Gulf entrepreneurs turn to business schools

According to dotcom pioneer, Johan Stael von Holstein, speaking at last November's World Entrepreneurship Forum, 'Every problem will eventually be solved by entrepreneur.'

Yet, here in the Gulf, according to the Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Young Business Leaders, less than 20% of new start-ups survive, suggesting that, as a region, we may be short of the vital entrepreneurship skills that may help to turn the downturn around.

Faced with this, a growing number of Gulf nationals are turning to the world's major business schools for help and to the often bewildering range of entrepreneurship courses they offer as part of their MBA programmes.

Strengthening management skills

'Business schools can play a strong role in strengthening management skills, for example,' says Simon Collinson, a professor at Warwick business school in the UK, which has a large number of students from the Gulf on its distance learning MBA.

'They can also develop an understanding of cross-cultural differences which is essential for any entrepreneur seeking to operate in a global marketplace.'

But can entrepreneurship itself really be taught in the classroom, or is it something that you are either born with or learn the hard way though years of apprenticeship in the workplace?

'It isn't possible to make an entrepreneur out of someone who simply doesn't have the drive and ability to create a new business,' says Professor Jordi Vinaixa at the international business school, ESADE.

'However, it is possible to provide those who do with the tools and guidance that will improve their chances of success. A business school can help someone to evaluate and test their ideas and can temper and direct their enthusiasm so that they plan properly both for opportunities and challenges. We can also help them to work out exactly what their strengths and weaknesses are.

'Too many potential entrepreneurs think that they can do the whole job - coming up with the idea, developing it, growing the business and turning it into a real wealth and employment generator. And this can often lead to failure. Better instead to understand the parts of the process that you are genuinely good at and then focus on them, whilst getting partners or employees to fill the gaps.'

Learning by example

At another school focused on the development of entrepreneurs, EM Lyon, the dean Patrice Houdayer believes that much of the work of shaping successful business leaders lies not in dry classroom lessons, but in the example of people who have already created viable companies.

'We've been running an incubator here for more than a quarter of a century which has helped to establish over 650 new businesses. What we aim to pass on is the real-life experience of the people who have gone through this process, not just by using them as case studies, but by giving students direct access to them for counselling and support.

'The way we see it you can't teach entrepreneurship unless you are involved in it yourselves on a day-to-day basis - it's not an academic course, it's a mind-set.'

And according to Houdayer, the business school experience isn't just valuable to the 'classic' entrepreneur building a business from the ground up, but also for those who want to make a real difference in larger companies.

'Organisations need to release the creativity and initiative locked up in their people if they don't just want to survive but actually thrive in this economic environment, yet too many still only pay lip service to harnessing these 'intrapreneurs''.


See also:
Professionals head back to school as downturn deepens
Creative entrepreneurs can survive the financial crisis