Faculty Almanac
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Toy Story
by Timothy McKernan

David Wyman built a career out of creating toys. He's now using that know-how to create LIFE.

No, it's not cloning or another version of the popular board game. It's USD's new Leadership Institute For Entrepreneurs, a program that preps potential tycoons for high-risk, high-reward business endeavors. Wyman, a second-generation toy developer and an instructor in the School of Business Administration, says San Diego is the ideal place to launch such a program.

"San Diego is an incredibly desirable place to live," he says, "and let's face it, living here isn't cheap. There isn't a lot of big business, and big-money jobs are relatively few. If you want to live here with any degree of comfort, you need to make your own way. I see this region as a hotbed for entrepreneurs."

Still in its infancy, LIFE grew out of USD's Institute for Family-Owned Businesses. Scheduled to launch this summer, the program will bring together students, faculty and entrepreneurs for conferences and other opportunities to share experiences and explore topics related to entrepreneurial businesses.

Wyman would have benefited from such an environment as he got his own career under way. Although his father was a toymaker, Wyman initially wasn't eager to follow in those footsteps. His dad had a big hit with "ElectronicBattleship," but that triumph was mixed in with lesser successes and more than a few failures. So the English-born Wyman worked several jobs after college, including stints as a croupier in Ramsgate, England, and a job with a brewing company in Liverpool.

Not satisfied with his prospects, Wyman returned to school to earn an M.B.A. Then a chance meeting with a former employer, Jurgen Stoeher, kick-started his career. Stoeher wanted to make toys, and, aware of the family's pedigree, provided funds for Wyman to survive while he percolated some ideas.

It seems the business is in his genes, because Wyman took to toys and games like a kid let loose at Toys 'R' Us. In 1986, he introduced his first offering, a board game called "Please Don't Feed the Gators" that sold more than a million copies worldwide. Before long, he was running a business out of a tony office on London's Thames River, and courting executives from Mattel and Milton Bradley over protracted lunches at nearby pubs.

"I always felt like I should have cut the Guinness people in on some of the ideas we sold," he laughs.

By the mid-90s, Wyman established a solid reputation in the industry. He scored a string of winners, from the "Big Wheelie" and the Hot Wheels "Road Warriors" series, to his biggest success, a board game called "1313 Dead End Drive." But the toy industry, he adds, isn't always fun and games. He is reluctant to talk about one particular idea, which he says was pilfered by a competitor who turned it into a million-dollar hit.

"The industry is incredibly competitive, full of people whose full-time job seems to be stealing the ideas of others," he says. "It happens all the time. You can go after the thief, which is nearly impossible, or get some other ideas and move on."

The feast-or-famine nature of entrepreneurial toy making convinced Wyman to pursue other interests. He entered the teacher-training program at Colorado State University and taught at its business school.

"I always had it in my mind that a focused entrepreneur program was long overdue on university campuses," he says. "Every entrepreneur is an individualist, but there are some universal truths that can enable one to follow his or her path more intelligently. The idea is to show students how to minimize risks, and to make them aware of obvious problem areas that aren't so obvious at first."

Wyman got the chance to create his dream program in 2001, when he and his wife, real estate Professor Elaine Worzala, received simultaneous job offers from USD. As he guides the new institute, Wyman still entertains his creative muse. His latest effort is something of a departure - a board game designed for adults.

"My dad kept retiring and unretiring from creating toys, and I'll probably do the same," he says. "There is something that drives people in this field. If you can't remember the excitement of getting a really great toy, then this business is not for you."