Babson College and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) and Universidad Metropolitana (UNIMET) brought together a customized version of SEE to entrepreneurship educators in Venezuela, October 29-31, 2007. Featured sessions delivered by Franklin W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship Jeffry Timmons; Director of the William F. Glavin Center, Walter Esquivel; Dennis Ceru, Babson Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy; Roberto Vainrub, founder and first director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at IESA, Venezuela’s leading graduate business school; Federico Fernández , Adjunct Professor at Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in Caracas; and Xavier Figarella Vegas, Professor at Universidad Metropolitana

In an intensive, three-day Babson SEE program at IESA, 56 participants explored the entrepreneurial process, the “art and craft” of teaching and learning entrepreneurship, and core topics in the discipline. Several case studies were explored including the Tony Roma Express Case Study which discusses the managerial strategy of the Venezuelan investors to obtain the franchise for Venezuela of the Tony Roma's chain and how they innovated in this corporation and ended up creating a new “express” concept. Their business model was later adopted for the company in the US. The goal of the program was to help all participants become more effective, innovative teachers of entrepreneurship. While the course was taught primarily in English, simultaneous translation was available for those more comfortable with Spanish.

For additional information, please contact Helen Coates (hcoates@babson.edu)