If India is a buzzword today, the engine for its growth comes is the new generation of entrepreneurs who have made it big – professionals who have shown that this country is not just about traditional family run firms but about businesses that can be made upon dreams and individual capabilities. The broadening of this base of entrepreneurs has been a major boost to current and future generation of entrepreneurs amongst professionals. With such a scenario, business schools have begun to reorient their course offerings and make it more entrepreneur-friendly.
Entrepreneurship is big today
The top schools across the world are offering courses in entrepreneurship for their regular management students. HBS requires first-year students to take a mandatory course on it and offers 20 elective courses in the area to its second-year students. Wharton offers entrepreneurial management as a specialization and trains prospective independent entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs within a family business. Corporates today are keen to fund entrepreneurship centres in campuses in the US. The University of Michigan, for example, got $10 million to set up such a centre.
INSEAD offers a range of electives as part of its current MBA degree course. These include subjects such as entrepreneurship and family enterprise, managing entrepreneurial growth and preparing for a successful exit.
Many business schools are incorporating more entrepreneurial content into their courses that delve into problem solving and strategic planning as it applies to large organizations. The integration of the topic of entrepreneurship in regular programs is a major boost and it helps regular management students decide whether they are suited to take up entrepreneurial ventures later on or specialize in more defined courses on the subject.
Oxford Science Enterprise Centre (Oxford Science Enterprise Centre is part of the Saïd Business School) offers business courses and skills training based around science entrepreneurship. There is a course in “Building a Business”. This is an eight-week course focusing on basic business skills. It is focussed on designing for the market and how to turn a basic idea into a product for a specific market. In Australia too, the AGSM has included entrepreneurship in its broad general management offering.
Entrepreneurship is borne out of inspiration.
Unlike other streams, entrepreneurship is a case of convincing your own self. If you are one or you are not. If you think you are, is it the right time to begin? If it is, should you not go to school and learn something more from the experts? Being a professional what kind of a thing will spur you to take a course in such a field. Many a time, it is by seeing another person like you – mortal and capable taking the plunge with reasonable success. That is great comfort, believe me.
Oxford Entrepreneurs is a student led society for entrepreneurs at the University of Oxford. They help each other to start companies while studying, provide inspiration by hosting a series of talks with renowned entrepreneurs; organize workshops and create networking opportunities. They also have business ideas competition that has grown to be extremely popular. They have been able to attract established entrepreneurs to share their experiences. People such as Luke Johnson (Channel 4 and Pizza Express), Karan Bilimoria (CEO Cobra Beer), Dinesh Dhamija (CEO eBookers) have been speaking to students regularly.
They have been identified as "one of the top three organisations in the UK for supporting innovation and enterprise", and have extended their operations’ model to the London School of Economics, with plans unfolding for replication at other universities. Their objective is simple - they want everyone at Oxford to ask, 'Could I be an entrepreneur?'
At Cranfield Ms Creagh says that they “try to make students realise that they must start small, be realistic and keep a close eye on their finances”. The main emphasis now is getting those students interested in starting their own businesses through inspiration from alumni.
Why studying entrepreneurship in Bschools will grow further
Mr Waring of Cranfield Business School says that demand for entrepreneurship courses has remained unaffected past the dot.com bust and that business schools have had to improve their offering. He feels that the dot.com boom was good for the teaching of entrepreneurial studies, as it taught students a more realistic view of business. “Many successful entrepreneurs have gone through periods where they have trouble meeting next month’s payroll,” he says. “Now students better understand the volatility, risks and type of personal characteristics required.” Mark Rice, Dean of the Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College in the US feels that “the whole area was a very fertile field for case writing. It was a mad gold rush where no one had a real handle on which business model was going to work”.
"Interest in the area of entrepreneurship is increasing in people who recognise that the skills involved can be of as much relevance to a large business as to a start up," says Julia Tyler of the London School of Economics.
The London Business School runs an entrepreneurship summer school and teaches them to work through the processes required when setting up a new firm. Like other academic institutions, LBS also provides office space for start-up ventures and has a history of investing in some of the businesses that emerge. The HBS entrepreneurship integrates technology with entrepreneurship in its curriculum.
Recent records at Stanford Business School has reflected a greater interest in intrapreneurship—start-ups within existing companies. There is less interest in getting involved with venture capitalists for funding; people would prefer either to bootstrap their company themselves or with friends or join up with a private-equity company. Students are less intolerant about quicker start-ups and are prepared to wait to get their ideas off the ground. “They want to get some experience first,” says Linda Wells from Stanford Business School’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. “Since the dot.com bust, we’ve seen a decline in the number of MBA students wanting to go straight into their own business after graduation. But the number who say their ultimate aim is their own business after regular work is staying about the same”.
Teething Problems
Like many schools, Cranfield School of Management in the UK opened an “incubator” to help students to develop new business ideas. Within a year, it had closed because of falling student interest. There are other problems that are common, particularly to India, which is that people are wary about entrepreneurship, the anathema built of years of discouragement to the field. These problems are the teething problems every program will have, especially if it revolves around a seemingly uncertain proposition.
Why Indian Professionals Must Heed the Call, sort out the dilemmas and Check it out for further Study
Today, young professionals are going into this field, taking the plunge and making a success out of it. If there is a place to make your business work it is India. The resources are cheaper, the market has broadened to include many kinds of ideas, dreams and sellers, more professionals in the system, and the incubation period seems to be getting shorter. Many professionals harbour a dream to start their own thing someday. Business schools have begun to realise this necessity and also understand the apprehension that people have regarding taking a plunge. That is why some have integrated the entrepreneurial course within some major management programs like the MBA. Top Indian schools like the ISB and IIM are beginning to encourage it. What we need is to have more diversification with other top B schools getting into the playing field with quality offerings. Yet today, you can do a course at one of these institutes.
The ISB offers electives related to entrepreneurship, which are facilitated through professors from IESE and Darden school of Business. The courses include: Service Business Ventures and Franchising, Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Negotiation Analysis, Managing Innovation, Customer Focused Product Development, Outsourcing and IT based Businesses, Capital Raising Strategies in Corporations and IT Enabled Services and Strategies.
There are special modules conducted by industry experts for students who want a thorough preparation for future careers in business. These modules are meant to inculcate understanding on business ventures and business problems and move towards problem solving.
There is a great interest today amongst professionals regarding entrepreneurship programs and Indian professionals have suddenly begun to build their dreams in schools – just like any other structured business stream. Take it this way – the demand for entrepreneurial programs is increasingly on the rise. Bschools today are offering programs that will help you negotiate your business. So, take the bus before it goes away.
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