“Be Disruptive!
What is Luke Williams Executive Director of NYUs Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation encouraging NYU students to do?
Williams, speaker, innovator, and consultant on innovation is also author of “Disrupt: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business.- Published in 2012 just prior to taking the helm of the Berkley Center, Williams seeks to instill in students what he calls -a disruptive mindset- based on his own career of fostering innovation in a variety of environments. This mindset, Williams believes, will make students better skilled and better prepared to become leaders in a globally competitive world.
When explaining disruption Williams first refers to fellow NYU Professor William Baumol who has written extensively about entrepreneurship, and wrote a definitive work entitled, “The Microtheory of Innovative Entrepreneurship”. Baumol divided entrepreneurs into two groups, -replicative entrepreneurs- and -innovative entrepreneurs-. As Williams explains, the former refers to owners of small to medium size businesses following proven business models in established industries; the latter refers to those who are creating new products or services that dramatically impact a market or an industry.
“At NYU we focus on the innovative entrepreneur-, he explains. -We are seeking to create a disruptive mindset in our students that will make them contributors and participants in change— and all that it entails in business. We hope and expect some will become leaders bringing unique insights that will influence an industry into next generations and establish new markets. Those who emerge as leaders will be the accelerators of disruptive change.”
Williams realistically does not expect all students to become entrepreneurs. He surmises that many of the students who say they are planning to become entrepreneurs, most likely will not. As Williams sees it, students coming to NYU are still exploring who they are and what they want to do. His goal is to expose all students to the world of the innovative entrepreneur so he may influence their fundamental thinking about business– regardless of their career choice. He hopes that they, as future leaders, will then be better skilled to “challenge the status quo”.
Williams and his NYU colleagues strive to foster innovation and the disruptive mindset by offering outlets for -creative energy.- One such outlet is the NYU Accelerator that is part of the Berkley Center. Its most recent track, which began in fall 2013 and completed with its pitch competition, the $200k Entrepreneurs Challenge, at the end of April, had over 500 NYU registered students, faculty, and alumni. Williams notes the programs impressive statistics which may make NYUs Accelerator the largest one in the world. Over 200 venture teams were formed from the original 500 registrants with the final twelve teams competing at the year-end pitch day. $200k in prize money was divided among three winning teams in each of three venture categories.
Williams and his staff oversee this intensive learning track that Williams describes as an immersion into -how to be an innovator and entrepreneur.- It provides all participants with an experience that will be helpful in any career direction.
Since participation in the $200k Challenge now draws from all 14 NYU schools and includes faculty and alumni, Williams feels inroads are being made for the -disruptive mindset- to become part of the permanent fabric throughout all of the universitys academic areas. He notes that efforts are underway to coordinate full university student enrollment to participate in foundational classes on innovation and design. All of this energizes Williams whose career has focused on innovation as he now sees the makings of -everything being geared to create a mindset of innovative and entrepreneurial thinking at NYU.
