Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME) - How Good?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Babson College
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How good is the FME course?

"Babson’s Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME) course is an internationally recognized yearlong immersion into the business world, giving you the basic business background and real-world context you need for all your Babson courses—and your future career.

Throughout the year, two dedicated faculty members—industry professionals—teach you the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, marketing, accounting, organizational behavior, information systems, and operations, while emphasizing the integrated role these functions have in a business.

Classes of up to 40 students form teams of 10 students, and the College loans up to $3,000 as startup money for each business. The ideas for the businesses are all yours and, whether you’re selling a tangible product or providing a service, you’re encouraged to think about how your business meets a human need."

This sounds great but when I reviewed the descriptions of the actual FME businesses here: http://www.babson.edu/Academics/undergraduate/academic-programs/fme/Pages/current-businesses.aspx they didn’t seem substantive. Several businesses, such Babson Business and Booster Butter, sounded trivial. Also, there is no information about the % of FME businesses that actually break even or make a profit and if the latter, how much profit. And how many teams are able to pay back the $3,000 loan? While the FME is a terrific idea, I am curious about the actual results of the team businesses.

Yes, I believe the process is learning to found a business is great, but I also believe in achieving results as part of the learning process. If there isn’t enough at stake, the students might not apply themselves enough and as a result, fail to learn to the potential of the course. Some of the businesses seemed ill-conceived.

For example, the Babson Business (http://www.babsonbusiness.com/Default.asp) seems to offer no advantage over any of the well-established business card printing services, but in fact charges much more ($7 for 25 cards compared to $10 for 250 cards at Vistaprint). So what did the students learn while creating this FME business and why did they go forth with this business when a simple competitor analysis should have dissuaded them from going forth?

Thank you for your replies.

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Heyo,

First year student here currently going through the FME process. Honestly while some businesses break even, some make a profit, some lose… it’s mostly about the experience that you go through. Honestly I’ve had some bad times and it’s been a drag at times but I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. You do give a good point that if there isn’t enough at stake that students wont apply themselves but going through the process of idea --> rocket pitch --> feasibility group --> business makes some people, especially those in C-Level/High positions of the business take it very seriously because you worked from the idea ground up.

Also I’ve worked with Babson Business (same class) and a lot of their model revolves around INSTANT demand. They have a printer and will often set up the day of/day before important networking events on campus or used a B2B model with other FME businesses on campus. They’re actually doing pretty well.

You mostly learn a lot about company culture, organizational behavior frameworks and applying it to your team. You also learn a lot about yourself, honestly. So while yeah at times it can be a little annoying and irritating, I think I’ve learned a lot. Plus a lot of the stuff you learn/discuss are things that alot of exec’s will learn in Executive Education courses or something. Of course it boils down to the professors you get and what you put into it.

Also… you learn how to deal with roadblocks. ALOT of roadblocks. Like situations that you couldn’t even predict. I hope this answer helped, haha.

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In addition, as a senior at Babson and having gone through FME a few years ago, there is still a lot that I have taken away from my FME experience and used throughout my four years here at Babson. For starters, I didn’t know what area of business I wanted to study when I was a freshman however in FME I was the VP of marketing for my FME company and having to run the marketing department, I really saw first hand how little I was interested in marketing. Seeing the different departments interact and such, I learned that I really like working with numbers and more specifically finance, which is what I concentrate in now. I have also used a lot of my experiences in FME to really show my understanding of teamwork in job interviews and employers love to see that you have had such extensive hands on experience. Overall, when it comes down to it, FME is more about what you take away and learn from it than paying back Babson or making a profit. And, although you don’t have to make a profit to do well in the class, any profit you do make goes to a charity that you work with throughout the entire year so there is typically a lot of incentive to try and make as much money for that charity as you can!