In typical entrepreneurial fashion, the Smeal College of Business has pivoted recently to adapt its course offerings for its innovative Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIENT) major. The courses will better reflect student educational interests and needs in preparing for starting their own ventures or entering a corporate or consulting environment.
The CIENT program focuses on creativity, innovation, and new venture creation in a business context. Students completing the CIENT major will obtain the education, skills, and experiences to pursue a wide variety of exciting career opportunities, including launching start-ups, joining a small business, consulting industry or working on innovation projects within a corporate environment.
The new CIENT courses will help build out the specialization in a student’s final two to four semesters and are targeted to support a student’s desire to pursue an entrepreneurial career or a corporate innovation direction. In addition to the four core courses* needed for the major, students can further specialize by taking these courses:
- MGMT 365 Social Entrepreneurship – This course exposes students to the power of solving social problems through market-based solutions as social entrepreneurs create socially beneficial opportunities through the integration of public and private resources.
- MGMT 420 Negotiation and Conflict Management – Negotiation is the art and science of securing an agreement between two or more interdependent parties. This course focuses on understanding the behavior of individuals, groups and organizations in the context of competitive situations.
- MGMT 480 Business Transformation Consulting – The course will focus on the key issues, concepts, and methodologies associated with business transformation and management consulting. Students will explore the professional services industry, industry best practices, and a variety of client contexts.
- MGMT 485 Entrepreneurial Opportunity Creation – The first course in a 2-course sequence to allow students the opportunity to launch and grow a company, either as an individual or part of a team. Most of these ventures will be ideas created or expanded upon in one of the CIENT core classes.
- MGMT 486 Entrepreneurial Investment and Resource Acquisition – The second course in the capstone experience, students will have the opportunity to further develop and grow their businesses.
The CIENT major joins the university-wide ENTI minor are very popular with students who look for unique ways to develop their business acumen and further develop their skills in an innovative way.
*Core courses for the major include: New Venture Creation (MGMT425), Invention Commercialization (MGMT426), Managing an Entrepreneurial Star-up (MGMT 427W), and Creativity and Innovation (MGMT 453).