In 1949 when Shirley Schmitz graduated from Arizona State University women leaders were an anomaly in business. Now 80, she is charismatic and sharp, and could easily fill a book with insights earned during her own high-octane career.

What's riskier? Staying in the pack or venturing cautiously out on a limb?

Chris Zane goes to work every day with a smile on his face, buoyed by his philosophy that "most of the population are good and sound and trustworthy people." Sound naïve? Perhaps. But Zane apparently knows what he's talking about.

Services now account for a staggering 80 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and labor force, but many still view the world through manufacturing lenses, according to W. P. Carey experts Mary Jo Bitner and Stephen Brown.

Two entrepreneurial CEOs shared some of the challenges they have faced and lessons they have learned with attendees at "Entrepreneurship: From IP to IPO and Beyond," a seminar presented by the W. P. Carey MBA Executive Program.

Women who become entrepreneurs don't miss the corporate glass ceiling, but while some women business owners say that they do not encounter gender bias in the business world, others complain that they have to demonstrate an extra level of excellence and competence to men and women alike.

Does the world of business — in the past dominated by men — pose any special challenges for women?

Small-business owners say they love the freedom, flexibility and earning potential of working for themselves. But Joel Martin, the former owner of a $20 million New York-based advertising agency, said no one should go into business without an exit plan.

On his first trip to Ghana in September 2006, Mark Henderson traveled through countryside that was lush, but obscured with haze. Some of the haze was carried in by the Harmattan — a dry and dusty West African wind that blows in from the Sahara at that time of year.

The most enduring companies change the experiences — even the lives — of the people they serve. That is certainly true of the six winners of the 2013 Spirit of Enterprise Awards from the W.P. Carey School of Business.