One of my NITIE professors, Prof. T Prasad has been working on promoting student enterprise in the country. Work done by Prof Prasad [1] [2] [video] is really commendable - especially given the lack of support such initiatives receive in this country, from student and faculty alike.
I and another alumnus, Rohit Tripathy, recently had an email discussion with him on the subject of Entrepreneurship education - here's what came out of it.
Apathy in B-schools towards Entrepreneurship
It is absolutely true that there are few jobs at this in time. Still, MBAs are waiting for recruiters to reject them rather than try their luck in their own ventures. Prof Prasad recently met 2 students from a B-school who won B-plan at another B-school with intent of commercializing innovations. However, when asked, students said that purpose of this b-plan participation was to win it; they were not concerned with entrepreneurship at all.
B-Plan Competitions and other "networking" events
B-plan competitions have become fancy "presentation skills" competitions and have no real value in terms of actual incubation of business. Rohit Tripathy, NITIE alumnus and an entrepreneur himself said - "Do winners in competitions end up becoming winners in same profession: Short Answer: NO.
"For example - Eurovision is one of the most prestigious song competitions in the world. Over its long history of over 50 years, only 1 band has made it a grand success. That was ABBA in 1974. Yet you will not believe the hype and publicity that goes around the winners in their respective nations, and the national jubilation which is probably next only to a World Cup Soccer final win. Every winner in Eurovision should have become superstar if the hype were to live to reality. "
In fact, associations and events who purport to be "entrepreneurship" organizations/events are nothing but socialising opportunities for VC's or corporate to mingle. They offer little to the industrious and budding entrepreneur as these congregations only discuss topics which are potentially useless for the real entrepreneur.
Do entrepreneurs need any 'education'?
Conversely, I realize that entrepreneurship requires skills which come in very cheap and are not exactly "business related". Business skills (imparted in MBA courses) are required in entrepreneurship way down the curve when your business idea/company has already survived a couple of winters.
Nice article... been guilty of the some of the sins above. :)
ReplyDeletei strongly believe that entrepreneurship comes from within and need fuel of inspiration and guidance ...
ReplyDeletesorry to say but TP's efforts lacked both! regarding b-school contest, the risk is zero and therefore students try to experiments. however, the same creativity is required today in the job to compete.