The making of an entrepreneur
So you've got a great business idea. Should you hit the classroom or the streets?
Friday, October 28 2011 || Education || BY Matt Philp
Are they born or made? We’re not talking about criminals in this instance, but entrepreneurs.
The University of Auckland certainly holds to the view that it’s possible to teach people how to go boldly into the world and start businesses. Next year it will beef out its portfolio of entrepreneurship courses with a Bachelor of Commerce major and new graduate and Masters programmes. And Otago has been offering a Master of Entrepreneurship since 2004. But can you really learn through a university course the qualities traditionally seen as the mark of an entrepreneur — the relentless optimism, the sharp eye for an opportunity, the chutzpah and pluck?
Brendan Gray, director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Otago, says yes — or at least, he adds, you can learn how to “maximise the potential output from your entrepreneurial interest and drive”.
According to Gray, polling of New Zealand university students shows up to 40% claim to have some entrepreneurial interest. “But only a small proportion of those people follow through. The hope is that by providing educational and entrepreneurial opportunities you encourage more of them to become iable, innovative, value adding entrepreneurs.”
The Otago intake tends to be split between younger, recent undergrads and more mature students, many of whom already have their own business. All must have a business idea to be eligible.
“The course helps them to focus,” says Gray. “With the younger ones, even if they have a business degree this gives them a much more rounded and holistic training in how to spot entrepreneurial opportunities, how to develop ideas into innovative products and services, and it helps them to commercialise those ideas.”You can almost hear the tut-tutting among alumni of the ‘school of hard knocks’. Surely, they will say, it’s better to be out there getting your hands dirty than shining a seat in a lecture theatre?
Serial entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds, whose latest venture is children’s virtual world Minimonos, understands that scepticism but doesn’t share it. In fact she’s a firm believer that such courses can help short cut the typical ‘learn from your failures’ trajectory of entrepreneurial careers.
“What happens with a lot of entrepreneurs is that they spend the first few years in the wilderness, trying to learn a hell of a lot in a short space of time. When I started out I had a particular skill set and could sell my time, but learning how to build a business — learning how to build a team, to manage cashflow in the business and so on — that’s a very different thing.
Interesting article, but in reality many innovations are created by failure and become
huge driver for further innovation, do not believe that that text book learning is the 100 % best solution.
We do product design and development and often see original ideas fail only to be developed far better innovation resulting in far more innovation
The point im trying to make is the process is so important to go through its like falling off a bike and improving your skill to improve your ability to ride better.
Posted by max at 11:28 on October 30, 2011
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