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By almost any index Mexico has historically struggled in the last century with economic and social growth. For example, Kearney's (2005) well-respected Globalization Index ranks Mexico 42nd in the world and the U.N. Human Development Reports (2003) rank Mexico 53rd in its Human Development Index. Recently, however, Mexico appears to have made a commitment to transform into a competitive nation by privatizing state-owned industries, reducing international commerce barriers and tariffs, attracting foreign investment, and establishing free-trade agreements (NAFTA) with neighbors such as the United States and Canada (Young & Welsch, 1993). However, to sustain the changes, a strong and capable group of domestic entrepreneurs are needed in Mexico.

The emergence of the lean start-up movement has cast doubt and skepticism among entrepreneurship educators and practitioners regarding the usefulness of writing a formal business plan for training the next generation of entrepreneurs. In one camp, there is a group of entrepreneurship education professionals who continue to advocate for the usefulness and necessity for teaching students these basic business plan development skills. In an alternative camp, there is another faction of education professionals who believe that the business plan process is counterproductive and is an unnecessary distraction for today’s millennial entrepreneurs seeking to create their own new ventures. In this chapter, we argue why it is important to adopt a lean start-up framework and approach in both entrepreneurship courses and in curriculum design in early-stage venturing. We offer 10 reasons why entrepreneurship educators should place less emphasis on business planning and more emphasis on business modeling during the early stages of evaluating the feasibility of a venture. We believe that educators and curriculum designers need to rethink the traditional approach of building an entrepreneurship program based upon the business plan as the guiding framework. We then conclude our discussion with suggestions on where and how elements of the business plan can and should be introduced into the new venture development process and appropriately positioned in entrepreneurship curricula. We propose a renewed and reconciled view of the Lean Start-up versus Business Plan debate, as both are considered necessary but neither is sufficient to support the full lifecycle of the venturing process.

The first paper by Hernando de Soto is titled, “Trust, Institutions and Entrepreneurship.” Hernando de Soto certainly needs no introduction. As the author of two best-selling books, The Other Path and The Mystery of Capital, and the founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru, Hernando de Soto has made his mark on examining critical issues related to economic development among poor people. In 1999, Time magazine chose Hernando de Soto as one of the five leading Latin American innovators of the century. Forbes magazine highlighted him as one of 15 innovators “who will re-invent your future.” The Economist magazine identified his Institute for Liberty and Democracy as one of the top two think tanks in the world. The essay in this volume, based upon a speech given at the University of North Carolina on October 26, 2004, examines the important relationships between institutions, trust, property rights, and the ability of entrepreneurs to participate in economic growth and development. This stimulating essay sets a foundation for much of what is discussed in this volume.

The United States (U.S.) is a truly multi-ethnic society. White Anglo Americans are still the majority group, but the non-white group has recorded a sizable increase. Non-white Americans make up about 26% of the population of the nation as a whole, and this number is projected to reach 31% by the year 2020 (Judy & D’Amico, 1997). The primary source regions of immigrants now include Mexico, Asia, South and Latin America, and other non-European areas. Established U.S. native minority populations historically consisted of African-Americans, native Indians, and second-generation Mexican immigrants (Cox, Lobel & McLeod, 1991).