October 6, 2006 Source: :
http://www.therecord.com/links/links_06100517155.html Schlegel Centre means
business ROSE SIMONE
RECORD STAFF WATERLOO -- If you start talking to your "intelligent" home or office in the
future, there is a good chance 23-year-old Mike Bodkin of Waterloo will have
had something to do with it. The recent business administration graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University
is one of the young entrepreneurs nurtured by the university's Schlegel
Centre for Entrepreneurship. He started a company called Synergy Smart Homes in Waterloo last year, while
he was a full-time student. The mentoring he got at Schlegel Centre helped
him get the business off the ground.Teaming up with his brother, Matthew
Bodkin, a Queen's University engineering graduate who founded a Kingston
technology company called InnovationOne, Bodkin is in the business of
installing cameras married with Internet computer software in buildings. The automated home security systems allows people to remotely view what's
going on at the home or office through a password-secure Internet portal. The technology also automates building systems -- Bodkin's own apartment is
rigged with sensors that automatically turn lights off or on when he walks
in, for example. A future in which many people routinely "talk" and send commands to "smart"
buildings is not far off, Bodkin says. Synergy Smart Homes is an example of a business built on today's powerful
digital software and hardware. But as Bodkin knows, a business needs more than just great technology. Before Bodkin could do it, he needed to learn how to be a successful
entrepreneur. For that, he credits the four-year-old Schlegel Centre, which opened in a
new $12-million building at Laurier in 2002, the year Bodkin arrived on
campus. Named after Bob and Myrna Schlegel, who donated $2 million to launch the
centre, the centre nurtures budding entrepreneurs and helps integrate
entrepreneurship more completely into the curriculum at Laurier's school of
business and economics. "This university saw the real need to develop more students with skills in
entrepreneurship," says Steve Farlow, executive director of the centre. Waterloo Region is known for its entrepreneurial spirit, a culture that is
traced back to the region's diverse array of early industries, making
everything from sausages, boots and furniture to electronic equipment. So having a centre dedicated to entrepreneurship "was a good fit for this
area," Farlow says. The centre offers programs, courses and workshops to entrepreneurs in the
community, as well as the students at Laurier. It also fosters competitive inspiration through initiatives such as the
LaunchPad competition, which gives entrepreneurs a chance to win money and
support in launching their businesses. For those who have viable business ideas, the Schlegel Centre acts as a
business incubator. It links the budding entrepreneurs to people who are already running
businesses and supports them in helping them find the legal and other
resources they need. For Bodkin's business, that incubator aspect of the centre was highly
valuable. He took a "start a business" course through the centre that involved having
a viable business plan and meeting weekly with real entrepreneurs to discuss
progress. Bodkin says he got feedback and support from experienced people on
everything from his market research to financial projections. He says that helped him avoid some of the pitfalls new entrepreneurs stumble
into. "I would like to think that if I didn't have these resources, I'd still be
running a company, but I do think it would take me longer to become
profitable because I would be making so many more mistakes," he said. Bodkin's entrepreneurial genes were activated in his first year as a student
at Laurier, when he won a new venture competition for first-year business
students. Some students hate the first-year program entrepreneurial exercise, but
some, like Bodkin, thrive on it. It brought him to the Schlegel Centre and
put him on the road to launching a real business. Bodkin says it was different than typical business schools, which tend to
focus on training managers. "Being a manager is a different skill from being an entrepreneur, which is
much more hands-on," Bodkin says. Farlow says an exciting development at Laurier is its Centre for the Study
of Nascent Entrepreneurship and the Exploitation of Technology (NEXT), which
is formed from a cluster economics professors doing academic research into
what drives entrepreneurship. "It's fantastic that entrepreneurship is now developing a real legitimacy in
the academic world," Farlow says. The Schlegel Centre hopes to join forces with the University of Waterloo's
Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (CBET) and the
Accelerator Centre in UW's research and technology park. The idea is to offer collaborative programs for existing local entrepreneurs
who want to grow or improve their businesses, Farlow says. "Back when I was going to school, there was nothing . . . now we have two
schools with vibrant curriculum and degrees where you can get a
concentration in entrepreneurship," Farlow says. "I think the best measure of our success here at the Schlegel Centre is that
we now have about 20 or 30 students who are actually running their own
businesses while carrying a full-time student course load," he says. Farlow acknowledges that the internal qualities that make an entrepreneur
cannot be contained in courses or workshops. After all, this region is full of highly successful entrepreneurs who never
took a course in running a business. "The common links are passion and persistence -- a wonderful desire to build
something and the commitment to succeeding," Farlow says. But with the focus on entrepreneurship that now exists, this region is able
to nurture and encourage the people with those qualities, and is in an even
better position to accelerate the growth the many new businesses, Farlow
says. rsimone@therecord.com Executive Summary Wilfrid Laurier University's Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship serves as
an "incubator" for viable business ideas. Its program and workshops are open
to local entrepreneurs as well as to Laurier students.
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