Roberto’s Numero Uno Blog

[ Note: This blog entry is in response to the question: As a responsible member of the student community, what steps would you take to promote entrepreneurship among B-school students?  Suggest implementable solutions. ]

When one starts discussing entrepreneurship at business schools, the age-old question always seems to arise:

Are entrepreneurs born or made? 

It’s a good base question.  If entrepreneurs are born with a natural skill set, then business schools have a limited role to play.  However, if entrepreneurs are created over time, then business schools can indeed boost the ability of these entrepreneurs to succeed.

I think it’s both.  The entrepreneurs I’ve met seem to have an innate set of attributes, including: an uncanny talent to spot opportunities and see linkages, a high-tolerance for risk, and an unusually high confidence level.  These attributes can’t be taught in a classroom.  However, they also possessed other skills that could have been enhanced within an institutional set-up.  These include an ability to develop a business plan for sourcing financial capital, an understanding of technological life-cycles, and an ability to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a product or service.

If you agree that business schools have a role in creating entrepreneurs, then what can we – as students – change at our institutions so that more classmates follow the path of an entrepreneur?  After consulting with a group of classmates, I propose two broad areas to work on: creating practical learning experiences and adjusting the placement process.

Creating practical learning experiences (life during b-school)

During our time at business school, we often find ourselves burning the midnight oil as we analyze the strategies of large, multinational corporations.  Why aren’t we given the opportunity to test our abilities in starting-up small entreprises?  Here are three ideas for creating real-life learning experiences during our time at b-school: 

Start Small

Starting up a company is not just about developing a perfect business plan and building a multi-billion dollar business overnight.  Most entrepreneurs start small, very small.  Having institutional infrastructure such as micro-grants that encourage student-entrepreneurs to test their abilities at a start-up is a good first step.  Students who want to try their hand at a small venture could do it under the context of an independent study or contemporary concerns seminar.  Funding for the micro-grants can be sourced through alumni or technology-heavy companies.

Me too

Role models are important for young entrepreneurs.  As a student body, we should invite successful entrepreneurs to tell us their stories.  However, I’m not talking about bringing over Bill Gates to tell us about how he started-up Microsoft.  We should invite recent alumni that are currently living the entrepreneurial dream.  The idea is for us to create strong emotional connections with people we can relate to and who not long ago walked ‘in our shoes.’   Hey, if he can do it, then perhaps me too!

Engage the community

Most creative business ideas are not born inside business schools.  Engaging with the local community will allow students to understand practical problems faced by people engaged in real businesses today.  Students that work on small projects with local businesses will be indirectly strengthening the neighboring community.  More importantly, by solving small problems, the students may be able to spot bigger opportunities in those industries.

Adjusting the placement process (life after b-school)

Despite our work to make b-school more entrepreneur-friendly, if the placement process is not adjusted to encourage entrepreneurship, most people will continue to go down the corporate path.  Here are three key steps we can take to help our classmate entrepreneurs make the ‘big move’ at graduation:

Low risk, high reward

The main reason many MBAs don’t follow the entrepreneurial route is simple: High Risk, High Return.  Many say, “We’ll have to ask our friends and family to loan us all this money.  What if we fail?”  These are real and valid concerns.  But, what if our b-school could help us lower the (financial) risk of going out on our own?  A program to annually award venture capital or low-interest loans to promising entrepreneurs can be a good way to reduce the initial ‘big move’ risk.

Entrepreneurial prestige

The reality is that most MBA graduates take jobs in management consulting or investment banking.  This occurs mainly because most students measure success and especially prestige just by the amount of money they earn.  Being an entrepreneur will likely mean that one won’t earn much during the early stages of the venture.  Perhaps, b-schools can help counter-balance the prestige problem by create rewards for students that are brave enough to try-out entrepreneurship.  Public recognition may help student-entrepreneurs justify (to their parents and friends) for not taking the ‘traditional’ career path after graduation.

Future career lifeline

If you are taking the entrepreneurial plunge, it is good to know that if things don’t work out someone will throw you a lifeline.  As students, we could encourage our institutions to provide future placement support for alumni that took the entrepreneurial route and struckout.  The knowledge of a safety net may be the ‘little push’ we all need to dive towards success.

Entreprenuers also need luck

I’ve listed out six actionable steps that we can take as student leaders to encourage more of our classmates to become entrepreneurs.  During our time at business school, our programs should give us the opportunities to try out entrepreneurship and get excited about the prospects.  When we graduate, our schools should give us the support structure to remind us that while we are fighting the odds, they are always there behind us… believing in us.

Unfortunately, the one thing we can’t provide our classmates is a healthy portion of good timing and luck.