Business Schools Turn to Entrepreneurship

Business Schools, facing the dilemna of seeing their grads not get the kind of good jobs they were used to, are turning to entrepreneurship for help:

The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), a not-for-profit initiative that promotes the entrepreneurial culture among institutes, has been approached recently by many top B-schools. NEN is networked with at least 500 high-growth and high-potential start-ups throughout the country and is facilitating the interface between them and the institutes. It has so far enabled 73 students to get placed in start-ups over the last seven months.

Hopefully, the orientation of our B-schools will change from creating job seekers to creating job creators. Starting one’s own enterprise has been one of the least preferred options for students. The other day, B.S. Sahay, director of Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, told me how last year three of his students, who won the best business plan award in a national contest, were still reluctant to convert the plan into an enterprise because they had good job offers. However, Sahay convinced them to start the business instead of running after jobs. This year, such students won’t have the luxury of options.

B-schools, on their part, should also reinvent their academic processes. Curricula need to be revamped, with redundant courses being scrapped; instead, more time should be devoted in identifying growth areas, filling demand-supply gaps and generating good business plans. They should also introduce courses such as how to start a business, write a business plan and raise capital.

Some institutes such as the Birla Institute of Management Technology are trying to reinvent themselves by focusing on areas such as rural business, social entrepreneurship, microfinance, micro-entrepreneurship, green business and clean technology, etc. It’s time B-schools started incubators on campus and helped students get finance for their projects. As of now, not even 10 B-schools have functional incubators.

Only those B-schools that are proactive in reinventing themselves can meet the crisis head-on. Those who just wait for the economy to recover are likely to lose out.

Link: www.livemint.com/2009/01/25215307/Bschools-must-meet-crisis-hea.html?h=B