Ethan Forde, a senior majoring in electrical engineering with minors in entrepreneurship and engineering management, is interested in business — a field he could not possibly explore in a major because Tufts does not offer one.
Tufts University, which offers a wide range of professional and graduate degree programs across its eight schools, does not have a business school. Amid its 198 graduate and certificate programs, 56 doctoral programs, 100 master’s programs and 42 certificate programs, there are no options for an advanced degree in business, nor is there a business major for undergraduate students interested in the field.
The entrepreneurship minor, however, is the most common minor for undergraduate students. Tufts has helped produce many examples of successful entrepreneurship. Many Tufts graduates have gone on to launch successful startups in diverse fields, contributing to technology, entertainment, social impact and more.
Specifically, Forde wants to gain experience in the business side of engineering.
“The whole reason I’m doing the entrepreneurship minor is to get a sense of how businesses work … from the inception of a business [to] going into business, marketing, innovation,” Forde said. “I’m an electrical engineer. I’m not an econ [or] finance major, but I do want to get into business.”
The Entrepreneurship Minor attracts students from all kinds of majors. Forde discussed why he thinks the minor is useful for engineers like himself.
“People always talk about the soft skills, but I feel like it’s very important for an engineer to have this kind of business sense,” he said.
Many of the courses offered by Forde’s entrepreneurship minor are provided by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center. Located in the Joyce Cummings Center, the DEC is the hub of business and innovation at Tufts. As part of the Gordon Institute at the Tufts School of Engineering, the DEC offers over 30 undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership and management.
Professor Jack Derby, the namesake of the DEC and professor of Entrepreneurial Marketing and the Science of Sales, has taught at Tufts since 2007.
When Derby arrived at Tufts, the school only had the small Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies Program. The program, with support from former University President Anthony Monaco, evolved into the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center. Derby served as director of the center until Elaine Chen assumed the position in 2020.
After gifting a $10 million donation with his wife Jan Derby, Derby officially founded the DEC.
Through the center, faculty, students and alumni engage in entrepreneurial activities, share resources and participate in programs that foster innovation and business development.
Forde has been learning important lessons in collaboration and marketing.
He highlighted classes in business planning and entrepreneurial marketing, which taught him how to create comprehensive business plans, outline business goals, strategies and financial projections, and effectively promote products and services in a competitive landscape.
Forde believes that the business classes he has taken at Tufts have taught him crucial real-world applications, particularly as he develops business plans, strategies, budgets and schedules that are similar to the ones other companies use, whether they are startups or Fortune 500 firms.
Derby highlighted what he believes to be the three critical pillars for developing a successful company: building a strong team, understanding sales and not being afraid of change. He emphasized the importance of marketing.
“If you got the most important idea, and you can’t sell it, and you can’t market it commercially, and you don’t understand price [or] margin [or] cash flow, then there is no company,” Derby said.
Forde stressed the DEC’s emphasis in developing students’ skills in many different areas. He looks to use the skills he’s learned in his minors in his post-graduate endeavors.
“Instead of [employers] getting just an engineer that knows how to code something or build something, they have an engineer [who] also understands how to communicate to the customer, how to work in small groups, how to lead teams,” Forde said.
Among alumni who launched entrepreneurial careers from Tufts is Jonathan Greenblatt (LA’92), who has served as CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. In this role, Greenblatt has been very vocal in advocating for Israel and combating anti-semitism on college campuses. Before beginning his stint at ADL, Greenblatt founded the bottled water company, Ethos Water, with fellow businessman Peter Thum.
Greenblatt, an English major, did not encounter many entrepreneurship opportunities while at Tufts. After working in D.C. for several years, Greenblatt later earned an MBA from Northwestern University.
The birth of Ethos emerged as Thum and Greenblatt sought to increase water relief efforts in the developing world and to connect bottled water to the world water crisis.
Despite the fact that access to clean drinking water and sanitation were global issues at the time he founded Ethos, Greenblatt said that many people in the West were not aware of the problem. He explained that the mission of Ethos is social impact.
“The idea was, someone drinks our water and someone gets clean water, so we were going to link the consumption to the cost,” Greenblatt said. “That was novel at the time because … [for] other socially responsible brands, the cause and the consumption were not connected.”
In 2005, Ethos was sold to Starbucks, which carries the product to this day. Ethos’ success can be attributed to Greenblatt’s commitment to the brand’s mission.
Greenblatt attributes his success to being able to connect with his consumers to market his product.
“To build an enduring brand, you have to connect, in an emotional way, with the consumer,” Greenblatt said. “The most exciting brands are participatory brands that compel the consumer to be involved.”
Greenblatt was unable to pursue entrepreneurship as an undergraduate, but his liberal arts education at Tufts set him on the path to a future career in entrepreneurship. Today, thanks to the DEC students are better equipped than ever before to successfully enter the business world.
