Management graduates are meant to be future leaders and change masters irrespective of being an entrepreneur or part of an organization. They should follow their own goals rather than succumbing to peer pressure irrespective of being corporate masters or servants. The Narayana Murthys and Premjis didn't start of saying they want to be corporate masters. But they merely did what they wanted to do. Success depends on one's ability to be competitive. Once you are inside an organisation or an entrepreneur, you have to make competitiveness a part of you.
Having said this, the management graduates aspiring to become entrepreneurs are not fully equipped by the B schools compared to his peers who venture into corporate life. Management graduates aspiring to take entrepreneurial plunge feel that practical business world is different from what is taught in management schools. The knowledge imparted in the business schools is not similar to the situation one faces while starting a business. The person just out of the B-school expects the business environment to be of a different kind i.e. supportive to the requirements of the person, but the situation is utterly different which is due to the lack of practical experience. He faces various problems like capital, lack of practical experience of the industry, problem of infrastructure, etc...
According to me the solution for this issue can be achieved by addressing three important aspects of management education. They are
· Education curriculum,
· Internships
· Final placements.
These play an important role in shaping the career of a management graduate. But when it comes to aspiring entrepreneurs the system fails. This is because of the completely different set of requirements for entrepreneurs.
Educational curriculum
Entrepreneurship is not considered as a functional stream like finance, marketing etc. by most of the B schools. The theoretical concepts learned in formal B school education don’t equip a management graduate to take the entrepreneurial plunge. So the first step to promote entrepreneurship would be to modify the educational curriculum in B schools for those students who are aspiring to take the entrepreneurial route.
The objective of this change in the curriculum is to:
1. To create a capacity to start a new venture
2. To provide insight into working in a small venture
3. To develop ‘business’ understanding in general
4. To develop personal ‘enterprising’ capabilities
The challenge is to allow young people to experience and feel the concept rather than just learn about it in the conventional sense. This leads to emphasis upon a pedagogy that encourages learning: by doing; by exchange; by copying (and learning from the experience); by experimentation; by risk taking and ‘positive’ mistake making; by creative problem solving; by feedback through social interaction; by dramatisation and role playing; by close exposure to role models; and, in particular, interaction with the outside/adult world.
The courses should concentrate on the following three aspects:
Entrepreneurial SkillsThe unique traits, behaviours and processes that differentiate an entrepreneur from an employee or manager.
Ready Skills The business, or entrepreneurial, knowledge and skills that are prerequisites or co-requisites for the study of entrepreneurship.
Business Functions The business activities performed in starting and running a business.
Internships
Management graduates aspiring to become corporate professional get a feel of corporate work during their internships. Aspiring entrepreneurs also end up doing their interns in the same fashion. This gives them no opportunity to explore their desired field of interest. The main constraint in entrepreneurship interns is the lack of opportunity to pursue. But social entrepreneurship could be a solution to this issue.
Internships for aspiring entrepreneurs can be built on the lines social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.
The aspiring entrepreneurs must identify business ideas, should not depend on grant permanently and make profit to give it back to the society. The non-government organisations (NGOs) pay well today and even corporates offer huge amount under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). So the students with an urge to become entrepreneurs can test their business skills in the real environment and at the same time can do some contribution to the society. This would give them a laboratory environment to test their ideas and the results can be readily perceived.
I feel that the concept of social entrepreneurship is very much relevant to our institute, IIM Shillong.
The strategic location of IIM Shillong in the north east gives plenty of opportunities to explore different avenues of social entrepreneurship. Today, India has woken up from her long slumber and is on her way to becoming one among the giant nations. However, NE India continues to hibernate. The geographical proximity with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Tibet and China, has, instead of providing opportunities for trade, isolated the region. India’s relationship with these neighbours has not been conducive for business, with the result the NE has been cut off not only from the neighbouring nations but even mainland India. It has become like an economic island in the middle of Asia. To make the economic condition worse, investors shy away from the NE India as ethnic disputes and insurgency raises its ugly head at alarmingly regular intervals.
This gives an opportunity to address the economic and societal issues in north east and thereby improving our entrepreneurial skills.
Final placements
Top Indian B schools have been successful in placing their students in high paying jobs. But when it comes aspiring entrepreneurs no B school have so far developed a comprehensive process to fulfil their needs. Aspiring entrepreneurs need proper guidance and assistance to start their business at the end of their course.
The biggest problem faced by the aspiring entrepreneurs is to mobilize the initial capital. The money is always difficult to find? Even the confident management graduates for top B schools find it difficult when it comes to launching their own business. Finance is the biggest constraint, and there is nothing to fall back on should they fail to find the initial capital.
As part of the placements for aspiring entrepreneurs the institute should invite banks, venture capitalists and other institutions that would be ready to finance the budding entrepreneurs. Similar to placement interviews the students would be tested and gauged on their business acumen. Students would need to present their B plans to banks and venture capitals. This would be beneficial to both the students and financial institutions. Students get an opportunity to present their ideas and B plans to potential investors. Also the institutes brand value would help in lending more credibility to their ideas. For the financial institutions it gives a platform to meet the aspiring entrepreneurs and serve as a one stop shop to meet all those who are interested. This step also proves as a win-win situation for both students and potential investors.
The risks associated with the new venture are the major impeding factor for aspiring entrepreneurs. This when compared with the luring pay checks of corporate jobs, forces them to shelve their ideas in cold storage. The perceived risk is due to gaps in education curriculum, lack of opportunities to test their skills and difficulty in mobilizing the capital. The solutions suggested addresses the above mentioned gaps and would ensure no aspiring entrepreneurs would leave his/her B school without achieving the goal.
Having said this, the management graduates aspiring to become entrepreneurs are not fully equipped by the B schools compared to his peers who venture into corporate life. Management graduates aspiring to take entrepreneurial plunge feel that practical business world is different from what is taught in management schools. The knowledge imparted in the business schools is not similar to the situation one faces while starting a business. The person just out of the B-school expects the business environment to be of a different kind i.e. supportive to the requirements of the person, but the situation is utterly different which is due to the lack of practical experience. He faces various problems like capital, lack of practical experience of the industry, problem of infrastructure, etc...
According to me the solution for this issue can be achieved by addressing three important aspects of management education. They are
· Education curriculum,
· Internships
· Final placements.
These play an important role in shaping the career of a management graduate. But when it comes to aspiring entrepreneurs the system fails. This is because of the completely different set of requirements for entrepreneurs.
Educational curriculum
Entrepreneurship is not considered as a functional stream like finance, marketing etc. by most of the B schools. The theoretical concepts learned in formal B school education don’t equip a management graduate to take the entrepreneurial plunge. So the first step to promote entrepreneurship would be to modify the educational curriculum in B schools for those students who are aspiring to take the entrepreneurial route.
The objective of this change in the curriculum is to:
1. To create a capacity to start a new venture
2. To provide insight into working in a small venture
3. To develop ‘business’ understanding in general
4. To develop personal ‘enterprising’ capabilities
The challenge is to allow young people to experience and feel the concept rather than just learn about it in the conventional sense. This leads to emphasis upon a pedagogy that encourages learning: by doing; by exchange; by copying (and learning from the experience); by experimentation; by risk taking and ‘positive’ mistake making; by creative problem solving; by feedback through social interaction; by dramatisation and role playing; by close exposure to role models; and, in particular, interaction with the outside/adult world.
The courses should concentrate on the following three aspects:
Entrepreneurial SkillsThe unique traits, behaviours and processes that differentiate an entrepreneur from an employee or manager.
Ready Skills The business, or entrepreneurial, knowledge and skills that are prerequisites or co-requisites for the study of entrepreneurship.
Business Functions The business activities performed in starting and running a business.
Internships
Management graduates aspiring to become corporate professional get a feel of corporate work during their internships. Aspiring entrepreneurs also end up doing their interns in the same fashion. This gives them no opportunity to explore their desired field of interest. The main constraint in entrepreneurship interns is the lack of opportunity to pursue. But social entrepreneurship could be a solution to this issue.
Internships for aspiring entrepreneurs can be built on the lines social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.
The aspiring entrepreneurs must identify business ideas, should not depend on grant permanently and make profit to give it back to the society. The non-government organisations (NGOs) pay well today and even corporates offer huge amount under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). So the students with an urge to become entrepreneurs can test their business skills in the real environment and at the same time can do some contribution to the society. This would give them a laboratory environment to test their ideas and the results can be readily perceived.
I feel that the concept of social entrepreneurship is very much relevant to our institute, IIM Shillong.
The strategic location of IIM Shillong in the north east gives plenty of opportunities to explore different avenues of social entrepreneurship. Today, India has woken up from her long slumber and is on her way to becoming one among the giant nations. However, NE India continues to hibernate. The geographical proximity with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Tibet and China, has, instead of providing opportunities for trade, isolated the region. India’s relationship with these neighbours has not been conducive for business, with the result the NE has been cut off not only from the neighbouring nations but even mainland India. It has become like an economic island in the middle of Asia. To make the economic condition worse, investors shy away from the NE India as ethnic disputes and insurgency raises its ugly head at alarmingly regular intervals.
This gives an opportunity to address the economic and societal issues in north east and thereby improving our entrepreneurial skills.
Final placements
Top Indian B schools have been successful in placing their students in high paying jobs. But when it comes aspiring entrepreneurs no B school have so far developed a comprehensive process to fulfil their needs. Aspiring entrepreneurs need proper guidance and assistance to start their business at the end of their course.
The biggest problem faced by the aspiring entrepreneurs is to mobilize the initial capital. The money is always difficult to find? Even the confident management graduates for top B schools find it difficult when it comes to launching their own business. Finance is the biggest constraint, and there is nothing to fall back on should they fail to find the initial capital.
As part of the placements for aspiring entrepreneurs the institute should invite banks, venture capitalists and other institutions that would be ready to finance the budding entrepreneurs. Similar to placement interviews the students would be tested and gauged on their business acumen. Students would need to present their B plans to banks and venture capitals. This would be beneficial to both the students and financial institutions. Students get an opportunity to present their ideas and B plans to potential investors. Also the institutes brand value would help in lending more credibility to their ideas. For the financial institutions it gives a platform to meet the aspiring entrepreneurs and serve as a one stop shop to meet all those who are interested. This step also proves as a win-win situation for both students and potential investors.
The risks associated with the new venture are the major impeding factor for aspiring entrepreneurs. This when compared with the luring pay checks of corporate jobs, forces them to shelve their ideas in cold storage. The perceived risk is due to gaps in education curriculum, lack of opportunities to test their skills and difficulty in mobilizing the capital. The solutions suggested addresses the above mentioned gaps and would ensure no aspiring entrepreneurs would leave his/her B school without achieving the goal.
4 comments:
hi
your point of view regarding the north-east was a different take on the question about entrepreneurship...however, the concept of risk to investment comes in at this juncture....
this risk is not the same as direct financial risk or risk on return, but more to do with risk to assets; in a region torn by strife..how many companies would risk it? For a stat, the state of J&K has the largest unutilised small-to-medium hydroelectricity power generation potential today...but as we all know, the investment decisions are not going to be made anytime soon....
interesting thoughts to ponder about..
now as an entrepreneur myself i would like to emphasize on the importance of mgmt education in a startup but still wat I believe is that B skools specially in India even the IIMs lack the curricula to promte the sense of adventurism to venture int the path less traveled.rather it promotes ppl to take up jobs n manage thngs rather than owning and running thngs fr bringing upon change.
To my previous comment - the only thng i have t say ..yes you are correct to an extent that volatility of the place does hamper the growth but actually people shud also learn that all places are not the same where the same bizz model can b applied..n b skool guys shud come out f the case psyche to harsh realities of bizz...if bizz cud have been learnt by cases itself then Rockefeller wud hav graduated from SLOAN before Standard Oil. Tackeling problems to create opportunites is the essence of a succesful enterprise...
The post gives really good solutions to some of the basic problems plaguing aspiring entrepreneurs. It is, indeed, a shame that the revered B schools themselves are not able to impart knowledge about what, today, has been the more spoken but less taken, route of entrepreneurship.
One of the solutions prescribed, 'feel the concept rather than just learn', is something which is very basic and one that needs to be lived throughout. The post lays enough emphasis on why some basics should not be forgotten.
Asking banks and other institutions to 'lend' a helping hand is another noticeable solution. Banks could well be utilised to fund entrepreurial projects. Given the eagerness of the banks to build itself a socially-conscious image, this could very well be a win-win situation for both the aspiring entrepreneurs and the banks.
@ abhinav3815
Hi
The reason for bringing NE was to point out the availability of NGOs and plethora of opportunities to take up social entrepreneurship.
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