Editorial
entrepreneurship
I also know a lot of people who are in the angel somebody who says, “Well you didn’t give me
capital community doing individual investing, and an answer!” A lot of management
people from the formal venture capital community. education doesn’t give answers; it
So when you can combine the role of information gives alternative considerations.
transfer, which is a primary role that you expect a You leave the answer to the
teacher to perform, and at the same time if you person who has the alternative
have a role you’re willing to use on behalf of other stacked up in his/her
people that you think are deserving, then you can encyclopaedic brain.
do an effective job of mentoring. When somebody “What do I know about
comes away from the education experience feeling how different people
considerably better about where they are or what have tackled this kind
they learned, then you gradually start to be able to of situation? I should
build further, you become better at it the next year. sort through what I
We have such good students at MIT; it’s a pleasure see as alternatives
to work with them. and now it’s my
calculus as to what
Can Innovation and Entrepreneurship I think is going to
be taught? work best.”
That’s an excellent question. My answer is that
some aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation Do all MBA
can be taught. Consider [baseball legend] Babe graduates in I&E
Ruth. Even he had a batting coach! His coach become innovators
didn’t break league records but was a skilled and entrepreneurs?
observer and could comment, suggesting “raise A small number will be
your elbow,” or “you need a different weighted ready and able to start a
bat,” or “strengthen your wrists”. One thing about company upon leaving, we
entrepreneurship is that there are many think a bigger number need to
opportunities for that form of experience or get a real job, in a high-tech
observation-based coaching and helping in all company, towards sales or business
aspects of entrepreneurship. development and build on that maybe
Second, there are a series of skills that five years from now; you’re going to see
entrepreneurs need to employ, which are an opportunity and start a company on
teachable. Launching a business involves your own. Some business students are
considerations of finance, market, organization, uncomfortable and want to get rid of debt
strategy, technology, and intellectual property. To with a high salaried job. The burden of debt is
launch and build a company there are certain set driving them to working for strategy consulting
principles, theories, and practices, skills that are firms on Wall Street where they get big salaries
well known, well understood and transferable, so and where the transferability of what they learn work experience having come out of undergraduate
you can focus on what are the known and towards entrepreneurship is less than a lower paid school. The first job that one gets is an engineering
job in a young start job (with an engineering background) doing
up. We say OK some design or whatever. It may be dull and
“Most people who qualify for the MBA program haven’t
of you are going to do uninteresting, it’s not very enlarging, not going to
that too, maybe a have much managerial organization, experience
had the chance to do very much that is really
decade from now or exposure. So most people who qualify for the
entrepreneurial, in the sense of starting a company. They
you’ll be ready to start MBA program haven’t had the chance to do very
something. We are much that is really entrepreneurial, in the sense of
may have done entrepreneurial things at college. They
trying hard to only go starting a company. They may have done
may have done community work, started from scratch,
after those who really entrepreneurial things at college. They may have
want to move towards done community work, started from scratch, built
built a new group, served some charity”
entrepreneurial a new group, served some charity, all of which are
careers, this track is a important. Better than just starting their own
very heavy workload company on their own hook. We do have a number
transferable skills in each of those areas. track, with very heavy requirements. of those, in the first class, I categorized half of the
The third thing you can teach is prior 50 as having some form of these entrepreneurial
experience. Is doesn’t mean you are lecturing that Do you think people who have an prior experiences. Two thirds of them had done
“this is great and this is bad,” you are exposing entrepreneurial background are the people little kinds of real companies ie started a software
alternative models and the outcomes of them. In you find do best, or people who have come company. The other third may have done a club.
entrepreneurship, calling out how different from other backgrounds? Those who have done some kind of self-initated
companies have approached different issues you’re When you talk about entrepreneurial background, entrepreneurial activity do have a better
doing some mind expanding. remember we’re talking about quite young people, understanding of what is expected of them.
Those classes may be less satisfying to around 27 years old. They’ve had four to five years

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