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A Touch of Class by Cody Morris. A bi-weekly look at the McCombs School experience. |
March 26, 2001
A Philosophy for Success
Entrepreneurial Process with Professor Doggett
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The atmosphere in UTC 1.104 is relaxed, friendly and filled with
relief. This afternoon, the roughly 40 MBA students in John Doggett’s
Entrepreneurial Process course sat through a grueling four-hour
mid-term covering a classic Harvard Business School case, one that
Doggett himself studied during his days at HBS.
The question presented by the case is whether purchasing another
company is the right strategic move. Although the firm’s numbers
show stellar performance during a period of recession, the data also
reveals some troubling signs. Doggett asks if someone wants to “show
off what they did on the exam and impress us all.” For a few
moments, no one moves, and then Yvette Zhou, MBA 01, bravely raises
her hand and takes her laptop to the front of the room.
Unlike most of her fellow students, Zhou decided not to go ahead with
the deal. Doggett says he would have but adds, “It’s not about
whether you agree with me or not. It’s how well you use analysis to
support your decision.”
While Zhou guides the class through a spreadsheet of her analysis of
various ratios and trends and Power Point slides summarizing her
position, Doggett smoothly weaves from one aisle to another posing
thoughtful questions, advising against prenuptial agreements (“If
you can’t trust them, don’t marry them. A simple rule.”), and
declaring, “Giggles are not an answer.”
“The class is like a three-hour pop quiz every week,” says Mark
Phan, MBA 02. “Professor Doggett treats the classroom as his
boardroom. He pushes us to perform at a high level under pressure.”
Entrepreneurial Process, the core course in the entrepreneurship
concentration, provides students with a broad overview of the subject.
Other courses in the concentration offer an in-depth study of each
phase of the process.
“We look at the life cycle of a new business from opportunity
identification to launch to growth to the final stage, harvest,”
says Doggett. “Class time is divided equally among the four stages.”
In addition, Doggett says he offers his students “a lifestyle and a
philosophy for success.” He teaches from experience—Doggett’s
started two companies of his own and worked very hard for both of
them.
“When you work for a company, you have things called
vacations, holidays and weekends,” he says. “When you have
your own company, you work at least an extra 105 days a year.”
Doggett’s background differs from that of your typical
business school professor. After earning a degree in political
science from Claremont McKenna College in 1969, he headed to
Yale University to study law. Three years later he had a J.D.
with concentrations in international and poverty law. He spent
the next seven years in California working as a legal services
attorney for the poor.
“My job was representing poor people or finding ways to expand
access to legal services to folks who couldn’t get lawyers,”
says Doggett. “The longer I worked, the more my clients told
me that they wanted to work, that they didn’t want to be poor.”
And that’s why Doggett decided to go to “the WestPoint of
business schools.” He enrolled in the MBA program at Harvard
University “with the goal of trying to figure out how to make
capitalism work for those who were being left out, to learn how
to create jobs and wealth for those who weren’t as successful
as the rest of us.”
After graduating from HBS and spending a year with McKinsey
& Company, in 1983 Doggett started his own management
consulting firm “the old fashioned way”—with his credit
cards, checking account, and savings.
The business model for Doggett’s company, International
Management Development Center, was based on the fact that most
economic development consultants have backgrounds in sociology,
economics and anthropology.
“There was a hole in the market for an economic development
consulting firm based on hard-nosed Harvard Business School
business practices and analytical tools,” Doggett says.
His firm soon filled that gap by helping private companies and
government agencies in more than 125 countries “rethink
competition and business.” When Doggett left 10 years later,
the agency had grown to employ 30 people and had offices in two
countries.
“In many ways, it was very rewarding,” says Doggett. “It
was an opportunity to work with some really neat people who
wanted to make a change.”
Next Doggett teamed up with two former students to launch a
business that produced Spanish language sports programming.
Although the company created high quality programming, it
encountered obstacles in its dealings with the major Spanish
language channels, carriers of the shows Doggett’s company
produced.
After two frustrating years, Doggett left the company, which
shut down not long after. But Doggett calls it “a perfect
little learning experience—know the distribution channels of
your business before you start. I tell all my students that.”
Doggett’s clients recognize they have as much to gain from his
counsel as his students. In addition to teaching at the McCombs
School since 1984, Doggett has continued consulting for a number
of companies. He works with the senior most members of a
management team to help them address their most significant
problem.
Students and clients benefit from Doggett’s intimate knowledge
about what being a successful entrepreneur takes, but he is
convinced he also learns a great deal from both groups.
“Teaching is really an important part of my life. I’m
constantly exposed to bright minds that challenge me,” says
Doggett. “Being a teacher makes me a better consultant, and
being a consultant makes me a better teacher. "Others agree
that Doggett has found a winning combination. Since 1995, UT MBA
students have named Doggett one of their best teachers in
Business Week's "Best Business Schools" edition, and
last year, e-company selected Doggett as one of nine people to
know in Austin if you want to start your own business.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
