Prof. Raj Shree Dhar, Apoorva S.
I want to see the idea and the spirit of startups light up the economies and the fortunes of people in India-PM Narendra Modi.
The term “entrepreneur” is a French origin word which roughly translates to “undertaking new opportunities”. J.B. Say first used the word in 1824 to mean an individual who coalesces the diverse factors of production and distribution in an effort to generate new sources of wealth. Many prominent theorists tend to believe that entrepreneurship is a skill one is born with, and not trained in. Nonetheless, a novel way of education can be developed to offer a sustained approach toward fostering entrepreneurial skills through a synthesis of right behavior, attitude, and risk-taking abilities from the very juvenescence of an individual. Most entrepreneurial leaders may not have undergone formal education, but it will definitely bear fruit if entrepreneurship is compellingly taught in Indian schools and colleges.
Just as young adolescents in Indian schools are given a choice to take up a stream from among the sciences, arts, and commerce, business skills and entrepreneurship development can be integrated in school curriculum which when combined with practical knowledge garnered later in college can lead to the development of a culture that seeks to promote enterprise. Henry Ford once said, “A country’s competitiveness starts not on the factory floor, but in the classroom”. Thus, the significance of classroom education in shaping the destiny of budding entrepreneurs through effective mentoring cannot be overstated.
Even so, it is absolutely vital to note that such skills cannot be imparted through the traditional system of memorizing theories and regurgitating them in the examination hall. When it comes to entrepreneurial education, it becomes pertinent to transform the conventional classroom into an “operation theatre” setup that incorporates the nitty-gritties of real-life experiences. Even when entrepreneurship courses are taught in business schools, there is a general scepticism about whether such skills can be learnt in the form of academic teaching. This is because a typical business school curriculum generally revolves around the calculation of risks and returns aided by an understanding of previously well-known business models. Such a mode of teaching and learning will obviously not develop the necessary penchant for imagination and avantgarde thinking in students.
The philosophy of teaching entrepreneurship rests upon a delicate amalgamation of theory and practice. Although the intuition to gauge the success of a project can only be learnt though experience, one can at least become trained in appreciating the value of such experiences through untraditional classrooms. Such courses should be focused on rewiring students toward an action-based approach rather than getting frozen in what is called ‘analysis paralysis’. The current educational system is premised upon the need to only teach the merits of reducing considerable risk in any business model. However, the true power of education will be unleashed once it starts instilling in its students the ability to embrace risks without compromising on innovation.
Furthermore, most entrepreneurial ventures achieve great heights only when they realize the potential of collaboration. Education systems can inculcate in students the desire to realign themselves from individualism to co-creation. In an atmosphere of such great uncertainty, sharing fears and promises with each other goes a long way in developing a healthy entrepreneurial culture in the country. Entrepreneurs do not just upgrade the lives of communities, but also improve the economic health of a nation. They can be heralders of significant social change brought in through the boosting of a stagnant economy. Entrepreneurship education can engender in learners the values of creativity, self-reliance, and a tactful approach to taking up new initiatives. India is the youngest country in terms of the age of its workforce and the introduction of appropriate entrepreneurship education will not only promote and diversify job creation but also enhance its position in the scale of global competitiveness. The purpose of such an education system will be to encourage youngsters to accept innovation as a means for growth in all kinds of scenarios, be they profit-driven or not.
The growing entrepreneurial streak in a developing economy like ours can be satisfied through the teaching of entrepreneurial skills to students. The mainstream business education in India needs a compulsory initiation of entrepreneurship courses in the first few semesters of a course so that interested students can be guided right from the beginning of their programmes of study. Now is not the time to debate on whether the entrepreneurial spirit is inherent or imbibed. The right entrepreneurial mindset with requisite training can give wings to India’s dreams of becoming an Atmanirbhar Bharat. Now that entrepreneurship has increasingly started gaining ground as a legitimate tool for sustained economic growth, the effective assimilation of corporate entrepreneurship into the business curricula can aid in improving the education ecosystem of the country.
While extracting the support of other disciplines like marketing, finance, and strategy, the teaching of entrepreneurship adopts a two-pronged approach which rests on making the learners aware of entrepreneurship as a career option as well as guiding them on the path toward creating and sustaining new businesses. Entrepreneurship as a discipline is never isolated in terms of its teaching, rather it relies on multiple sectors for an adequate understanding of the same. From the very outset, such a cross-sectoral approach will ingrain in the students an appreciation of the eclectic nature of the subject and make business education a variegated mix of diverse disciplines.
Most business schools in today’s India offer entrepreneurship only as an extra/co-curricular subject in their business programmes. This encourages a mindset which negates the importance of the subject and the desire to pursue it as a career. Limitations in pedagogy and a myopic focus on immediate results are some of the impediments in realizing the true potential of entrepreneurship education in India. Even the top business schools in the country that have designated ‘entrepreneurship cells’ on their campuses do not satisfactorily fulfil the criteria of systematizing the educational framework for disseminating advance levels of entrepreneurship education. The need of the hour is to layer entrepreneurship as a foundation course in typical business programmes which will generate the push for learning indigenous practice-based knowledge. Such knowledge should be adapted as per the requirements of specific emerging economies like ours. Arrangements to set up entrepreneurship as a mandatory course in schools and colleges will lead to increase in the research and development of the subject which, in turn, will substantially expand the knowledge base as well as make the discipline theoretically more precise. Entrepreneurship education should not be viewed as a mere support to what is considered ‘core’ business education, but as a branch of knowledge which needs critical intervention at present to yield significant results.
In the fiercely competitive business world, a paltry stimulus to encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship at a micro level is not going to prove enough. The right perspectives coupled with the demonstration of cutting-edge ideas will remarkably increase the chances of Indian business students running successful entrepreneurial models. This article does not seek to invalidate the practicality involved in entrepreneurship; nevertheless, it is crucial to supplement experience with updated theoretical knowledge. An integrated learning platform needs to be available for the students who want to spend on the kind of education that synergizes entrepreneurship as a core subject with other ancillary management courses. To support such a framework, it is essential that entrepreneurial knowledge creation and updation gain momentum in the prevalent education ecosystem. Investing in constructive forms of entrepreneurial education will inevitably help lighten the burden of policymakers in the long run.
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