MBAS8 Entrapanures shools 15/4/08 12:14 Page 68
Editorial
MBA SPECIALIZATIONS
Entrepreneurship: A Case Study
Entrepreneurship is one of the more divisive specializations at business school. After all, some famous
entrepreneurs wouldn’t go within a country mile of an MBA course. The debate as to whether such
skills can be ‘taught’ rages on; however, it could be that detractors are missing the point. The top
five schools specializing in entrepreneurship (alphabetically: Babson, Harvard, IE Business School,
Stanford and Wharton) are not in the business of trying to sculpt something out of nothing.
They insist they can help budding entrepreneurs along the way to business success, and at least
provide skills that will help graduates in a corporate career. James Donald finds out exactly how.
ntrepreneurship is now the second relevant in developing their career, so they are
E
most popular MBA specialisation given $10,000USD to start up and build a busi-
after international management. ness. “This legitimises the work they are doing, and
Students learn how to set up busi- we give them as much support as possible, includ-
nesses from scratch and manage ing access to mentors, but we don’t take any equity
them through the first few make-or-break years. stake. Competition is very fierce,” says Cieri.
“Our entrepreneurship portfolio includes courses
focussed on every element of the entrepreneurial International Centre for
life cycle,” says Professor John Mullins, Associate Entrepreneurship
Professor at London Business School. “We cannot At IE they also help students set up their own busi-
- nor would we want to - turn just anyone into ness: “Each of the teams developing business plans
an entrepreneur. What we can do is to provide accomplish more with fewer resources. MBA in the Venture Lab compete through a
networks, tools, frameworks, and mindsets to graduates who think about strategic innovation and number of rounds of internal competition for a slot
help our graduates succeed along the always understand how to manage with constraints, how at the Venture Day. The finalists are given the
challenging entrepreneurial path.” to leverage their teams’ efforts, and how to mitigate opportunity to pitch their plans to a panel of
“We teach our students the critical skills to risks have a greater probability of receiving Venture capitalists and investors, with the winners
run their own businesses and arm them with a promotions to senior management.” receiving start up capital and investment,”
knowledge base to help them. However, I am a Olga Molina, part of the MBA recruitment says Michael Aldous, Associate Director of
firm believer that these are just strong business team at British American Tobacco Russia, agrees: International Communications. “Alongside this
skills and will be just as valuable to large “In many cases, you need people who are ready to there are other initiatives such as ICEVED, the
corporations,” says Emily Cieri, Director of the take bigger challenges and to work on start-up type International Centre for Entrepreneurship and
Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs (WEP) at the of project, like opening new markets and Venture Development, a group of 25 top Business
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. exploring new product niches. I believe that having Schools that offers a global link to business schools,
tasted the entrepreneurship spirit at the MBA entrepreneurs, investors, and information.”
More with fewer resources course this opens wider opportunities for its IE have calculated that around 25 per cent of their
Graduates will then be armed with the skills large students than it is traditionally thought.” graduates start their own business, or play some
corporations are on the look out for. Fred Students are obviously also encouraged to set part within a start-up venture during their career.
Wainwright, Executive Director of the Centre up and run their own businesses. Wharton runs Karl Purkarthofer, founder of BlynkOrganic,
of Private Equity and Entrepreneurship at several competitions, including one for those credits his MBA from IE in 2005 as invaluable:
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, says: students who don’t want to do a traditional intern- “The MBA certainly helped me to develop the
“Companies of all sizes are looking for ways to ship over the summer break as it would not be ideas I was forming with regard to setting up my
own business. People may think that it's not
"Companies of all sizes are looking for ways to
necessary for entrepreneurs, and to some extent
there really is no better way than to learn by your
accomplish more with fewer resources; MBA
own experience. However, the degree gave me
a framework for thinking through the planning
graduates who think about strategic innovation,
and development of the business plan. More
important, I met my business partners and many
understand how to manage with constraints
other marvellous people.”
and how to leverage their team's efforts."
* For full details on the January 2008 Global
Recruiters’ Top 100 Business Schools Survey -
see full details on
topmba.com/research.
80 TopMBA CAREER GUIDE
www.topmba.com
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