The FastTrac to Success
Why do some small businesses handle change better than others?
In their book, The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations, Dan Cohen of Deloitte Consulting LLP and John Kotter say that smarter, savvier small companies have figured out how to transform the way their people work and then make that transformation “stick” in permanently improved behaviors. They also emphasize the need for entrepreneurs and business owners to study the concept of change and evaluate change models that have worked at larger companies like Pfizer and Southwest Airlines.
Many in Waco and the surrounding communities who chosen on to run their own small businesses have taken a page out of Cohen and Kotter’s book by taking advantage of the FastTrac Entrepreneurship Training program at the John F. Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship at Baylor University. Piloted in 1986 at the University of Southern California, the FastTrac Entrepreneurial Training Program has been tested and refined in classes held in 31 states. FastTrac combines classroom instruction, one-to-one counseling, guest lectures, hands-on participation and comprehensive course workbooks.
FastTrac is geared toward current and prospective entrepreneurs who are looking for fresh ways to grow their emerging businesses. Handling change is a big part of the curriculum, says Mary Abrahams, FastTrac program director. “We create an environment where FastTrac students face the issues they’ll be handling as small business owners, including how to change their businesses. By the time they are done with the nine-week course, our students have a written business plan for a start-up.”
Students who have taken the course maintain they were far more ready to handle institutional change than before they enrolled in FastTrac. “I took the program in 2000,” says William Wragge, CEO of Mexia-based MultiPlex Healthcare Services. “I wanted to take the company in a different direction, do some acquisitions, and transition over to retail medical sales. The discipline I learned at FastTrac was a tremendous help.” Wragge described himself as a true entrepreneur who had always flown by the seat of his pants. “But investors wanted to see the ‘black and white’ proof that I could institute the kind of changes I wanted at my company. I learned how to do just that at FastTrac – they taught me how to research my new business plan, how to write it and what elements it needed to convince investors that I was going in the right direction.” Working with three interns provided by Baylor University, Wragge was able to create a detailed business plan that laid out his new vision for the company.
“Before I enrolled in FastTrac I had two offices. Today I have six. I think FastTrac had everything to do with that,” said Wragge.
Dan Hetherington was a police officer for 34 years before deciding to retire and pursue his lifelong dream of owning a business. He credits the FastTrac feasibility program for preparing him for the pitfalls that come with being an entrepreneur. "Of all the surprises that have come along in the last three and a half years, there hasn't been one that FastTrac didn't prepare me for. I'd recommend it to anyone who is starting a new business
Rhett Dawson, a Baylor Business School graduate and FastTrac student, used the program to develop new marketing concepts and identify target markets for companies. That knowledge landed him a job with Dallas-based Success Motivation this autumn. “Companies are big on employees being able to adapt to change and who can take companies in fresh new directions,” he says. “I think the lessons I learned at FastTrac – especially dealing with new business concepts – were instrumental in my landing a job with Success Motivation. There was a great deal of hard work involved, but I know a great deal more about identifying change and communicating its benefits after my work with FastTrac.”
