A lecture by Rebecca Harris

Rebecca Harris is the current Executive Director for the Center of Women’s Entrepreneurship at Chatham University, and has been for the past 9 years.  Before which, she was the Founder and President of Harris consulting, Director of Marketing at WGTE Public Media, Interim Director of Marketing and Development at the University of Toledo College of Law, Co-Founder and Co-Publisher of Toledo Area Parent News, and the Founder and Executive Vice President of Nettle Not Company.  She completed her Bachelor’s degree in communications at Northwestern University, her MBA at Temple University, and was part of the 27^th class of Leadership Pittsburgh.  To learn more about Rebecca Harris, view her LinkedIn profile here.

 Her extensive background and diverse experiences is why Ms. Harris was brought in as a guest lecturer to talk about entrepreneurship.

One of the concepts from the lecture by Mrs. Harris is her experience with starting a business under different forms of ownership, particularly sole proprietorship and partnership.  She talked about the pros and cons of each, and how she would choose her ownership form in the future.  Shem mentioned wanting to be the sole proprietor, or shareholder with the most stake, but be surrounded by people she trusts with different responsibilities according to their strengths.  The obstacles that come with starting a business were also discussed.  We talked about how she had to get creative when it came to finding funding and sponsorship for starting the parent magazine she was once a co-founder of.  Product design was a topic we covered, when she came up with a way to allow people to swim in the bay without getting stung by jellyfish, but someone else simultaneously come up with a similar design; this competitor took her out of business when his design for storage was more efficient.

A lot of articles I have been reading recently relate to women entrepreneurs, and women emerging in economic development.  Mrs. Harris’s lecture was not only related to women being more prominent in the business world, but also empowering.  It is motivational that she has had so much experience with trial and error in the entrepreneurial world, and now focuses on “intrapreneurship” - being an entrepreneur for ideas within an existing organization.

I really enjoy how this article talks about women emerging in the social innovation sector.  It specifies India, but the themes are applicable worldwide.  SSIR mentions how the workforce demographic of India is changing, and how this transition challenges, “traditional understandings of the meaning and value of ‘women’s work’.”  It is shown in the reading how social enterprise is appealing to women as it offers more variety in types of jobs.  It would make sense to presume that from this survey-based opinion, entrepreneurship is also becoming more prominent I women, because starting your own business means it can be whatever you want to make it.