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Jennifer Scott doesn't just have a knack for turning an idea into a reality, she has a passion for it. "I see myself as a builder," says Scott, "someone who takes ideas and makes them happen." A former Bain consultant, Scott has spent the last six years immersed in entrepreneurial initiatives. Whether she's participating in privatization efforts in Central Europe or working with technology startups in Cambridge, Scott thrives on helping bring focus to chaotic, fast-paced environments.
Scott shared her entrepreneurial talents at HBS, where she became one of the founders of the School's first annual Business Plan Contest, a program that integrated students, faculty, and alumni in a hands-on, real-world entrepreneurial exercise. Following up on an idea conceived by Alison Berkley and Bill Nussey (both MBA '96), Scott worked with David Rosenblatt and John Iannuccillo (both MBA '97) to design one of the most innovative student-driven initiatives to hit the HBS campus in years.
The contest provided students with the opportunity to develop a business idea from concept through execution - an experience, Scott notes, that allowed them to integrate and apply lessons from across the curriculum. Participating students developed their business plans in elective courses and field studies, honing their ideas with the help of some 25 HBS alumni who also evaluated the plans based on their commercial viability.
Nearly 20 percent of the Class of 1997 entered the contest, an impressive figure that Scott sees as "a testament to the creative energies at the School." She adds, "It will be great to see some real businesses emerging from this program."
While launching the new contest, Scott was also hard at work on what has become one of the School's most popular traditions over the past 24 years, the HBS Show, a theatrical spoof of campus life written and performed by students. As producer of this past April's extravaganza, "HBS Goes to Hollywood," Scott managed 80 cast and crew members and oversaw the show's $55,000 budget. Here, too, she demonstrated her entrepreneurial verve. "Each year the show is reinvented," she explains. "It's a lot like a startup."
Scott has always sought out new challenges and ventures. After graduating from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, she taught mathematics and business education to rural high-school students in Kenya for a year under the auspices of Harvard's Institute for International Development. After returning from Kenya she joined Bain & Company and later signed on with a startup, founded by Bain colleagues, focused on privatization efforts in Central Europe. She also took time out from her career to work for Mitt Romney's (MBA '74) 1994 U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.
Scott recently became one of ten recipients of a national, postgraduate internship awarded by the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, which will allow her to spend two years learning the ropes at a venture-capital firm. Scott will join Draper Fisher Associates in San Francisco, which invests in early-stage technology and telecommunications ventures.
What will motivate Scott in her new job is what has inspired her in all of her endeavors - the pleasure she gets from bringing out the best in people. "Whether I'm teaching a student or helping someone start a company," she says, "there's nothing more satisfying to me than knowing I had a small part in someone else's success."
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