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Earn your MBA at MSU with a concentration in entrepreneurship

Thursday, October 12, 2023

The Master of Business Administration is widely known as a relatively versatile degree that can open doors to a wide range of career paths — especially in business.

At Michigan State University and across the board, many MBA degree concentrations are specifically focused on mastering skills in one key functional area, from supply chain management and finance to marketing and strategic human resources. Programs such as these equip graduates well to gain expertise in their field and advance in their careers.

But what options are there for creative and innovative thinkers who are looking to build their own business, invent new technologies or processes or explore other nontraditional roles? Now, MSU will offer an MBA degree with an entrepreneurship concentration: a degree program that crosses academic boundaries to connect students with multiple perspectives, all through the lens of the entrepreneurial mindset.

“The entrepreneurial mindset embodies the sought-after skills and abilities that help students become thought leaders and innovators who are set apart in the marketplace. They’re skills that help propel you into your future,” Desireé Melfi Bozzo, director of student success and advising at the Burgess institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said.

“The cool part about thinking like an entrepreneur,” she continued, “is that it comes with an essential list of understandings to help push you forward in the world, regardless of whether you start your own business or go work in an already established organization.”

Entrepreneurship at MSU

Since our university’s founding, Spartans have strived to fight cancer, engineer and build new technologies and make lasting differences in their communities. Through our programs, they have gained skills and confidence that set them apart from their peers and in their workplaces.

At MSU, the minor in entrepreneurship and innovation is the fastest growing academic minor on campus. Open to all undergraduate students, regardless of their major or home college, the entrepreneurship and innovation minor empowers students with an entrepreneurial mindset, which is appealing to future employers regardless of the industry — especially for professionals looking to build their own futures.

At the graduate level, the Broad College’s MBA degree with an entrepreneurship concentration provides a mix of experiences designed to give students essential skills for startup and business development. No matter your career aspirations, from work in project management and logistics to corporate finance or management consulting, the MBA with an entrepreneurship concentration offers you a well-rounded graduate experience that ties to multiple academic departments within the college.

The entrepreneurial mindset embodies the sought-after skills and abilities that help students become thought leaders and innovators who are set apart in the marketplace. They’re skills that help propel you into your future.
Desireé Melfi Bozzo

Broad MBA students naturally connect with the skills and abilities of entrepreneurship, but many assume this skillset’s utility is limited only to startups and future business owners. However, we believe the entrepreneurial mindset itself is a tremendous skillset — a foundational piece of the innovative and critical thinking work that already exists in MBA degree programs.

Now, we are building on the skills and curricula our MBA programs provide to offer graduate students a transformative experience that enables them to map out their own futures to succeed in business, whether they join or grow within an established company or start one of their own.

“Ninety percent of what makes you successful as an entrepreneur also drives success in established organizations,” Richard Saouma, associate dean for MBA, EMBA and professional master’s programs, said. “The new concentration was developed both to help our students think critically and to create value across the entire business life cycle.”

Earn your MBA with an entrepreneurship concentration at MSU

At MSU, our MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship shows you how to apply entrepreneurial skills to your chosen industry — providing frameworks and processes to help you anticipate and prepare for whatever is around the corner.

This graduate concentration is offered in collaboration with the Department of Management, which oversees a significant portion of the entrepreneurship curriculum, and the Burgess Institute, which empowers students to learn through action in a variety of programs, courses and resources to foster their entrepreneurial mindset. MBA students can explore uncharted waters and create new ventures either in school or down the line, gaining the skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Visit broad.msu.edu/masters/mba to learn more about Broad’s MBA degree with an entrepreneurship concentration. To become a Broad Spartan, email the program’s admissions team at mba@msu.edu or start your application at explore.msu.edu/apply.

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