H. Irving Grousbeck: Fostering Entrepreneurship at Stanford GSB
Written by Amara HOLSTEIN
Photo by Elena Zhukova
How a start-up mindset has helped define the school.
Business schools have traditionally taught students how to become future corporate managers. Upon graduation, “the question was, ‘Who are you going to work for?’” said H. Irving Grousbeck, the MBA Class of 1980 Adjunct Professor of Management at Stanford GSB. He helped flip that approach at Stanford to “What are you going to do?”
A Century of Thinking Differently
In 1925, future U.S. president Herbert Hoover and some friends decided the time was right for a business school on the West Coast. In start-up fashion, they corralled 100 financial backers, hired a dean, and Stanford GSB was open for business within the year.
Over the following decades, eager young graduates tapped into the school’s values of intellectual curiosity, a sense of boundless possibilities, and bold optimism to start groundbreaking companies. Nike, Sun Microsystems, Trader Joe’s, and Charles Schwab Corporation are just a few of the many brainchildren of Stanford GSB alums.
Entrepreneurs for a New Generation
Grousbeck’s arrival at Stanford in 1985 coincided with Silicon Valley’s personal computer boom. A lifelong entrepreneur — he’d co-founded Continental Cablevision (later Media One) 20 years prior — he quickly established himself at the GSB, winning its distinguished teaching award in his second year there.
In the mid-1990s, Dean A. Michael Spence asked Grousbeck and Professor Charles Holloway to create the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Founded in 1996, CES is centered around a robust curriculum taught by faculty, often in partnership with investors and experienced entrepreneurs.
Today, more than 50 courses on entrepreneurship and innovation are offered at the GSB, and students are able to custom-design their academic paths based on their interests. Grousbeck still teaches his popular Conversations in Management, in which students are put in the position of founders and learn how to face the challenges inherent in the role.
As a result, Grousbeck said, “the school has come to be known, in part, for its entrepreneurship curriculum, and we are proud of that.”
Read the original story to learn more about Grousbeck and the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
