The stories that we read in the media about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship often highlight the exploits of young technologically savvy individuals who drop out of college to create billion dollar enterprises such as Microsoft, Google or Facebook. These stories create a picture about entrepreneurs as young, socially awkward rebels who write some breakthrough computer code which then becomes the foundation of a new company. Such stories make for interesting reading but they distort one’s impression of reality. The reality is that most people who start successful new businesses are in their late thirties or early forties, they have 5-10 years of experience in the industry in which they launch their venture and the more education they have, the higher their chance of success. This raises the question: why are experience and education good predictors of entrepreneurial success and how can one develop the knowledge and skills to launch a successful new enterprise?
Education Increases your odds of success
To be successful in launching a new enterprise one generally needs to be effective in three broad areas:
- Innovation and creativity
- General management
- Experience in the area in which the business is going to operate
Innovation and creativity enables you to come up with exciting new ideas to make your products or service more valuable and to think of innovative ways to market and sell your offering. General management knowledge and skills enable you to structure the enterprise, hire the right people and to motivate them effectively to deliver what is required. Knowledge and skills in the area in which the business is operating provides insight into how things get done in the industry and where the gaps exist.
If you wish to be successful in launching a new enterprise, it is worth considering how you can increase your capacity in all three of these areas to maximise your chances of success. Although there are many ways of developing know-ledge and skills in these areas, investing in an MBA can speed up your learning and develop competence in the three key areas. An MBA is an intensive one- or two-year learning experience that exposes an individual to multiple business related topics. By being exposed to different theories describing how business works and having to solve many different management problems within business case studies, your perspective can be radically expanded and enhanced.
MBA Structure
A typical MBA is a one-year full-time or two-year part-time endeavour. During that time you take a core set of subjects that cover all the functional areas of business from finance to marketing, operations to human resources. Coupled with the functional topic areas are more integrated subjects like leadership and strategy. Over and above the core subjects, you will get to select a set of elective subjects that will allow you to develop or enhance skills in areas that are critical to a specific area of interest. The final piece of an MBA puzzle is a research report – an independent piece of research exploring a business related question that gets conducted toward the end of the MBA process.
Get the edge with the GIBS Entrepreneurship MBA
The Gordon Institute of Business
Science (GIBS) has now developed an MBA specifically for entrepreneurs. By taking the typical MBA curriculum and adapting it to make it specifically relevant for someone wishing to start a business, GIBS has created a targeted programme that will enable individuals to quickly and effectively develop the acumen required for starting a business. The GIBS Entrepreneurship MBA offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to build a skills base that will radically increase their chances of success. The specific features of the GIBS Entrepreneurship MBA that make it relevant for current and future entrepreneurs include:
- Targeted case studies. The majority of the case studies that are included in the GIBS Entrepreneurship MBA curriculum focus on problems faced by people who are launching and growing a business.
- Entrepreneurial faculty. The faculty that will deliver the various components of the GIBS Entrepreneurship MBA have been carefully selected for their deep appreciation and insight into the entrepreneurial process.
- Integrated business plan development process. Throughout the GIBS Entrepreneurship MBA the participants will work on developing an integrated business plan for a business that they will be able to launch on completion of the course.
- Exposure to local and global entrepreneurs. Participants will get the opportunity to interact with and learn from many great entrepreneurs. They will visit entrepreneurial companies and have visits from entrepreneurs in the classroom.
- Energised and innovative students body. Participants on the programme will be carefully selected for their entrepreneurial potential. This will mean that as those on the programme work together, they will build strong and meaningful relationships with other like-minded people wanting to build revolutionary new ventures.
For more information on the GIBS
Entrepreneurship MBA please see: www.gibs.co.za/ftmba