Oxford Executive MBA Supports Entrepreneurial Success

4th May 2010

Since it was launched in 2004, Oxford University’s Executive MBA programme has attracted entrepreneurial participants from around the world. Company owners and entrepreneurs comprise around ten per cent of the Oxford Executive MBA class, but the ninety per cent of employed participants also benefit from the programme’s focus on entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Oxford Executive MBA, which is delivered by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in sixteen one-week modules over a total study period of 21 months, incorporates a compulsory entrepreneurship project. Participants are challenged to develop a complete business plan and present it to a panel of venture capitalists and faculty. Many use this as an opportunity to develop their own entrepreneurial idea.

Entrepreneurial success stories
“It would have been hard for me to buy and run this business without the Executive MBA and the network at Oxford,” says Patrick Grant, a British alumnus and owner of Norton & Sons, a Savile Row tailors. “To make the acquisition, I raised a mixture of debt and the equity, I put the plan together and sold it to investors. Even whilst closing the deal, I was getting ideas from the Business School on how to value the business. And two of my investors are people to whom I got connected directly through the Saïd Business School.”

“Oxford took me from ‘company man’ to ‘owner,’ says Morgan Murphy, a US alumnus of the programme, now president and owner of Motorpool.com. “When I began the Executive MBA programme, I was a middle manager in a huge company. Eighteen months later I am the president and owner of a seven-figure start-up.” Murphy got funding for his business as a direct result of the entrepreurship project he completed on the programme.

About the Saïd Business School
The Saïd Business School, founded in 1996, is one of Europe’s youngest and most entrepreneurial business schools. The School is dedicated to developing a new generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs. There are already over 100 companies in existence founded by Saïd Business School alumni.

Visit the Oxford Executive MBA website >

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