Small-business owners are at the heart of a collaboration between the Ohio State Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Columbus City Council. The C-Biz project is being developed to provide technical assistance to small, minority-owned businesses located in six central-city neighborhoods that could use some commercial revitalization.

Started this year as a pilot project at the Southeastern Correctional Institution outside Lancaster, the Ohio Prison Entrepreneurship Program is a collaboration between the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business.

Hosted by The Ohio State University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the 2017 Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Entrepreneurial Leadership Summit explored pathways to entrepreneurship in Ohio and brought together leaders and bright minds to discuss ways the state can foster new ideas, technologies and solutions.

Whether creating care packages for servicemembers overseas, making no-sew blankets for sick and disadvantaged children or beautifying parts of Columbus, hundreds of Fisher students, faculty and staff spent the Veterans Day holiday serving the community as part of Fisher Impact Day.

Students, faculty and researchers at Fisher College of Business are benefiting from unique opportunities to engage with a leader in the automotive industry, as the college and Honda of America have teamed up in a number of ways.

A group of Ohio State University students helped Michael Watkins better market his electrical contracting business as he gears up to hire an employee and double the jobs he can take on. The city of Columbus is investing $100,000 to figure out how the student program itself can expand to help more than two small businesses at a time.

Presented by the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM), the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Fisher and other partners, the 2017 Global Summit event drew experts from across the country to share workforce insights and leading research.

With data and analytics representing an exciting frontier and untold potential for business, Fisher has launched a Specialized Master of Business degree program in Business Analytics (SMB-A) designed to prepare individuals with analytics skills, techniques and tools to transform data into insights to make better business decisions.

On March 20th of this year, Fisher College of Business Dean Anil K. Makhija marched into a conference room filled with 16 members of his faculty and staff to deliver a challenge. Makhija urged the group to pull out a blank sheet of paper and reinvent the school’s full-time MBA curriculum.

When Jessica Horowitz-Moore graduated from Ohio State University as an education major in 2004, she could not get certified as a teacher until she earned her master’s degree. She wasn’t ready for more school, so she took a job working with children who had emotional-behavioral problems.

According to a recent report from the National Center for the Middle Market, talent management is the middle market's biggest constraint.

Demonstrating its commitment to diversity in business education and its focus on meaningful partnerships with like-minded organizations, Fisher College of Business was named the Educational Partner of the Year by the National Black MBA Association.

Paul Reeder, executive director of the Ohio State Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, discusses the development of the INNOVATE-o-Thon event, which connects students and companies.

“The research shows that the best middle-market suppliers tend to be the largest and fastest-growing middle market companies," according to Professor Thomas Goldsby.

While there are many examples of these active partnerships, a good one is the Ohio Export Internship Program at Fisher College of Business. Students use their expertise to help small- and mid-sized companies expand their global footprint.

Through surveys, focus groups, interviews, and case studies, the Brookings Institution and the National Center for the Middle Market identified sources of talent management problems and potential solutions.

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Fisher Dean Anil Makhija and Senior Associate Dean Peter Ward visited top public and private universities in São Paulo and in nearby São Bernardo do Campo, which is recognized as a manufacturing epicenter of Brazil. With the help of Ohio State's Brazil Gateway, Makhija and Ward engaged with colleagues to build relationships and explore opportunities to collaborate on increased global opportunities for Fisher students and faculty, as well as to learn from the on-the-ground experiences of Brazilian businesses and discuss ways Fisher can support these firms.

The Ohio Export Internship Program Showcase celebrated the sixth cohort of the program, a unique partnership between The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business, the Ohio Development Services Agency and Youngstown State University Williamson College of Business Administration that is building global leaders.

If you're looking to get to the top of the economy, aim for the middle.