Here is a snippet on Conceptual Ability…

“Entrepreneurs possess the ability to identify relationships quickly in the midst of complex situations. They identify problems and begin working on their solution faster than other people. They are not troubled by ambiguity and uncertainty because they are used to solving problems. Entrepreneurs are natural leaders and are usually the first to identify a problem to be overcome. If it is pointed out to them that their solution to a problem will not work for some valid reason, they will quickly identify an alternative problem-solving approach.”

“I grew up in Portland, Ore., the younger son of two teachers. I bucked the family tradition by studying business at the University of Washington and then going to USC’s Marshall School of Business. Everyone said, ‘Have a five-year plan.’ I didn’t have a five-year plan or any plan. Business school was my opportunity to think for two years. At USC, I got really hooked on the Internet. In 1997, for a class called “The Impact of Technology on Media and Entertainment.” I wrote a business plan for a community website that I called Sitegeist. I got an A-.”

Her story is fascinating and I was able to record it on my iPod (there will be more to come on the audio soon). In the hour or so that I talked with Dana, she confirmed many of the suspicions I have regarding the benefits of launching businesses within the socioeconomic confines of the university. Moreover, she offered some other interesting thoughts that will help us as we refine this idea of ‘entrepreneurship on and around the campus.’

Here are some topics we covered:

• The benefits and availability of talent on the campus – ie Dana enlisted the help of her entrepreneurial finance professor when she needed more capital
• Business plan competitions and the usefulness of them — Dana did participate in a few
• The campus as market — Campus demand helped Dana differentiate her jewelry products and break away from the pack

From the article,

“A team of graduate students from the University of Georgia won the 16th annual New Venture Championship business plan competition Saturday presented by the University of Oregon’s Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. The team’s first-place award includes $50,000, plus automatic entry into the 2007 MOOT CORP competition and the 2007 Fortune Small Business Competition.”

“Many experts say there are some personality traits common among successful entrepreneurs, like the tendency to have a higher risk tolerance, drive and resiliency to overcome failure than the general population.

Author Bill Wagner offers an “Entrepreneur IQ” test at his Web site, TheEntrepreneurNextDoor.com, that compares your answers to those of others.”

Another test, created by a Harvard University professor who developed a psychological profile of entrepreneurs, is available free of charge at The Wall Street Journal’s StartupJournal.com.

Recently, I came across a show on the travel channel called John Ratzenberger’s: Made in America. Yes it is the guy from Cheers and yes there is a labor union/economic nationalism element to it. However, each episode offers three profiles of great firms — including the history of their founding and a tour of their facilities. While many of the firms are now global behemoths (ie recent profiles of Caterpillar and Medtronic), the stories are fascinating and inspiring and often times there are lessons to be learned from their creation and early development. The Weber Grill, for example, was created by a welder who was making buoys.

Set your tivos for a little entrepreneurial inspiration. Here is the schedule.

The article explains that not only must the schools worry about student’s concerns, but recruiters are being faced by students who won’t work for companies that don’t have their green act in gear! (Talk about an opportunity to exploit corporate recruiters?)

From the article,

“Now the first wave of Millennials is entering the workplace, and businesses that want to attract the most qualified candidates say they must appeal to students’ environmental sensibilities. “They’re the future leaders of our company, the future investors, and future consumers,” says Lorraine Bolsinger, vice-president for GE’s Ecomagination strategy. “Gen Y folks think that the environment is twice as important as the economy. We absolutely have to think about their concerns.”

Over the next 10 years, there will be a major exodus from the work world as baby boomers retire. By 2012 there will be just one person entering the workforce for every four who leave, according to Labor Dept. data. So companies ranging from Whirlpool (WHR ) and Ben & Jerry’s (UN ) to Google (GOOG ), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ), and General Electric (GE ) say they must understand what motivates climate activists.

Corporate recruiters are encountering more and more candidates like Ananda Baron. When she applied for a job with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PCG ) last year, the 28-year-old student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management dug deep into the utility’s environmental bona fides. Baron says she was impressed by PG&E’s clean-energy strategy. But before accepting an invitation to attend a final round of interviews, she set up a 45-minute call with the company’s environmental affairs director in Washington. “Business is going to play a role in these issues, and I would like to be there to help out,” says Baron, who wound up accepting the job PG&E offered.