To become a successful entrepreneur, there is need for positive attitude and support structure, says DR NARENDRA SHYAMSUKHA
One of the common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs is that they launched their ventures while they were young. According to a survey done by Ernst and Young with nearly 700 entrepreneurs, more than half of them launched their companies while they were in their 20s.
The survey also found that they did not jump-start their ventures straight after finishing higher education. They had to gain experience before they could launch their venture. However, nearly a third of the people who participated in the survey said that higher education provided them with the grounding they needed for their business practice. Having an entrepreneurial component in higher education will aid in the creation of more entrepreneurs and ventures, in turn creating job opportunities.
To become a successful entrepreneur, a positive attitude and a support structure are a must. This will foster positive opportunism and greater acceptance of failure. Universities can give students useful and systematic knowledge on all aspects of running a business, and equip them with the necessary tools to prepare them for eventualities.
It goes without saying that campus life will give them plenty of opportunities to test their business ideas and get feedback on their work. They also get to analyse variables of trade in a systematic way, formulate and test hypotheses, and think about abstract concepts. If they can learn to solve problems and take creative decisions based on reliable data, they will learn how to run a business that operates with a high degree of accountability. This will teach them how to successfully manage commercial concerns in the long run.
College students are in an important transitional phase in their life. As they start to explore personal independence, their identities start to solidify. If they receive the right stimulation, it allows them to develop a higher degree of self-control and work on their vision.
Universities must include courses and facilities that teach students critical thinking and risk taking. This will help them form an identity as an entrepreneur. Observational and experiential learning must be given equal importance. In other words, the course must focus o both theory and practice.
The universities must provide facilitators who are capable of delivering content to students. This includes academics and successful entrepreneurs. The delivery methods must also be diverse to cater to the widest possible cross-section of students as possible.
Internet media, incubation support, simulations, help developing a business plan, internship opportunities, case studies, one-on-one interactions, study visits, project work, mentoring, and competition among others will help support a successful implementation of an entrepreneurship education curriculum.
Students need requisite knowledge and skill set to conduct their study with a focus on selection and recruitment. This must be accompanied with a supporting environment and motivating incentives like grants along with a grading system that allows them to conduct study in an effective way. Lecturers can aid them with progress reviews, using right teaching methods and implementing a reward system to acknowledge their participation.
For entrepreneurship education in higher education to be a success, graduates must possess certain core competencies. They need to be able to identify and evaluate business opportunities, identify and solve problems, make the right decisions at the right time, network, communicate effectively, and display out of the box thinking.
If they can tick all the above boxes, then they have demonstrated that they have the core competencies needed to kick-start their own venture. Graduates must also be capable of developing a business plan that can sustain after launch.
Apropos sustainability, the venture must be able to provide employment, make enough profits to fuel expansion, innovate consistently and effectively, develop a strong public image, and satisfy all stakeholders.
If such a structured framework can be executed successfully, we will be able to integrate it with the existing curriculum and scale it up on a national level.
The writer is founder-chairman, ICA Edu Skills
