Entreneurship, Training and Linkages With Educational Institutions

Transcription

1 Entreneurship, Training and Linkages With Educational Institutions 2 nd Global Forum on Business Incubation, Hyderabad, India, November 2006 Richard White Manager Incubator Development

2 Natural Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs 1. Reasonable intelligence 2. Good health 3. An optimistic disposition 4. A lengthy attention span 5. Perseverance 6. A love of people Herb Kelleher, Chairman of Southwest Airlines

3 Entrepreneurial Skills That Can Be Learned 1. Good listening skills 2. Ability to play a passionate advocacy role 3. Broad knowledge and education 4. Sound judgement 5. Ability to separate important things from unimportant things 6. Ability to prioritise and focus on goals, and 7. Pleasant scepticism There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home Ken Olsen, Founder and CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977

4 Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made? Entrepreneurs can be both born and made The best entrepreneurs are likely to have natural attributes that they have been able to develop and refine through education and training But are education and training offerings doing the job? Not according to Northeastern University s School of Technological Entrepreneurship In a survey of 200 entrepreneurs, only one percent cited higher education as a significant motivator to starting their own venture The survey results indicated a failure of institutions of higher learning to adequately prepare students for careers in entrepreneurship, and the researchers see this as a major issue for academia today

5 The Spirit of Entrepreneurship is Alive and Well, But. According to the Kauffman Foundation, over the past fifteen years businesses less than 5 years old have accounted for about seventy percent of net job creation in the United States How much more of an impact could entrepreneurs be making if their innate attributes were matched by effective education and training? What is the role of government.and the private sector and of us, in optimising entrepreneurial potential? Nurture the entrepreneurs who will create enterprises, some of which may grow to generate employment and rapid economic growth

6 The Role of the Community 1. To build an environment of entrepreneurial awareness, in which ever increasing numbers of budding entrepreneurs emerge 2. To implement systems for talent identification, like our professional sporting codes, so that we can work with the best entrepreneurial potential 3. To train and educate them in the learnable skills of entrepreneurship to match them with emerging technologies and innovations that have commercialisable potential (if they haven t already generated their own) 4. To put them into an environment conducive to flourishing ventures (such as business incubators)

7 The Role of Business Incubators Identify key faculties and nurture personal relationships with key staff in those faculties and technology transfer or commercialisation offices Look for opportunities to incorporate incubator based practical components into the content of management and entrepreneurship courses Implement and promote internship programs and project opportunities for entrepreneurship students Identify the best talent and build a pool of emerging entrepreneurs

8 The Role of Business Incubators (cont.) Search for opportunities that need a good entrepreneur to help commercialise these may be sourced through your institutional relationships (e.g spin outs) but may equally come from the wider community (remember Hewlett Packard was born in a Palo Alto garage) Match opportunities to your database of emerging entrepreneurs Introduce entrepreneur profiling into your incubator selection process Source and introduce appropriate education and training opportunities for your pool of entrepreneurs

9 The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow. Rupert Murdoch

10 Entreneurship, Training and Linkages With Educational Institutions 2 nd Global Forum on Business Incubation, Hyderabad, India, November 2006 Richard White Manager Incubator Development