Everything is business

Business is at the heart of everything. So says Ajay Vinzé, dean of Mason’s School of Business. In a conversation with George Mason University President Gregory Washington, Vinzé joined Paula Sorrell, associate VP for innovation and economic development at Mason, to celebrate National Small Business Week, and discuss how Mason Enterprise is an economic engine for Northern Virginia, and how the School of Business is changing the way business is taught.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
(Narrator) Trailblazers and researchinnovators in technology and those who
simply have a good storyall make up the fabric.
That is George Mason University.
We're taking on the grand challenges thatface our students graduates in higher
education is our mission and our passionhosted by Mason President Gregory
Washington. This is theAccess to Excellence podcast.

(00:28):
(Gregory Washington)For more than 50 years.
The US Small Business Administrationhas celebrated National
Small Business Week.
This week recognizes thecritical contributions of America's entrepreneurs and
small business owners hereat George Mason University.
We celebrate those contributions andthe ways Mason is a valuable community

(00:50):
asset, trusted partner, anda source of economic growth.
Just to put it in perspective throughto Mason Enterprise at George Mason
University Mason in 2022provided mostly free of charge.
Now 40,000 hours ofone-on-one counseling to
10,000 small businesses.And out of those 10,000,

(01:11):
61% of which were women owned,
46% were minority owned and 15% were
owned by veterans. In addition,
our school of business isrewriting the way business is
taught here to talk about all ofthis are two of our trusted experts,
AJ Vinze, who's Dean ofMason's School of Business,

(01:35):
and Paula Sorell Associates,
vice President of Mason forInnovation and Economic Development.
In that framework, she overseesthe incubators, the mixed space,
the tech transfer office, andother entrepreneurial programming.
So great to have both of you here today.Thank you. Welcome to you both. Thanks.

(01:56):
We hear a lot about small businessin the country and given that this is
National Small Business Week,this is meant to be a celebration.
Given that you too are our entree,
our connection into the businessworld, tell me how you all celebrate.
What do you do?
(Paula Sorrell) Well, we don'twait for small business week.
We celebrate every single day.

(02:16):
So our team of more than200 people throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia are
doing daily counseling, daily trainings.
Actually we put on 1600 trainingprograms and workshops last year.
So that's several aday if you do the math.
And also if you look at theimpact, the dollar impact,
so at $3.36 billion inimpact on the Commonwealth,

(02:41):
for every public dollar wereceive for the work we do,
we put 256 back into the economy.If we were a stock, you'd buy us.
(Gregory Washington) Oh,that's a great statistic.
Maybe we should talk to our governorand our funding appropriators
about that number and see if we canget Mason's per student funding up

(03:01):
a little bit more. Thatwould be fantastic. You're.
(Ajay Vinze) Here. Yeah. Yeah.
(Gregory Washington) . Alright.
(Ajay Vinze) Well I, I would justadd to what Paul is saying and say,
first of all,
big congratulations to all the smallbusiness owners out there because small
business owners and small businessesare definitely the heart of US business.
I was looking at some statistics andit's really quite oil inspiring because

(03:22):
small businesses are making upover 99% of all business in the
us So that is an amazing statistic.If you think about it, just last year,
there's 33.2 million smallbusiness owners out there,
out of which 27 million are single personswith no employees. So it's fantastic.
So what are we doing here?
We are celebrating them at thebusiness school in a variety of ways.

(03:44):
Today is particularly special becausewe have our Patriot pitch competition,
which we are hoping we would add to theranks of new small business owners out
there. And the businessschool is just thrilled.
I think what we are doing is going toadd both to the management ranks and to
the small business ranks.So very excited about this.
(Gregory Washington) So we have thisopportunity, this national business week.

(04:07):
Aj, you couldn't speak to this first.If you were to basically sum up,
how does all that translate on campus?
How are we actually fundamentallyengaged in supporting the small
businesses and our region? Whatwould be your answer to that?
(Ajay Vinze) First up, I would sayall business is relevant to everyone.
So business is at the heart of everything.
The tagline we use in the businessschool is everything is business.

(04:30):
So it really, everything maybebusiness, but business is important.
Only when it associates withsomething that is the importance of
interdisciplinary orientation andcross-disciplinary orientation are both
important because just the notionof business doesn't mean anything.
Business off something means something.So how are we doing this on campus?
We are cross connecting and creatingnew programs and programming that

(04:53):
includes business school going intocollaboration with other colleges. Hmm.
So the notion of business ofhealthcare, business of education,
business of athletics,business of whatever,
it really puts us in a hub and spokeskind of a set up where business
should cross connect with everyone andwe should become a service in many ways.

(05:13):
So our courses and our programs have toreflect that and that's exactly what we
are trying to do.
(Gregory Washington) What about you Paula?
(Paula Sorrell) So whenwe work with students,
my team has placed about 150students in tech startups.
We think student internships are anexcellent way for students who have the
entrepreneurial bug,
especially for undergrads to beable to go work with an experienced
entrepreneur. They get tosee a lot more in a startup.

(05:36):
They get to see the 360 view ofwhat it takes to run a business.
And we do a little prep withthem ahead of time as well. Like,
this is what you should expect, thisis how the CEO will need your help.
Those types of things, you know,
sort of a crash course and workingin a startup for masters and graduate
students,
those are our best target audience interms of people who are likely to start

(05:58):
businesses, people who are likely totake technologies out of the university.
And we are growing our support and ourwraparound services through programs like
the Virginia ICAP programand the NSF I core program,
of which we're a hub now.
So we're really excitedabout the additional support we're able to provide and
really being a go-to place for anybodywho's interested in growing a business.

(06:22):
(Gregory Washington) We support startupsand we support them in a significant
way and, and we supportlarge business as well.
What is our attraction to startups?
Why is that an importantconnection point for universities?
(Paula Sorrell) For ourdepartment in particular,
we are very focused oneconomic development.
So we're about job creation andcapital formation and giving and

(06:44):
empowering people to be ableto make their own success.
And those people are morelikely to be in the region.
And Mason in particular is a great spotfor that because most of our students
are from the region and they stayin the region after they graduate.
The best thing that we cando is anchor a company here.
So for the later stage companies,
we bring the capital to them so that theydon't have to go outside of the market

(07:06):
to try to find it.
And we do that through things likethe Accelerate investor event,
which we will hold this year, November1st and second on the Arlington campus.
(Ajay Vinze) And it'sinteresting though also,
if I could add the demographic of studentsthat are coming into Mason or coming
into higher education in general,their expectations are changing.
The notion of getting a degree andgoing out joining large company while

(07:30):
was very much in voguefor the longest time.
Increasingly the youngergeneration, the Gen Xers and so on,
who are coming into our classroomstoday are wanting to start businesses of
their own.
So a simple statistic out there saysGen Xers are typically 200 times more
likely to start a new business asopposed to getting into their, uh,

(07:51):
larger company.
So equipping them with thebusiness basics allows them both.
It allows them the optionof being an entrepreneur,
being a successful entrepreneur,
but also having the option to go intoa large corporation and immediately
be of action over there.
(Paula Sorrell) Exactly.
And I think that's one thing that reallymotivates our team to do the work that

(08:12):
they do,
is that we know that we can change alife and change a trajectory and change a
generation.
(Gregory Washington) And you know,one of the aspects of what you do,
actually both of you, butparticularly you, Paula,
is to develop programs and occupantsfor the fuse building. Mm-hmm.
, which is a345,000 square foot building,
Mason is constructing on itsMason Square campus in Arlington.

(08:33):
That building which will open in 2025,
will serve as a technological hubin the Rosslyn/Ballston Corridor,
and it will connect studentswith industry and government.
There is such a big and increasingfocus on tech in that region,
not only at Mason, butthroughout that region as well.
How many of the 11,000 businessesthat I highlighted earlier,

(08:56):
how many of those businesses are techbusinesses and how do you see the building
connecting to thosebusinesses in particular?
(Paula Sorrell) So of the 10,000businesses that we supported last year,
about 1500 of those are tech businesses,
but that's also the fastest growingsegment are tech startups of our entire
portfolio. I can't tell you how excitingit is to be living and working in the

(09:17):
Rosslyn/Ballston Corridor.
It feels like you're riding a really bigwave and just trying to keep up because
of everything that's coming intothe region. It's significant.
And the FUSE project and the buildingwas started, started as a pilot project.
So right now a team ofpeople including me,
are sitting and working in the pilot. Wedidn't know how it was gonna work out.

(09:37):
And so far in the first year we were open,
we held over 200entrepreneurial events, classes,
workshops, community meetings,
and this year we're on track todeliver 400 programs of a similar sort.
(Gregory Washington) AJ,
recently you made anextraordinary presentation to our board of visitor in which

(09:58):
you actually highlighted somethingI've been meaning to actually get more
FaceTime with you about. But now thatwe can do this in front of everybody,
I wanna put you on the spot, right?
You highlighted a new way toteach business to students.
You said we shouldn't lock students intoa strict curriculum in order to get a
business degree.
You basically highlighted that weshould make it more flexible and

(10:23):
engaging. Can, can you talka little bit about that?
(Ajay Vinze) Absolutely. Uh, andthanks for that. Uh, I think, uh,
higher education in general is aboutready for disruption in some ways. Uh,
a lot of it has to dowith this notion of, uh,
willingness to pay and the notionof how education is delivered.
So we all know the costof education has gone up.

(10:43):
So the expectation from educationhas also changed, but uh,
it's also a notion of how education isdelivered for the longest time as we've
delivered as one productthat's an integrated whole,
thou shall take these 10 courses andthen we shall give you a degree kind of
thing. Mm-hmm. . Uh,
but the fact of the matter isincreasingly students, employers, uh,
small businesses, what have you,

(11:05):
are looking for skills that aremore directed and focused and deep.
The idea comes from a curiousway. Uh, Dr. Washington,
if you think about the old CDrom presentation of music mm-hmm.
where we had 12 songson a cd, you had to buy that cd,
you had to buy all 12 songs, but youreally liked only two of the songs,

(11:25):
but you're stuck paying for the entire cd.
(Gregory Washington) Oh yeah.That was the big challenge for me.
(Ajay Vinze) And, and, and that is reallyif you can equate education to that,
because if you look at that in many wayswe are saying you have to take these 10
courses before, and the question is,
are all those 10 courses goingto work for you? Given the price,
it causes two kind of curious behaviorsfrom especially our tech savvy,

(11:49):
incoming freshman and incoming students,in that if you price it too high,
it causes desire to pirate insome ways or or to consume at a
lower quality. That's right. It'svery much like the music industry.
When you switch fromCD round to streaming,
you end up consuming a whole lot moremusic at the right price and you create

(12:09):
your playlist in a way that makessense to you in real time. Obviously,
we can't go all that complete route ineducation because that would be, again,
not fully true to what our purpose isbecause we have to credential students
correctly. (AJ Vinze) So instead,if you take step-wise approach,
if you say to become expert in something,
take say five coursesintensively on a topic mm-hmm.

(12:31):
say cybersecurity orforensic accounting or what have you.
And allow students to constructthese detailed or deep knowledge
with certificate programs that aredeep in areas that industry want them,
the way in which economy wantsthem. And the structure that, uh,
you were mentioning earlier is thestructure that we allow our students.

(12:52):
If you're going to open up a degree, saya master's of science and management,
the student must have some baseunderstanding of business because it's a
business degree. So you have somefoundational courses in there,
but once you're done withthe foundational courses,
you allow them to take another certificatein business to have an all business
degree if they like,
or allow them to take a certificatefrom any of our other very robust

(13:16):
colleges on campus. So for instance,
a student can have this degree bytaking a certificate in business
and then taking acertificate on healthcare.
So you have healthcare financeor forensic journalism or, uh,
cybersecurity sales. None ofthese degrees exist as is,
but there's certainly amarket demand for them. Right.

(13:38):
And by doing this flexibly, we'll beable to deliver education in real time.
(Gregory Washington) No, I hear you.I hear you. It's uh, it's interesting.
I could see a world wherethere are students who have a fundamental love of the
arts and is an artist by their own. Right.
But they want to starttheir own studio. Correct.
Where they want to parlayit into a business,
the idea that they can get thetechnical features of art and then

(14:03):
couple that with the basicsof understanding finance,
you know, so understanding accounting,
understanding the basics ofrunning that business. Absolutely.
That makes for a powerful combination.
(Ajay Vinze) And that goes with the samenotion of what we were talking about
earlier. If everything isbusiness and business makes sense,
only when combined withsome other options,

(14:25):
then we are really opening theworld up for our students and really
fundamentally rethinking howhigher education is delivered.
I think Mason is poised tobe the leader in this space.
(Gregory Washington) Well, you know,
that brings up issues of accreditationand how we get it past the accreditor.
So I'd be really, really interestedin hearing your thoughts on that.
But this is the kind of thinkingthat changes directions and it's the

(14:49):
kind of thinking that we need.
(Ajay Vinze) If I might, uh, you know,
you bring up a really important pointbecause we do need proper accreditation
that is important. Sobeing proactive about it,
what we've done is we'veactually published a piece with AACSB, which is, uh,
the Business School's PrimeAccreditation Body, uh,
really laying out the case for whybusiness education should be delivered in

(15:11):
this multi-functionalmultidisciplinary format.
I'm happy to tell you that it is receivedvery positive feedback from A C S B
and from several of my fellowdeans from around the country.
(Gregory Washington) Oh,that's good. That's good. Well,
we're going to continue to follow thatand you all out there should continue to
follow it as well, because that'sa real change. Speaking of which,

(15:31):
you had a fireside chat, Alaleh Jenkins,
the acting secretary forthe US Navy and, I mind you,
a George Mason alum. Indiscussing the Navy's workforce,
she said that she often tells her people,if you don't change, you don't grow.
It's very important that everybodylearns to work in different environments,

(15:51):
how to work with differentcultures, how to be more inclusive,
how to work in a verydiverse organization,
and how to communicate and move forward.
How does this align with yourvision for the school of business?
(Ajay Vinze) And I couldn'tagree more with Ms. Jenkins.
I think she said it just right.
This is really what is atthe heart of education.

(16:13):
When you put out an educated youngperson into the job market or
into our economy,
we have to make sure that educationmakes them flexible and not brutal.
And I think over engineeringor over focusing them into
a particular aspect withouthaving the flexibility of a,
the knowledge of the discipline orflexibility of understanding of what the

(16:36):
makeup of society is and howsociety really thrives with
inclusivity and diversity and so on.
It is important that is woven andnot as a separate afterthought,
but woven into the fabricof our various courses.
So it becomes part and parcelof what they're learning.
You don't teach it as a separate topic,
but it becomes part offinance and accounting and marketing and management and,

(17:00):
uh, it becomes the fabric of,or the backdrop of learning.
(Gregory Washington) So Paula,you're out in the trenches every day.
Would something like this be a usefulchange from your perspective in terms of
what you see?
(Paula Sorrell) Absolutely.I can't get enough MBAs.
MBAs are the people who startbusinesses and we offer and augment
so many of the classes, the curriculum,

(17:23):
which is very critical to beingable to build business skills.
And we are able to augment those withthings that maybe wouldn't make sense as a
college curriculum, but how toset up QuickBooks, for example,
for the first time in your business andbasic strategic planning and some just
quick hits where if students areinterested, and, and by the way,
most of the workshops, almost all theworkshops we offer are no cost to, uh,

(17:46):
students, to faculty, tobusinesses in the community.
We make them as available as we can,
and there's a wide array so that theycan pick what they need in order to move
forward.
It's very similar to what AJ is sayingabout his approach to curriculum for
students as well, is beingable to give them the basics,
meet them where they are,which I know Mason is great at.

(18:07):
(Paula Sorrell) We do the same thingwith entrepreneurs that we do with
students. We meet them where,
where they are regardlessof where their point A is,
and we help them get to pointB by the resources available.
Another thing that we do is wetake a no wrong door approach.
So there are a lot of resourcesavailable for entrepreneurs.
We're trying to build onthose resources, of course,
but we work with our partners.We work with, for example,

(18:27):
the Virginia InnovationPartnership Corporation, V I P C.
We work with a lot of the incubatorsand the other universities around the
state,
and we make sure that depending on wherean entrepreneur is based and what they
need,
they get connected to that resource nomatter where they came from and where
they're going to end up.
(Gregory Washington)Oh, that is really cool.
So in the data that you highlightedthat we highlighted earlier,

(18:51):
one of the things that struck me wasthe fact that we are touching so many
women, the fact that we're touching somany people from underrepresented groups.
Paula,
you were part of the Mason's anti-racisminclusive Excellence task force.
How do you see the vision of thatprogram tying into what you were actually
accomplishing with Mason Enterprise?

(19:15):
(Paula Sorrell) So I have a bad joke thatgoes when somebody asks me by so many
women are getting help fromus. I always say, well,
women ask for directions and help in building a business. But,
um, but we're, you know, it it showsthat we're serving the community.
And some of the things that we've doneto make sure that we're serving the
community is that we've expanded thelanguage offerings that we have because we

(19:38):
know that immigrants aregreat entrepreneurs and we wanna make sure that we're
serving them appropriately.
And we've brought in a minority businesson budsman to the team to help us
better integrate with communities.
And we've made an effort as we hirecounselors to make sure that they are from
those communities as well.
So our counselors are experiencedbusiness people that have backgrounds in

(19:58):
business, and we make sure thatwe keep the quality level high.
(Paula Sorrell) And as we've added,
we've even layered on thistechnical support program.
So it's the ICAP mentor program.So if you are a tech company,
no matter where you're located,
you get an experienced techentrepreneur who's providing you advice.
If you need some extraexpertise, you know,
it's a team of 20 people where we do ahandoff depending on what the company

(20:23):
needs at that particular timeand how they can move forward.
We didn't set out to specifically helpwomen and minority and veteran-owned
businesses. We simply servethe community that was here.
And by doing that and listening towhat they needed and addressing that,
those are the numbers that you see today.
(Gregory Washington) So AJ howdoes the school of business address

(20:46):
entrepreneurship? You have someexciting programs there in this space.
Can you talk a little bit about 'em?
(Ajay Vinze) Sure. Yeah.Entrepreneurship is, uh, you know, very,
very central to the school of business.But as you know, most universities,
most business schools in this countryall have a center for entrepreneurship.
And they do,
the question always becomesentrepreneurship for what and what are you

(21:07):
servicing over here? Soafter arriving here at Mason,
one of the things I've been lookingat closely is what is the makeup of
the environment that we are operatingin? And, uh, we've come upon three, uh,
streams, if you will, to really addresswith entrepreneurship over here. So, uh,
at our Center for Innovationand Entrepreneurship,

(21:28):
we are focusing on threeseparate populations,
and collectively Iwould label them as, uh,
entrepreneurship for the underrepresented.So what are these three streams? Uh,
one of the streams focuses onthe inner city where now we are
collaborating with folks inAlexandria to look at issues that the
inner city folks where you are, uh,looking at people who are training to be,

(21:51):
say, carpenters or welders or so on,that's a wonderful, uh, vocational, uh,
training that they can have.
(Ajay Vinze) But can theynow own businesses in carpentry and welding and can
they start,
what does it take them to go from beinga welder to owning a welding business?
So that was one orientation.
The second string we are focused onis around the refugee and immigrant

(22:12):
population.
And that is a very interesting set offolks that come with a tremendous set of
talents with them,
but they require a very different kindof training for entrepreneurship than
folks who are focused are lookingat, from a vocational perspective,
from a vocational to a business,
or having someone who comes in with arefugee or an immigrated background who

(22:34):
could be very well-placedin their own environment,
but got displaced for avariety of reasons. Right.
And now how do you train them to be aworking entrepreneur in our society?
And the third segment isentrepreneurship in rural Virginia.
So all three of them, I, I'm happy to, uh,
share with you that all three of themare getting tremendous traction with

(22:56):
folks,
entrepreneurs in this area who aretaking ownership of it and helping us
craft both what the contentis of these programs,
as well as connecting us with the rightset of population decision makers and
policy makers who would help us craftthe message correctly that would really
benefit the entrepreneurs andplace us as a very distinct

(23:19):
university that reacts to therequirements of society in,
in our setting throughan entrepreneurship lens.
(Gregory Washington) You mentionedsomething there that tweaked my interest a
little bit. You've talkedabout rural business.
If I were to say that there isone thing that in my opinion is
uniquely American,
what is that one thing that we have thatencapsulates or embodies the American

(23:43):
spirit? Probably more so than any other,it'll be entrepreneurship. Mm-hmm.
, right? Evenpeople from other countries.
They come here with the ideathat I can come here and
start my own business. Itcould be a shoe shine business,
it could be a big tech company, right?
But I can come here and start a businessand I got a fair shot at making it be

(24:04):
successful. Right, exactly.
And so reaching out into these ruralcommunities and having programs there make
a lot of sense. In addition to that,
our data reports that about 68%of Mason business alumni live
within 50 miles of universityand 50 miles of university.
Might be a little rural, but notthat much, right? Sure, sure.

(24:25):
So we are pretty much touchingboth groups. Yep, yep. Right? Yeah.
We're touching one group with our alum,
we're touching othergroups with our programs.
I see that as a significantimpact on society, right?
(Paula Sorrell) We coverevery county in Virginia,
so we provide support toentrepreneurs in every county.
It's counseling andtraining. And you know,

(24:46):
there are a lot of commonalities amongbusinesses with the challenges that they
have regardless of where they're located.
So 95% of entrepreneurswho come to us say,
all I need is money and I canget started. And in reality,
95% of them need some type of help beforethey ask for the money so that they do
it the right way and theyhave all the things in order.

(25:07):
And I think one of the biggest challengesthat any entrepreneur has is where do
I start? There's so muchout there. Where do I start?
And what are our offices isthe best way to do that. This.
(Gregory Washington) Is a perfectsegue into this next segment, which is,
it's gonna be almost like rapid fire.
I'm gonna throw out these small topicsand then I want you all just to respond.

(25:28):
Whatever comes to mind, bring it.Okay. You ready to hit it? All right.
You highlighted something, I'm gonnachallenge you on it here in a second.
Mm-hmm. , but I'm gonnathrow out the topic as a lead in segue.
You'll, you'll, you'll see whatI'm saying here in a minute.
What is the number one challengefor starting a small business?
Number one challenge, where.
(Paula Sorrell) To start? And I'dsay the answer to that would be,
go to your small business developmentcenter. They know all the resources.

(25:51):
Again, no wrong door approach. They'llget you to where you need to be.
(Gregory Washington) Okay.
(Ajay Vinze) I would say understand basicbusiness and also understand that cash
is king or queen when itcomes to entrepreneurship.
(Gregory Washington) Now people, I wouldask a lot of folk, and this is really,
this is my challenge. A lot of folkwould say money. Is that really true?
Is money the number one challenge forsmarting? For starting a small business?

(26:12):
It is.
(Paula Sorrell) A big challenge.
Capital is always a challenge and we workhard to make sure that we help people
with access to capital.
Some of our big numbers that grew inthe last year in terms of our economic
impact was connecting companies to venturecapital and helping them get ready to
ask for venture capital. The biggestone was government contracting.

(26:32):
There's a lot of government funding onthe street and we are working really hard
to make sure that small businessesget a cut of that and that they're
successful.
And we have a terrific teamat our procurement technical assistance center now
called Apex. They do awonderful job at that.
I think we're probably thebest in the country at that.
(Gregory Washington) Outstanding,outstanding. Rapid fire number two,
social media. Is it important forsmall business? If so, how important?

(26:56):
(Paula Sorrell) Ooh, Ilove this topic so much.
So when I started counselingsmall businesses, you know,
my expertise was marketing.
So I would help them puttogether their marketing budgets.
And I'm old enough where I remember atime when there wasn't social media and
putting together a marketing budget ona shoestring was always a challenge.
Social media has changed the gamein that way, and that as a startup,

(27:18):
it's a set of tools that'savailable to you at no cost.
That alone is just an amazingopportunity. But businesses need work.
They need help with that.
They need to understand the ins and outsof social media, how to do it properly,
what to not do, what are all the resourcesavailable, how do they use the tools?
And I think that we're gonna continue tosee game changing work in social media

(27:41):
and especially chat.
G P T is a really hot topic right nowwith good reason and I think it's gonna
change the face of marketing as well.
(Ajay Vinze) Some statistics, over80 or 85% of all new businesses,
small businesses have some versionof their business online and
do a large portion of their businessoperations in terms of revenue

(28:05):
generating operations online. Sois digital media and uh, is uh,
social media important for them? Youbet. You know, it's hugely important.
The other part of it is over 90%of them start off with some version
of an online notion of an onlinepresence and grow from that.
That's just the nature of the times weare in. So I think no question about it.

(28:27):
Usually important.
(Paula Sorrell) You can set up a websiteand you can use Wix or any other tool
for next to nothing.
(Gregory Washington) So you highlightedsomething which actually connected to my
next rapid fire question.Artificial Intelligence chat, G B T,
and many of these other natural languageprotocols that are being introduced at
a rapid succession, will theyhave an impact on small business?

(28:50):
Will they change small business radically?
(Paula Sorrell) Yes.
One of my staff members sent me a letterthat was written through chat G P T,
and then we spent about a half anhour editing a five paragraph letter.
So it's not there yet,
but it's going to learn quickly justin the same way that it launched,
I think in a year and in two years,it's gonna be a different world.

(29:12):
And the informationthat's at your fingertips,
being able to make it stand out fromkind of the repetition that we're gonna
start seeing from data is going to be,
the creativity in how to use it andhow to manage it is going to be a whole
other skillset.
(Ajay Vinze) I would agree. Absolutely.
I think it impacts on bothsides of the equation chat or AI

(29:33):
tools and techniques that arecoming into work right now.
They certainly change the way howpeople construct documents. Do you know,
letters, memos, business plans, whathave you. That's absolutely true.
But increasingly they're also going tobecome tools and offerings in the future.
So they become not just a wayfor us to communicate out,
but building them into products thatare going to come out in the future.

(29:55):
(Gregory Washington) I.
(Ajay Vinze) Hear that. So, so I think,uh, for small businesses it's uh,
both an opportunity and athreat on both sides of it,
and I think it's an interesting time.
(Gregory Washington) Okay. Well let'sflip it to the other side of that.
Let's say you're running away fromall of this artificial intelligence,
and what about human intelligence?
What about good old fashionedrelationship building?

(30:17):
How important will that be inthe future for small business?
I(Paula Sorrell) can't think of a singlebusiness where relationships aren't
important and the form that that takesis maybe gonna shift a little bit,
but it's still gonna come downto some type of human connection.
But I did hear my favorite saying on chat,
G P T is you won't lose your job to it,
but you might lose your job tosomebody who's using it as a tool.

(30:41):
(Gregory Washington) , real deep.
That sounds like an answer. Thatchat g p t will give .
(Ajay Vinze) I couldn't agree more.Absolutely anything in terms of, uh,
what it's going to doto us or, uh, for us.
I think if we go with the taglinealways that everything is business,

(31:03):
which I say ad nauseum along with it,the corollary is business is personal,
business is eventually all business isabout a transaction that happens between
two entities and they're two humanbeings at both ends of the transaction.
You can look at the whole, uh,
value chain of that transaction andthat can certainly be augmented with
technology, but eventuallyit's about relationships. So.

(31:25):
(Gregory Washington) Nice. Nice. AJ,
you highlighted something early and Iwant you both to in this RapidFire segment
to kind of address it.
You talked about the number of businessesthat are owned by a single person.
Can these micro businessesaffect global change?
Can those businesses have the impactglobally? And if you know of any examples,

(31:46):
highlight 'em.
(Ajay Vinze) Yes. Quick answer wouldbe yes, absolutely. You know, one,
one of the things that Covid made obviousto all of us is we live in a global
world and with globalinteractions and global, uh,
supply chains that dominate us inevery sense of the world and in every
aspect of our world,
just about every product we dealwith today has some aspect of global

(32:10):
touching it. So none of it is 100%anywhere, uh, singularly owned.
So who are the contributors to this?Well, if over 90% of businesses,
small business, they are thebig contributors. And, uh,
so them succeeding and them leadingthe way and them in some ways
altering the, if you will, thearchitecture of business or there. Mm-hmm.

(32:31):
is absolutely central.
(Paula Sorrell) We're a researchuniversity and research universities.
The reason that faculty doresearch is to improve lives.
They invent things all the time.
And those become small businessesif they make it all the way through.
And then those small businesses becomelarger businesses and just by design

(32:52):
they're set out to solve theworld's most challenging problems.
And a few years ago,
I found the same thing that AJ hadjust quoted regarding survival rate,
is that more than half ofsmall businesses failed.
But when I looked at the five yearsurvival rate of a company coming out of a
university, it had a 75%five year survival rate.

(33:12):
And there are a lot of reasons for that.One is it's built on solid science.
It's gone through the tech transfer officeand it's been worked over in terms of
is it competitive?
Does it have something that's protectablein terms of intellectual property?
Are there investors interested in,
in all the questions that we ask inorder to help a technology make it to a
market? This is thereason that we do this.

(33:35):
Scientists want to have societalimpact for the research they do.
So absolutely smallbusinesses have an impact.
(Ajay Vinze) If I could just add, youknow, couldn't agree more with you, Paula.
Just perfect. And it sort of wrapsback to where you started with, uh,
originally. What is the requirementfor us to be interdisciplinary,
cross-disciplinary and soon? Mm-hmm. ,

(33:55):
our researchers do the bestresearch in science and technology.
Our business researchers dogreat research in business.
And the reason why businesses emanatingout of universities succeed is because
you have this richness ofthought process and interactions
that lead the way for thesebusinesses to get set up.
So I think this is one of the bigvalue adds of universities that are,

(34:20):
is typically understated.
(Gregory Washington) Talk to mea little bit about our region.
It's a very crowded academic region.
They're at least 18 universities,
at least within 30 miles of GeorgeMason University right now, at least 18.
Talk to me about the region,
its needs for small business forentrepreneurship and how the universities

(34:42):
collectively can play apart in helping to meet.
Some of the challenges are related tothe questions that I just highlighted to
you.
(Paula Sorrell) So in the work that we do,
we have formal partnerships and MOU witha lot of the universities that are in
the region.
I don't see having a bunch ofuniversities in this particular region,
at least for the work that Ido, is, is not a bad thing.

(35:04):
It creates critical mass,critical mass equals talent.
Critical mass equals startups andresearch and critical mass equals a draw
to capital to the area.
So I like that there are alot of universities here.
I like the role that Mason plays andit is unique. We're not an also ran,
we are the largest footprint.

(35:27):
And it is fun for me to go around andcreate partnerships with these other
universities and learn aboutwhat problems they're solving,
what research they're working on,what their students are learning,
and how do we collaborate onthose. And we're funded to do so.
We're incentivized to do so. Sofor me, it's not a challenge,
it's an opportunity.
(Ajay Vinze) I, I would add tothat in just saying that, uh,

(35:48):
we are living in an environment where, uh,
we are rich with allthese universities around,
so we should look at both competingand collaborating at the same time.
So we don't all have to be good ateverything at the same time. That's.
(Gregory Washington) Right. There'sa term that I have for that.
It's called cooperation. Correct?
(Ajay Vinze) Absolutely.
(Gregory Washington) Figure out whenyou're gonna cooperate and you figure out
when you're gonna compete.

(36:10):
(Ajay Vinze) But toyour point, absolutely.
And so what we need to do is similarthings toward Paula is saying, you know,
use this as a power of this region.
The fact that we have allthese universities, the fact that we can collaborate,
I can tell you I'm in active conversationswith business deans around the region
over here, certainly in the DMVarea. Mm-hmm. ,
they're all very positivelydisposed to collaborating with us.

(36:34):
And they see our strengths,we see their strengths,
and there's no reason for us tobe going head to head in areas
where there may not be our strength.
We may be able to collaborate and drawon their strengths and they from us.
So that is the game plan. One plusone can equal three sometimes.
(Gregory Washington) Outstanding,outstanding. You know, it's really,

(36:56):
really clear to me that Masonis actually open for business.
And I want to thank both of you for takingthe opportunity to be here today and
for giving us yourfeedback. Any parting words?
(Paula Sorrell) I think we shouldtake this show on the road.
(Ajay Vinze) I think we are readyto go. It certainly is Mason's time.
(Gregory Washington) I love it. I'dlike to thank my guests, Paula Sorell,

(37:20):
associate Vice President atMason for innovation and economic
Development. And Dean AJ Vinze,
Dean of the School of Business.
I am Mason President GregoryWashington saying, until next time,
stay safe. Mason Nation.
(Narrator) If you like whatyou heard on this podcast,

(37:40):
go to podcast.gmu.edu formore of Gregory Washington's
conversations with thethought leaders, experts,
and educators who take on the grandchallenges facing our students,
graduates and higher education.That's podcast gmu.edu.