Business Commons^™

Kissing Frogs: The Challenges Of Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur, George Dierberger, Marc Isaacson, Cory Erickson, Thomas P. Dierberger

Faculty Authored Articles

“Kissing Frogs: The challenges of becoming a successful entrepreneur” explores the difficulties of creating, sustaining and succeeding as a business owner. This research is supplemented with data from a national survey to entrepreneurs (355) through Qualtrics, a global research organization. The respondents represented 42 states from a diverse group of self-identified entrepreneurs from a variety of industries.

To summarize, the paper will analyze the following topics in detail:

1. The importance of the mission and vision for the organization
2. The motivation for starting the business
3. The inspiration for the business idea
4. The importance of perseverance

The Alchemy Of Creativity: An Operating System For Innovation, Collaboration And Enhanced Creativity, George Dierberger, David Zaboski, Ryan Douglas

Faculty Authored Articles

The Alchemy of Creativity utilizes tools sourced from historic ateliers of artists and creators with an eye toward its application for innovation. Refined by the artists collectively attracted to the 20th century film and animation industry, this methodology is about creativity and innovation and thus is both art and science. It has been used to develop innovative attributes in the training of creative people. This process, utilized by the animation industry, is compared with the rigorous six sigma approach to innovation used by many corporations. This methodology was codified by former Disney Animator and arts scholar, Dave Zaboski, who witnessed …