Business Gets Schooled
Entrepreneurs and executives learn and earn through outreach programs

The Executive Business Center at Oakwood College is a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs and small-business owners.

When Triana Industries executives wanted to improve the efficiency of their automotive parts manufacturing operation, they went back to school.

Not to sharpen their math skills or brush up on grammar, but to tap into a valuable business resource on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus.

“It’s our mission to help Alabama companies become more globally competitive,” says Greg Harris, director of the Alabama Technology Network Center at UAH.

Companies in and around Huntsville know they can count on UAH and other area colleges and universities to help increase revenues and boost productivity.

In Triana’s case, consultants from the campus-based center offered a free analysis of the company’s processes and management strategies.

“Once they got the right people in the right places and trained their employees, the company went from losing money to making money,” Harris says.

Meanwhile research ongoing across the UAH campus brings valuable knowledge to business and industry in a wide variety of sectors. In one project, UAH and Huntsville-based software developer John Tiller teamed up to examine how video games can be used to more efficiently train Air Force pilots.

Alabama A&M University is another institution that considers business more than just an academic exercise.

“In the area of new business startup, we have what we call our CEED program,” says LeRoy Daniels, head of corporate relations at Alabama A&M.

CEED is the acronym for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, which offers management and technical assistance to support small business startups and help them grow.

A&M also collaborates with established companies such as TecMasters Inc., headquartered in downtown Huntsville. The company is currently working with the university’s school of education on a grant to assist Ethiopia.

“We are collaborating with them on a project that involves electronic teaching and the development of textbooks for Ethiopian primary school children,” Daniels says.

Even A&M students boost business by working through the university’s cooperative education programs, alternating between employment and a semester of classes.

“One of the big users of that program is the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command,” Daniels says.

Jacquelyn Gates, vice president for development at Oakwood College, points out another way the higher education community benefits local business: by training the workforce.

“We have many students who go off-campus to do their practicum,” she says. “They provide additional workforce support or supplement some of the staff. Our social work students benefit nonprofit agencies, and our education majors work in public school classrooms.”

Oakwood also assists local businesses through its Executive Business Center, which provides affordable office space for small- and medium-sized companies. The center, formerly home to a manufacturing operation run by the university in conjunction with a NASA contract, is now a haven for entrepreneurs.

Part of a federally identified “hub zone,” the Executive Business Center puts businesses in an advantageous spot for seeking federal contracts and earning tax breaks.

“The location itself adds to the attraction of the space,” Gates says.

Gates says Oakwood also provides continuing education and adult education programs, with a branch location at Redstone Arsenal.

Story by Renee Elder
Photo by Wes Aldridge