CUEED in the News

Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close as many as 120 Sears and Kmart stores because holiday sales for appliances and other big-ticket items failed to keep pace with last year, the company said Tuesday.

Rutgers Business School’s dt ogilvie, a professor of business strategy and urban entrepreneurship, said Sears has been slow to adapt to changes, whether it is accepting credit cards other than the Sears card or sprucing up its stores.

“Sears had a strong culture,” said ogilvie, who spells her name using lowercase letters. “It can be good, but also bad because it locks you in. You can’t see other ways of doing things. For a lot of its history, it was one of the top five retailers. And it’s hard to do things differently. That causes problems.”

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Management & Global Business Professor Brett Gilbert, also a Core Fellow for The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, recently spoke about a medical devices start-up named Energex Systems to NorthJersey.com. Read an excerpt from the article below.

While it's not unusual for a medical devices start-up to take years to develop a product, Fagan's vast network of small investors is uncommon, said Brett Anitra Gilbert, a professor of entrepreneurship at Rutgers University.

Typically, early stage companies scrape by, borrowing money from friends and family, tapping credit cards and home-equity loans, Gilbert said. Lucky entrepreneurs get funds from an angel investor or a venture capitalist, she said.

"It's very unusual for an entrepreneur to raise that kind of money from 784 people," she said. "Clearly, he has a very powerful network of individuals."

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The creation of a New Jersey Social Innovation Institute was announced Wednesday during the New Jersey Social Enterprise Summit at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in Newark.

In a statement the institute said its goal is to foster social entrepreneurship, which integrates social goals and social or environmental problem-solving into its core business model. These social ventures may be affiliated with nonprofits, but are run as companies, or may be independent companies devoted to using business to affect positive changes.

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The New Jersey Social Innovation Institute has been launched during the New Jersey Social Enterprise Summit in Newark. The launch program was co-hosted by The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers Business School (CUEED).

The goal of the New Jersey Social Innovation Institute is to promote social entrepreneurship, which integrates social and environmental problem solving and social goals into its core enterprise model. The social ventures to be promoted by the institute may have their affiliations with non-profit organizations, but will operate as social enterprises. They may also be independent companies dedicated to the business of achieving positive social change.

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Aiming to uplift urban communities through businesses that believe in economic empowerment as well as social responsibility, Rutgers University is hosting the first New Jersey Social Entrepreneurship Summit on October 19, 2011 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

The event, sponsored by PSE&G and Rutgers and Hosted by the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and
 Economic Development at Rutgers Business School (CUEED), is an opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs to share ways to create what they call a “double bottom line,” which measures a business’s fiscal performance as well as its social contributions.

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There's no denying the fact that the recession has and continues to impact the unemployment rate in the U.S.According to a recent report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate remained high last month at 9.1 percent. However, the average unemployment rate for African-Americans is even higher - near 16 percent, according to the BLS. One of the ways to combat the high unemployment rate among minorities as well as boost the economy in general is to increase the amount of small businesses in urban areas, according to the Obama administration.

"By building strong businesses in our American cities, people will spend money here, create jobs here, and revitalize economic development to help entrepreneurs compete in the global economy," said dt ogilvie, the Founding Director of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers Business School.

Building on the momentum created by the White House Urban Entrepreneurship Summit held at Rutgers-Newark on June 6, The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (CUEED), H360 Capital, a minority-run early stage venture capital firm, and NJIT's Enterprise Development Center (EDC), announced a partnership to attract technology companies to Newark.

Charlotte-based H360 Capital is a minority-run venture capital firm with a particular focus on companies developing ‘market disrupting' technologies. Through its "Big Ideas Initiative: B2i," H360 Capital has committed to investing up to $50,000 in 20 technology start-ups in the Newark area. CUEED and NJIT will provide resources and support to entrepreneurs participating in the Big Ideas program.

"We are working with H360 Capital to help bring many of its current and future portfolio companies to Newark," said Dr. dt ogilvie, Founding Director of CUEED. "This follows Mayor Cory Booker's announcement during the Urban Entrepreneurship Summit that he wanted to attract more technology to Newark. We have been working with H360 to shape our relationship to do this and agreed during the White House Summit to form this partnership. One of the stated goals of the partnership is to attract 20 early stage technology firms to this area by 2012, and H360 Capital itself has announced that it is moving its headquarters from North Carolina to the New Jersey/New York region."

"We are convinced that this is the right step and will provide the greatest value for technology entrepreneurs we fund," said Hezekiah Griggs III, Managing Partner of H360 Capital. "When I formed the thesis for H360 Capital, I wanted it to be able to have a significant impact on a city like Newark by creating a private-public partnership in which all parties are invested in the espousal of innovation as a solution to broad community-related economic concerns. This announcement establishes that we will have a very large footprint in Newark, and we intend to evangelize the vision that all parties share: transforming Newark into an important hub for technology firms over the next 10 years. We are grateful to CUEED Director Dr. dt ogilvie for her efforts."

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This is an uncut recording of Russell Simmons providing opening remarks at the first ever White House Urban Entrepreneurship Summit at Rutgers in Newark on June 6, 2011.

When business owners can’t find affordable space they take their operations elsewhere and the city misses out on jobs and revenue, said dt ogilvie, a Rutgers University professor and founding director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development in Newark.

"The business incubator, or center, isn’t an unusual model. But we haven’t had many of them in Newark," ogilvie said. "We need to be bold, step out and take risks. Nothing is given to the timid."

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