B-schools and entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is becoming a popular career choice these days among aspirants and in an endeavour to cater to this growing demand, many institutions are making ‘entrepreneurship education’ a part of their curriculum. ET HighFlier discusses the unique ways business schools are adopting to support students who have a penchant towards creating something new.

MENTORING ENTREPRENEURS:

Karam Lakshman, program manager - iAccelerator, IIMAhmedabad believes that entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation required to encourage entrepreneurial success and lay down the conditions and solutions to the challenges that one might foresee in a venture. “Business is the backbone of a country’s economy and entrepreneurship is a tremendous force that has a huge impact on facilitating growth, recovery and societal progress. It results in innovation, employment generation and social empowerment. In India, entrepreneurship education is gradually picking up. That said, it needs to scale up further to make everyone involved – promoter, investor, parents, employees, etc - more aware about the different aspects,” he expresses.

“The time is right for the educated managers to stop looking for jobs and start providing them to others. Forming the right team is one of the challenges that an entrepreneur faces and if a person is starting early while he/she is in college, they will find the right kind of people amongst their friends, who they can work with easily,” he asserts.

“Students work on their own business plan as part of a project. The students get an opportunity to do projects with the incubates. This helps them achieve a handson experience of working with a start-up .” Lakshman adds.

Lakshman further says, “We will soon be competing with the best in the world if you compare statistics on number of start-ups, funding, etc. Entrepreneurs who don’t know how to go about it, here’s a pearl of wisdom: An entrepreneurial journey is like travelling through a thin fog when there is no wind. Start walking and it will keep getting clearer ahead. If you try and wait to get a complete picture from the start itself , you will keep waiting. Just take the first step and keep walking.”

GROOMING ENTREPRENEURS:

According to Dr Harsh Mishra, associate professor, strategic management , Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, there is a need for B-schools to have entrepreneurship focused courses and programs. “Before even experiencing the status quo as an employee, formal education in entrepreneurship makes a case for early intervention by exposing students to successful stories, the underlying rationale or theory as well as the science and mechanism for tapping and developing their entrepreneurial instincts,” says Mishra.

Many organisations offers fullcredit courses in entrepreneurship and are also establishing a business incubator that could provide the opportunity to several new entrepreneurs to germinate their ideas into a business enterprise. According to Mishra, courses and programs on entrepreneurship are often interdisciplinary and an MBA program with entrepreneurial focus encourages students to crystallise, test, self-critique and gain confidence in their own ideas to move forward.

Many experts feel that B-schools must encourage entrepreneurship, but a student before opting for such courses, must analyse his/her own personal entrepreneurial capacity. Before starting up a venture, one must evaluate their entrepreneurial idea to meet the existing market need or a new emerging market demand, become aware of the legalities involved and various support systems in the eco-system for entrepreneurship and must not be obsessed with the desired financial outcome.

NURTURING ENTREPRENEURS:

Prof S Sadagopan, director, IIITBangalore feels that knowledge and wealth creation are equally important . He is of the belief that Bschools must encourage entrepreneurship , period. “We promote both, a formal as well as an informal program. Within 10 years of existence, we have incubated four successful companies. Currently, we are incubating five companies. The proof of the pudding is in eating; more than 20 of our alumni are pursuing new ventures currently,” he shares. Talking about the future of this rising trend of entrepreneurship education, Sadagopan says, “It is clear. Indian techies will increasingly look at e-option ! The eco-system is taking shape. My advice to entrepreneurs is to get into the ‘network’ and benefit from the huge advantage.”

Starting one’s own venture is never an easy task but a formal training could teach a person the nuances of the journey. That is why entrepreneurship education is gaining such momentum in recent times.

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