Professor Michael Sherrod Q&A

Teaching in the MLA since:				2023
Specialty/Area of Research:				Community Entrepreneurship
MLA Courses Taught:				Corporate Entrepreneurship  Opportunity Recognition  How To Innovate at Work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many years have you been teaching in the MLA program and what class or classes have you taught?

I’ve taught 3 or 4 classes over the years; Corporate Entrepreneurship for MLA’s, Opportunity Recognition for MLA’s, and How To Innovate at Work for MLA’s

 

Tell us a little bit about your specialty or area of research?

I am the William M. Dickey Entrepreneur in Residence/Senior Instructor at the Neeley School.

 

 

How does your background inform your teaching and scholarship?

It informs just about everything I teach or administer. Over the past 48 years I’ve started 19 companies, 6 of them in major corporations. In the 13 years I’ve been at TCU I have mentored more than 40 professors across the university in how to help students have better post-graduate outcomes by using entrepreneurial thinking and experiential learning in their respective disciplines – for themselves and their students.

 

How do you try to make the material in your class engaging considering most students complete their MLA degree 100% online?

Much of what I teach lends itself to online learning. They can take any one of my classes and use the material in it the very next day at work or school.

 

What advantages do you think there are to getting a Master’s Degree in the Liberal Arts? How can it be helpful in the “real world”?

Companies need story tellers. They need people who understand how to use language. As AI becomes more and more a part of companies, liberal arts graduates will be in demand. AI can take the management of process away from people, but it is very hard to take away the management of people. People are messy and difficult and companies need managers who understand how to treat employees humanly – not as prat of a process. The more we demand workers be well treated, the more MLA’s will be needed.

 

How do your courses relate to events that your students experience or read about on a day-to-day basis? 

The relate to the everyday in every way, in every class. I teach them how to be successful innovators inside large, complex enterprises. What they learn in my classes will help their careers for years to come.