Baruch professor wins research award

Esteemed Baruch College professor Thomas Lyons was recently awarded with the prestigious Bradford Outstanding Research Award for the year of 2011.

His work in the entrepreneurship and community development field has spanned the better half of three decades.

Lyons was presented with the award at the Community Development Society's Joint International Conference in July.

The Bradshaw award is presented to a Community Development Society member in recognition of his or her outstanding contribution to research in community development.

Lyons teaches courses in both Entrepreneurship and Community Development as well Social Entrepreneurship at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

"I was both honored and humbled. I was honored to have my work selected from among so much excellent research being conducted in the field of community development," said Lyons.

"Several individuals who I admire very much have won the award over the years, which is part of what makes this such an honor for me. My work was nominated for the award by a former winner, Dr. Deborah Markley, who is the Co-Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute's Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. My nomination was then considered, among others, by the Awards Committee of the International Community Development Society," added Lyons.

The award was first given in 2001, shortly after the death of Ted K. Bradshaw, for whom it is named.

"Ted was a greatly respected professor and researcher in the field of Community Development at the University of California, Davis," said Lyons of Bradshaw.

The nature of the award makes it even a more unique, and perhaps a more impressive achievement.

Unlike many other awards, which only credit a year or so of work, the Bradshaw Award recognizes extensive research and not a single research project.

The Award focuses on research that effectively links theory with practice, the results of the research must be implementable by community development practitioners.

Lyons' long road to success began back in his days as a political science student at Butler University. From there, he moved on to get his Masters in Urban Studies from Loyola University and eventually his Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

After leaving school Lyons delved right into his field. He initially spent six years as a professional planner in local government and as a private consultant. 

He was also a partner in his own planning and design company. According to Lyons, this sparked his initial interest in what eventually would become his life's work.

"Most of my work was in economic development planning, which is when I became interested in business incubators and, ultimately, entrepreneurship," said Lyons.

Lyons' initial research began 24 years ago, spurred on by the prospect of community development; Lyons began to study small business incubators.

Small business incubators are programs designed to assist in the development of entrepreneurial companies. This is done through business support services and other mechanisms used by communities to foster entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy.

However as with any extensive research he had to adapt as many inherent challenges emerged over time.

"As I learned new things through the research, it was adjusted or partially redirected, at times. For example, I started out with a focus on business incubators, but I learned that that concept could be greatly expanded to create regional systems of support for entrepreneurs, which led to the creation of the Entrepreneurial League System," said Lyons.

Though Lyons' career exploits certainly run the gamut, the Entrepreneurial League System may be one of his greatest achievements.

Created in conjunction with his long-time research colleague, Dr. Gregg Lichtenstein, the system allows for the unique development of entrepreneurs though a very detailed coaching process.

The system has been lauded for its benefits and in turn has been applied in many different areas.

So far, it has been implemented in whole, or part, in Louisville, KY, the Advantage Valley region of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio (11 counties), Central Louisiana (nine parishes in that state), and Johannesburg, South Africa.

It has also been emulated in many other places. It was the inspiration for the Kellogg Foundation's $12 million grant program to encourage the creation of Entrepreneurial  Development Systems in rural regions throughout the United States, as part of the Foundation's 75th  anniversary celebration.

Lyons as well as his colleague Lichtenstein, boasts another impressive creation — The Pipeline of Entrepreneurs and Enterprises.

In essence "The Pipeline", as it is routinely referred to, "is a map that captures the crucial differences among entrepreneurs, differences that give us important information about how we must work with them," as stated on The Pipeline of Entrepreneurs and Enterprises website.

"It offers a much more effective and actionable means of segmenting our market or customer base," said Lyons.

The Pipeline is discussed in detail in Investing in "Entrepreneurs: A Strategic Approach for Strengthening Your Regional and Community Economy", a book co-authored with Dr. Lichtenstein in 2010.

Furthermore, The Pipeline was recently used in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan to map the entrepreneurs and enterprises in the Province, as a whole, by industry, by ethnic group and by sub-provincial region.