Cave Hill School of Business on an ‘entrepreneurial journey’

IN an effort to remain financially viable and relevant to the target market it serves, the Cave Hill School of Business (CHSB) has been on an “entrepreneurial journey” of sorts, seeking to foster innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset through its operations.

Dr. Jeannine Comma, CEO and Director of the Cave Hill School of Business (CHSB) at the University of the West Indies, highlighted the school’s “entrepreneurial thrust” from its inception onwards, as she spoke on Wednesday at the opening of a two-day Job Opportunities for Business Scale-up (JOBS) Faculty Symposium at the business school.

From left: Dr. Jeannine Comma, CEO and Director of The Cave Hill
School of Business (CHSB), sits with Dr. Patricia McDougall-Covin,
Professor of Entrepreneurship at Indiana University and one of the
facilitators for the JOBS Faculty Symposium; and Dr. Don Marshall,
Deputy Dean in the Department of Management Studies
at the UWI Cave Hill Campus.

“As an institution of higher learning, our institution is one which has had to safeguard its financial sustainability and relevance. We have had to ensure that all staff and strategic partners journey with us along the entrepreneurial path,” Dr. Comma commented.

“I often say to my colleagues here at the CHSB, that when you come to work, think as if you are running your own business. You actually are, because if you are not delivering the quality of service – quality in all its many aspects – that the customers expect, then you cannot make money,” she revealed.

“There have been many highs and oftentimes many lows in this journey. However, I can assure you that the accomplishments and gratification which has been attained as we have embarked on this entrepreneurial journey, have been tremendously rewarding,” Dr. Comma asserted.

Dr. Comma noted that the Cave Hill School of Business to date is proud of its efforts to foster innovation, while moving in an entrepreneurial direction in order to achieve the strategic mandate of the school’s and the university’s expectations for the school.

The innovative Symposium the school is now hosting, is one measure aimed at cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset in Barbados and across the region, as it focuses on implementing and introducing entrepreneurial programmes and concepts in to the curriculum.

“Several years ago when our colleagues from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University and ourselves were planning the initiatives for this project, a range of interesting, unique and challenging interventions were agreed upon. This Faculty Symposium is one of them. The concept of a symposium focusing on ‘Fostering Innovation and the Entrepreneurial Mindset’ was definitely different for us at the Cave Hill School of Business, and I am sure for many of us in the Caribbean who are involved in higher education and adult learning,” Dr. Comma remarked.

“For us at the CHSB, the concept and practice were not that new since, from our inception in 1991, we recognised that in order for us to play a key role in the development of management, leadership and organisational development in Barbados and in the OECS, as well as to remain competitive and viable, we had to embrace and embark on an entrepreneurial thrust,” Dr. Comma said.

“So CHSB, like most business schools today, recognises that in order for us to stay up to date and [to enhance] our ability to effectively [serve] the region and the market that we have identified, we must also be able to introduce a high measure of innovation into our curriculum and programme offerings to ensure that they are meeting the varied market demands and continuing to be relevant,” the Director concluded.  (RSM)