The Mastering Entrepreneurship for Nation-Building (MENB) program of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business (AGSB) and the ACE Center for Entrepreneurship and Management Education, Inc. (ACE-ME) targets real-life entrepreneurs who want to pursue further enterprise growth while improving their individual skills – repeating their successes with greater accuracy and committing less errors. With this end in mind, a program has been developed to consider the various competencies and capabilities that entrepreneurs need to acquire as they go through running their enterprises.

The MENB program features a comprehensive learning-by-doing program comprised of the Certified Master Entrepreneur (CME) course that may lead to a Masters in Entrepreneurship Degree (ME). The program consists of a total of 90 days spread over three 6-month modules and mentoring sessions as scheduled. The AGSB shall grant the ME degree to participants who satisfactorily defend their Business Performance and Five-Year Plan, and complete the academic requirements of the AGSB.

Key Innovations

Adaptive to Needs
The MENB Program does not force-fit the entrepreneur to the academic world. The academe adapts itself to the needs of the entrepreneurs.

Seamless Education
The classroom and the workplace of the entrepreneur are one continuous learning environment.

Guru Approach
Patterned after the Indian education mentor system and the European guild system, the guru is given the task of mentoring, coaching, and guiding entrepreneurs. There is one Guru for every section. Providing additional insights, inputs, techniques, and support are the Teaching Associates per section. On the other hand, the student-entrepreneurs are the apprentices to be transformed into master entrepreneurs by their Gurus. As part of the process, the program also adopts a highly interactive case method, research/ analysis of all firms and market, e-learning workbook, business plan presentation to gurus and classmates for critiquing.

Non-Traditional Screening Methods
The student-entrepreneur must have obtained a college degree (with exceptions for student-entrepreneurs who were unable to finish college but have obtained at least 120 credited units and exceptional entrepreneurial/ business experience – will be granted the Certified Master Entrepreneur title); must have an operating business for more than one year and is in full control of the enterprise; student-entrepreneurs are required to complete an EQ/Personality Exam and Enneagram for entrepreneurial profiling.

Earning the Masters in Entrepreneurship Degree
There are no exams and quizzes. However, there are learning applications, assignments and exercises which would be submitted regularly during the course.

Actual performance
The student-entrepreneur’s performance is measured using the 5 P’s (Profitability, Productivity, Professionalism, Paradigm Shifting, and People Upliftment); a good business plan which is really based on learnings during the one and a half years plus a five-year forecast of what the entrepreneur intends to happen.

Curriculum

The MENB Program is composed of THREE BUILDING BLOCKS and FIVE LEARNING DOMAINS. Modules 1 to 3 have a duration of approximately six months each with a predominant theme for each module:

Module 1: Preparing for Entrepreneurship and Self-Enhancement
This module is the foundation that provides participants the basics of entrepreneuring, management and strategic planning in tandem with the essential Self-Mastery skills of Learning to Think and Learning to Intuit. At the end of Module 1, the student-entrepreneurs are required to pull their findings, analyses and conclusions together for their study of the external environment in the business plan.

Module 2: Creating and Running the Enterprise and Self-Engagement
The action-implementation thrust of Module 2 develops the most appropriate and relevant personal skills such as Learning to Do, Learning to Feel, and Learning to Communicate. The student-entrepreneur is introduced to new product development and evaluating new businesses. The module concentrates on strategy implementation and on all basic and advanced management courses such as Marketing, Operations, Human Resource Management and Managing Costs and Profits. At the end of Module 2, the student-entrepreneurs must be ready to consolidate their research, findings, analyses and conclusions for their comprehensive Internal Assessment (IA) of their enterprises using the ten levels of IA.

Module 3: Growing the Enterprise and Self-Enlightenment
Module 3 brings the student-entrepreneurs to the higher plane of entrepreneurship, one that breaks new ground and shifts paradigms, one that masterfully turns around enterprises on the decline, and one that grows businesses by leaps and bounds. The module challenges the entrepreneur to assume the role of an enlightened leader armed with the convergence of the six self-mastery skills otherwise known as the Learning to Be series. It also integrates the entire strategizing process by completing the research, planning, programming, and implementing sequence. Finally, the student-entrepreneurs are expected to submit their completed five-year business plans.

Each module is further dissected into five learning domains. The domains are the five thematic pillars of the ME course. These are the:
 

Entrepreneuring Domain

Self-Mastery Domain
Functional Management Domain

Strategic Planning and Management Domain
Business Plan Domain

These domains will be strategically sequenced within each module, as their various topics and sub-topics become prequels to the preparation of the module’s integrative work, which is, the submission of components of and the whole Business Plan.