Engineers to learn art of business at The University of Colorado at Denver’s Bard Center for Entrepreneurship

UCD to offer program to tech professionals

When push comes to shove, corporate leaders would probably admit their
engineers often aren’t on the same page as their marketers.

By Heather Draper, News Staff Writer

The University of Colorado at Denver’s Bard Center for Entrepreneurship
wants to change that.

The center’s Art and Business of Innovation program will give 50 engineers
and technical professionals hands-on training in business. The program
includes discussions on visionary leadership, concept development, strategy
analysis, marketing and consumer research, financing and launching new
products.

"The technical side is often divorced from the marketing side," said Sandy
Bracken, Bard Center executive director. "Our hope is that by bringing the
technical engineers to the business table, it makes for a much more
integrative process in product development."

The workshop is the first in a series of business innovation programs put
together by the Colorado Institute of Technology, the CU Denver College of
Business and Administration, the CU Denver College of Engineering and
corporate partners.

"The manufacturing and development sectors are critical to the foundation of
Colorado’s economy, and it is imperative that Colorado’s government and
higher education community work together to help our companies gain the
knowledge to develop and bring innovative products to the marketplace," said
Colorado Secretary of Technology Marc Holtzman.

UCD received a $150,000 grant from CIT to split between the engineering
and business colleges to do a set of programs aimed at product innovation
and development for working professionals.

In addition to faculty experts from CU Denver, the program also will include
experts from IDEO, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based industrial design group behind
Palm Computing’s Palm V.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_1017667,00.html