Last week I participated in a roundtable with 50 entrepreneur CEO’s, hosted by the Oxford Center.  We spent a fascinating 30 minutes discussing what they read and new ways of learning.

What do entrepreneurs read about? Is it their industry?  No — because most of them believe they are ahead of and setting new models for their industry.  Is it disruptive technologies?  Yes — because they want to be inspired by out-of-the box thinking.  Is it leadership approaches?  Yes — because they have not had corporate training on how to manage.  Is it compliance and governance?  No — partly because they don’t know what they don’t know, and partly because they tend to avoid businesses steeped in compliance.  Is it about cultures?  Yes — they are fascinated by better understanding cultures — and not just for business opportunity reasons.  Many of them are driven to succeed for what it will empower them to do to help others.

What about those who are not entrepreneurs?  Should they take a lesson from the entrepreneurs regarding what to read?  Perhaps!  Every company needs innovation and forward thinking, so why not emulate the entrepreneurs in looking for it?  And if you are not going to be doing the same thing forever, when do you begin reading about your own chapter two?

So, where do they read?  And this is not a tablet vs. hard copy question.  Harvard Business Review was given high marks for becoming very relevant again, along with Fast Company.  The Sunday New York Times was mentioned, as were blogs brought to them via key word triggers.  Relevant books are still in vogue.

The conversation about how rapidly the world of higher education is changing was eye-opening.  Like many other parts of our culture, education is moving to just in time and new revenue sources.  One tipping point is that ROI on the cost of higher education has not met expectations the past few years — at the MBA and graduate level.  Another is the speed of business change and the specialization now desired.  Five years ago, Kennesaw State launched an innovative program customized to the needs of its corporate partners — even teaching a basket of selected MBA courses relevant to immediate challenges and needs on the company’s premises.

Now if you need to know more about a particular topic for a new initiative or opportunity  you can go to www.coursera.org, featuring courses led by top professors from Stanford and 62 other prestigious universities.  All of the courses are free, and you can participate from home or even on the beach.  Some are very technical, but some have broad business and personal appeal, including:

• Critical thinking in global challenges — The University of Edinburgh
• Surviving disruptive technologies – University of Maryland
• Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Businesses – The University of Virginia
• Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence – Case Western Reserve University
• Understanding Media by Understanding Google – Northwestern University

Perhaps you wonder, as I did, why such elite universities would participate and give away intellectual capital?  It appears that there are three reasons — revenue opportunity, global exposure on a massive scale, and benevolence.  To quote Vanderbilt University: “The exploration of digital learning is representative of two key aspects of our mission – creative experimentation of ideas and concepts and as a way to enhance our goal of dissemination of knowledge through teaching and outreach.”

My conclusion is that what and how we learn is changing rapidly — in part because we have access to so much intriguing information and, in part, because more than ever we need to learn new things to stay relevant.

– Jim Deupree