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August 19, 2011

Newsflash: Babson College is gapingvoid’s latest client.

4 Comments

So gaping­void has a new client: Bab­son College. Or to put it another way: gaping­void is now the ofi­cial car­too­nist for Bab­son College.

Bab­son is a small, pri­vate college in the wes­tern suburbs of Bos­ton, dedi­ca­ted to the study of entre­pre­neurship. In fact, it’s been con­si­de­red the top school for entre­pre­neurship in the country for the last 18 years in a row, bea­ting out Har­vard, Whar­ton, Yale, M.I.T. etc etc

Some ini­ti­tial thoughts:

The college pre­si­dent,  Len Sch­le­sin­ger is an inte­res­ting guy. He has divi­ded his career pretty equally in both aca­de­mia and com­merce. Over the years, the two have infor­med the other.  Click on his link and see for your­self, he has got­ten plenty of kudos in  both worlds. He was a pro­fes­sor at Har­vard Busi­ness School and a CEO of a well known com­pany (i.e. the parent com­pany of Victoria’s Sec­ret). Very few peo­ple are so infor­med by the limi­ta­tions of both, and also their lack of limitations.

He is also pretty much the big­gest collec­tor of gaping­void prints that we have. His walls are abso­lu­tely cove­red with them. He was collec­ting them like base­ball cards. So there was an pre-existing align­ment there.

We met for Chi­nese food the last time I was in New York and hatched an “Evil Plan”. Good times.

This is such an obvious gig for gaping­void, I can­not tell you. There are so many threads worth rif­fing on, I canot tell you. Edu­ca­tion and entre­pre­neurship are BOTH rich, deep veins. OF COURSE they are.

Is there ANYTHING in the world that is more ripe for dis­rup­tion than  Edu­ca­tion Industry (Yes, it IS an industry, sorry to break the news to my Mar­xist aca­de­mic friends)? I mean, really…

I have some thoughts on for­mal edu­ca­tion and entre­pre­neurship in gene­ral. See the car­toon above…

It’s ama­zing how this fits with a trend I’ve been noti­cing lately: When Jason (my busi­ness part­ner) and I talk to peo­ple in busi­ness who use the car­toons, it is always about the same thing: It helps them lead their orga­ni­za­tions. Com­mu­ni­cate bet­ter, and tell sto­ries that they feel peo­ple should be remin­ded of. Around the office, we’ve become fond of saying that the work helps lea­ders lead.

I am TRULY hono­red that someone of Len’s sta­ture is able to use my work to lead his busi­ness. Art with pur­pose, it’s why gaping­vid does what it does.

OK, I’m ready to rock out. Next steps: Anyone got any ideas where to start? I have a few thoughts myself, of course, but please feel free to share, either by email or by lea­ving com­ments below, thanks.

Let the aven­ture begin! w00t!!!

Tags: Art With a Purpose, Babson College, Len Schlesinger

4 Responses to “Newsflash: Babson College is gapingvoid’s latest client.”

1. Amrita says:

   August 19, 2011 at 11:38 AM

   Wow, so happy to hear this Hugh. I’m bia­sed because I went to Bab­son but I’ve always felt they had an inno­va­tive approach to edu­ca­tion in the face of the Ivy Lea­gue Goliaths in their back­yard. Con­grats — seems like a per­fect pai­ring indeed.

   Reply
2. DavidTTX says:

   August 19, 2011 at 1:44 PM

   How about a blog site that you own your mate­rial and are free to express any thoughts you wish (Free­dom of Speech / even in the US?)

   I do not know if this type of venue is avai­la­ble — like com­ments expressly the opi­nions of the poster?

   I have site, want to bitchv about sophis­tic spam­ming and how to avoid/ pro­se­cute offenders/ busi­nes­ses. Not how to spam, more like the latest spam/ fishing exploi­ta­tion trac­king & repor­ting on bad web sites.

   Any good for you?.

   Reply
3. SL Clark says:

   August 19, 2011 at 2:14 PM

   Edu­ca­tion. Ivy Lea­gue. = Bricks & Mortar

   It’s great kno­wing you’ll help drag Bab­son into the 21st cen­tury kic­king & screa­ming; most women can’t attend their “pio­nee­ring” Cen­ter for Women’s Lea­dership. They’re already suc­cess­ful in the work­force, have a family, or other­wise can’t relo­cate to a Welles­ley Country Club.

   Break­down their stiff foun­da­tion, unleash a storm of inno­va­tion. Throw them into the Gaping Void.

   Reply
4. Joaquín says:

   August 20, 2011 at 8:55 AM

   Edu­ca­tion and Mediocrity.

   One of my brigh­test friends went to Bab­son. He gets medioc­rity in busi­ness education.

   Extra­po­late that to life as a result of your approach to education.

   Reply