Office of Corporate Relations reports ‘solid progress’ in its first year

The year-old Office of Corporate Relations at UW–Madison made “solid progress in addressing its mission of serving the needs of business in Wisconsin and beyond,” according to its Annual Review for 2003-04.

The office was established by Chancellor John D. Wiley on July 1, 2003, to strengthen relations between the university and the business community.

OCR Managing Director Charles Hoslet’s report, A Year of Progress and Accomplishment, notes that as of the end of June 2004 the office had contact with more than 600 corporations and commercial entities, and made presentations to more than 45 business and economic development groups.

In addition, OCR staff conducted several workshops and seminars concerning the formation and funding of technology-based start-up companies, had a significant presence at business conferences and trade shows, and met with all of the four-year UW campuses as well as UW Extension and the administration of the two-year campuses of the UW System.

“When initially created, the objectives of the new office were two-fold: proactively communicate to the business community the various resources available to them on the UW–Madison campus, and assist those companies and others that contact OCR in accessing those resources,” Hoslet reports.

“Over time, a third objective has emerged, specifically to assist faculty and staff entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a company based on their work at UW–Madison. OCR staff have aggressively pursued each of those objectives.”

In its first year, OCR received requests for assistance from more than 270 companies, and by the end of the year the requests were approaching as many as 10-15 telephone calls and e-mail inquiries per week, Hoslet reports.

The greatest number of requests, 36 percent, were for meetings with or presentations to companies to learn more about OCR and the resources of the university. Other requests were for general information, business start-up assistance, access to students for job placement, faculty and staff expertise, and patent licensing opportunities.

In terms of providing assistance to companies, the report shows that OCR itself was able to meet the needs of organizations almost 25 percent of the time. In addition, numerous referrals were made to the School of Business, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the College of Engineering, the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, and the College of Letters and Science, among others.

“The number of requests for assistance received by OCR should be considered largely additive to the great number of other contacts between this campus and the business community,” Hoslet reports. “As such, OCR is not only carrying out its mission, but also identifying and serving a new, additional base of customers that for the most part have not had prior contact with UW–Madison.”

Among the office’s accomplishments in its first year were:

• Created the Technology Showcase Series, which targets the business and financial community and highlights emerging campus research;
• Developed the Career Services Council, which helps companies connect with potential employees among the university’s students and graduates;
• Produced “A Guide for New Business Ventures at the University of Wisconsin–Madison”;
• Published “The UW Business Resources Directory”; and
• Launched the “UW Business News Wire,” which provides Web-based news and information from the campus for the business community and media.

“Colleagues in the various schools and colleges and research consortia and institutes on campus, as well as on all other UW System campuses are working along the same pathway, and together are bringing the resources and assets of the University of Wisconsin to the business community in the best tradition of The Wisconsin Idea,” Hoslet concludes in the report.

To download the full Annual Review, visit http://www.corprelations.wisc.edu/buswire/docs/ocr_2004_review.pdf.