During one of my first entrepreneurial experiences - as part of the management team of an early stage software company - a group of us was sitting around late one night at the end of a challenging day. One of the guys observed that everyone in the room had left a much larger company to join our relatively small one for similar reasons - to escape the policy and procedures, the layers of management, and with a personal desire to have a bigger, direct impact on a business. And yet we had just spent the better part of a couple of days attempting to draw from those prior experiences in order to implement many of those same processes into our new business! We all realized that it had become necessary to bring some order to what had become a pretty chaotic situation.
I frequently encounter misperceptions, or myths as I call them, about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial environments. Among them that entrepreneurship is narrowly defined, that it's about only small companies, and that in education it is somehow a lesser business skill than the traditional disciplines of business - finance, accounting, management and strategy. I call one of these myths the "Big Bang Theory" - that it's all about finding the big idea and that the idea alone will create the success. That oversimplified perspective ignores the hard work and tenacity that are required for entrepreneurial success. I've also experienced a corollary to that view during a discussion with a Leeds MBA student. The student expressed his amazement at the creative entrepreneurial energy that he'd observed since joining our program at the Leeds Business School. But he was about to disqualify himself from pursuing an entrepreneurial career because he felt that he lacked "the big idea." These misperceptions can cast a negative view on the perceived value of an entrepreneurship education and how a curriculum that emphasizes entrepreneurship can have broadly applied value.
I recently had a conversation with a group of Leeds MBA students about these topics - about the fundamental importance, value and applicability of entrepreneurial skills. The process of building an entrepreneurial company --startup or emerging growth-- requires the application of all business skills in what I would describe as the most difficult management environment - one that is undercapitalized, rapidly changing, unpredictable and often seemingly chaotic. To succeed in such environments, entrepreneurial businesses must have the best talent - the best financial skills, the best marketing skills, and the best strategic selling skills. These companies can't afford to compromise because they have so little margin of error. The key is that the members of an entrepreneurial team not only have those specific skills but that they can apply them in such a challenging environment.
At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is still about basic business and management fundamentals - just applied in a demanding, challenging, innovative and highly rewarding environment. That's a great combination to strive for in any business career.
I frequently encounter misperceptions, or myths as I call them, about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial environments. Among them that entrepreneurship is narrowly defined, that it's about only small companies, and that in education it is somehow a lesser business skill than the traditional disciplines of business - finance, accounting, management and strategy. I call one of these myths the "Big Bang Theory" - that it's all about finding the big idea and that the idea alone will create the success. That oversimplified perspective ignores the hard work and tenacity that are required for entrepreneurial success. I've also experienced a corollary to that view during a discussion with a Leeds MBA student. The student expressed his amazement at the creative entrepreneurial energy that he'd observed since joining our program at the Leeds Business School. But he was about to disqualify himself from pursuing an entrepreneurial career because he felt that he lacked "the big idea." These misperceptions can cast a negative view on the perceived value of an entrepreneurship education and how a curriculum that emphasizes entrepreneurship can have broadly applied value.
I recently had a conversation with a group of Leeds MBA students about these topics - about the fundamental importance, value and applicability of entrepreneurial skills. The process of building an entrepreneurial company --startup or emerging growth-- requires the application of all business skills in what I would describe as the most difficult management environment - one that is undercapitalized, rapidly changing, unpredictable and often seemingly chaotic. To succeed in such environments, entrepreneurial businesses must have the best talent - the best financial skills, the best marketing skills, and the best strategic selling skills. These companies can't afford to compromise because they have so little margin of error. The key is that the members of an entrepreneurial team not only have those specific skills but that they can apply them in such a challenging environment.
At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is still about basic business and management fundamentals - just applied in a demanding, challenging, innovative and highly rewarding environment. That's a great combination to strive for in any business career.
