olszewski, Weinert
John Surdyk, INSITE
Loren Kuzuhara, MHR
François Ortalo-Magné, Dean, Business
Jon Eckhardt, MHR
Phil Kim, MHR
Chad Navis, MHR
Stephanie Jutt, Music
Shubha Ghosh, Law
Jeremy Foltz, AgEcon
Steven Cramer, Engr.
Phil Greenwood, MHR
*Executive Operating Committee Consults as needed on ongoing operational issues
The required foundation course, advanced entrepreneurship coursework and electives from across the campus as shown will tally a minimum of 12 credits. A slate of course-work options available for fulfilling the certificate program is shown in the accompanying table. Students are strongly encouraged to participate in related non-credit entrepreneurship immersion experiences via competitions and student organizations.
The foundation course has no prerequisites and is open to all graduate students on campus. A total of 12 credits is required. Students will: 1) take one required foundation course (MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management); 2) choose at least 3 additional credits from a list of Wisconsin School of Business advanced entrepreneurship coursework; and 3) select up to 6 credits of additional courses from other elective coursework or advanced entrepreneurship coursework.
Required Foundation Coursework (3 credits)
- MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management (Fall/Spring)
Wisconsin School of Business - Advanced ESHIP (Choose at
least 3 credits from list)
- FIN 757 – Entrepreneurial Finance (Fall)
- MHR 734 – Venture Creation (Fall)
- MHR 738 – Weinert Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship (WAVE) Practicum
- MHR 741 – Technology Entrepreneurship (Spring) (Prior to Fall 2011 was MHR765)
- MHR 715 - Strategic Management Of Innovation (Spring)
Other Elective Coursework (Up to 6 credits from
other elective coursework can be counted towards the required 12
certificate credits):
| School |
Courses |
| Business |
- ACCT IS 300/700 – Accounting Principles/Financial Accounting
- GEN BUS/IES 365 - Issues in Family Business Ownership
- GEN BUS 701 - Managing Legal Environment
- GEN BUS 765 - Business & the Social Side of Sustainability
- MKT 300/700 – Marketing Management
- MKT 765 – Design Thinking for Business
- MKT 737 – Developing Breakthrough New Products: A Practicum
- MHR 704 - Managing Behavior in Organizations
- MHR 705 - Human Resource Management
- MHR 723 – Business Strategy (restricted access)
- MHR/ART/DESIGN/MUSIC/THEATRE 765 – Art Enterprise: Art as Business as Art
- OTM 860 – Planning for Quality in New Products and Services
- RMI 650 - Sustainability, Environmental & Social Risk
Management
- MHR 977 – Emerging Entrepreneurship Theory and Research
|
| Law |
- LAW 751 - Patent Law
- LAW 752 - Copyright Law
- LAW 753 - Introduction to Intellectual Property Law
- LAW 854 – Clinical Program: Law & Entrepreneurship
- LAW 918 - Selected Problems International Law-Seminar
- LAW 953 – Selected Problems Business Organization Seminar:
Transactional Intellectual Property
- LAW 953 - Bus Org Seminar: Law & Entrepreneurship
|
| CALS |
- AAE/MHR 540-Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and
Technology
- AAE 706 – Applied Risk Analysis
- LSC 305 – Industry Research Methods
- LSC 270 – Communication in Life Sciences Industries (previously offered as LSC370 - Communication in Life Sciences Industries)
- LSC 431 – Advertising in the Life Sciences
- LSC 435 – Theory and Practice of Integrated Marketing
Communication
- LSC 625 – Risk Communication
|
| Engineering |
- ECE 601 – Business for Engineers
- EPD 690 - Business and Entrepreneurism for Engineers
- ISYE 671/OTM 671/INFO SYS 671 - E-Business: Technologies,
Strategies and Applications
- ME 549 – Product Design
|
| SoHE (Human Ecology) |
- CNSR SCI 250 - Retailing Theory and Practice (restricted access)
- CNSR SCI 501 - Retail Leadership Symposium (previously offered as CNSR SCI 501 - Retail Leadership Symposium)
- CNSR SCI 561 – Direct Retailing
- INTER-HE 455 - Entrepreneurialism and Society (previously offered as INTER-HE 501 - Role of Entrepreneurship in Society)
|
| Nelson |
- ENVIR ST 900 - Seminar: Venture Capital and Green Entrepreneurships
|
* A student may not use the same advanced Wisconsin School of
Business course to acquire two certificates (i.e. MHR 715 - Strategic
Management of Innovation, MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial
Management, and MHR741 - Technology Entrepreneurship cannot
be counted for more than one certificate).
The Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship does not prescribe any
formal tracks or concentrations. We encourage students to assemble a
meaningful portfolio of courses given their own specific background and
goals. Sample
bundles follow:
Law student who wants to work with small business or start-up
clients
- MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management
- FIN 757 - Entrepreneurial Finance
- LAW 854 - Clinical Program: Law and Entrepreneurship
- LAW 953 - Selected Problems Business Organization Seminar:
Transactional IP
Computer Sciences graduate student who wants to start a business
at graduation
- MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management
- MHR 734 - Venture Creation
- MHR 738 - WAVE
- ISE 671 - E-Business, Tech Strategies and Applications
Brand Management MBA who wants to start a business at graduation
- MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management
- MHR 723 - Business Strategy
- MKT 700 - Marketing Management
- MHR 738 - WAVE
Operations Technology Management MBA who wants to learn about
entrepreneurship with a goal of starting a business in the future
- MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management
- MHR 723 - Business Strategy
- MKT 700 - Marketing Management
- MHR 765 - Technology Entrepreneurship
Genetics graduate students who want to join a start-up at
graduation or after a few years at a large firm
- MHR 722 - Entrepreneurial Management
- MHR 715 - Strategic Management in the Life and Engineer
Sciences
- AAE 540 - Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Technology
- LSC 432 - Advertising in the Life Sciences
Click here to explore or enroll now in the Certificate in Entrepreneurship.
Contacts
For more information, please send an email to certificateadmin@bus.wisc.edu.
Executive Operating Committee:
- Anne Miner - Coordinator, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Innovation Certificate Programs, Executive Director, Initiative for Studies in Transformational Entrepreneurship (INSITE)
- Dan Olszewski - Director, Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship
- John Surdyk - Director, INSITE
- Barry Gerhart - Department Chair and Professor, Management and Human Resources
- Ray Aldag - Executive Director, Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship; Professor, Management and Human Resources
For specific information on advising resources within partner schools and colleges, please contact: