My column in the April issue of Entrepreneur magazine:
Do Entrepreneurs need an MBA at all?
Often, I run into a spat with the MBA gang about my views on why an MBA is just the worst thing you can do to yourself if you are trying to become an entrepreneur.
On the other hand, I revere engineers and personally regret not being one. I think being an engineer would have really benefited me in my entrepreneurial journey.
So, what is the role that Education plays in Entrepreneurship? These are my views on the ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘what’ and ‘why’ of education:
Learning ‘How’
How do things work? How is a factory layout planned? How are workflow and logistics organized? I guess no one can ever argue that knowing ‘how’ helps.
Take for example the subject of accounting. I believe that you have to learn accounting in a class. It’s very difficult to ‘self-learn’ how to extract a trial balance and then bifurcate that into a profit & loss statement and balance sheet.
During my I.C.S.E exams, I blundered in Accounting. That silly mistake in the ‘bank reconciliation’ sum (a method in which you reconcile bank and cash books), cost me an additional 3% in my overall results. I scored 87.2% instead of crossing into the 90% range.
I was so embittered by that mistake, that I never forgot Accounting. And I am talking about 1985 and 10th standard level accounting. Even today, I routinely teach a thing or two to chartered accountant CFOs.
Lesson –Learning ‘how’ is critical for entrepreneurs so that they can apply it as and when they have to, in their entrepreneurial journey.
Learning ‘When’
I love public speaking. The bigger the audience, the larger the venue and the more controversial the topic, the more it excites me! How and where did I acquire this strange fetish? From the elocution and public speaking classes in school! The late Pearl Padamsee personally taught me. She was probably the finest teacher one could hope for and she left a very formidable impression on my young mind.
When I was in the 8th standard, I remember reciting Martin Lurther’s “I have a Dream” in school and inter-school competitions. If you are not familiar with it, please google and read. It’s one of the most inspiring and ‘goose bumpy’ speeches you can ever read.
Modulating “I have a Dream” correctly (in the 80s when there was no youtube!) taught me the secret of ‘when’. ‘When’ was I supposed to raise my voice, ‘when’ was I supposed to gesticulate and ‘when’ was I supposed to almost explode with passion was the secret of delivering this epic speech. I learnt in earnest and won most of the competitions I participated in.
Lesson – Reflect back on education and seek out the ‘when moment’. Something will teach you timing and that’s a prerequisite for entrepreneurship. For me it was a speech; for you, it could be something else!
Learning ‘What’
In 1989, I was studying B.Com at Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. In India, B.Com is widely considered to be a ‘useless’ degree.
The B.Com Economics course extensively teaches Economics. Apart from the intricacies of Demand, Supply, Monopoly and Duopoly, students also get a chance to learn about the philosophies of the great economists like Schumpeter, Adam Smith, Keynes, etc.
The economist who always intrigued me (and still does) was Karl Marx. I could not fathom Marxism and what it really implied. Marx’s diktat of “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” as well as his theory of how the ‘proletariat’ (labour workers) would eventually overthrow the ‘bourgeois’ (rich capitalists), actually annoyed me.
I could not understand ‘what’ Marx was implying or how realistic it was.
In November 1989 (my final year of graduation), I finally learnt the ‘what’ I was seeking. The Berlin Wall that divided East and West Germany came tumbling down. And with it came down everything that communism and perverted socialism stood for. The Marxist notion that the capitalists would be thrown away and a second ‘French Revolution’ would come true was rubbished. The fall of the Berlin Wall proved the reverse.
This live event taught me a lot about ‘what’. While theory is very important, great entrepreneurs should observe ‘what’ they have learnt and ‘how’ it’s being practiced and implemented.
Learning ‘Why’
This is my big debate against formal education. I believe that ‘why’ is zen-like and can rarely be learnt or ‘classified’ (pun intended).
Take for example the MBA method of teaching via case studies. Sure, there are some amazing companies that can be put into nice binders to be read, discussed and debated. But what is the permanence of their success?
If there was a case study of Apple’s success in the early 80s, would it be relevant to business school students to study in the 90s (when Apple went through its decline)? And if by that logic, there was no case study on Apple in the 90s because it was not doing well, would students be underprivileged not to read about it in the early 2000s when Apple resurged and peaked in performance?
The ‘why’ in business education is tricky because it presupposes many things that will change. There is no ‘why’, because consumers and their choices are very unpredictable.
Zynga is a great case study as a gaming company, but in just a few months it’s gone from hero to zero. The same can be said for most of the ‘social’ game companies that were heroes just a few months back.
I believe that entrepreneurs should learn the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘when’ while they are studying and apply that to ‘why’.
No one taught me ‘why’ companies used contesting postcards for consumers to submit contest entries for many years. I asked that ‘why’ myself and created a business called contests2win.com. Yeah, just by asking ‘why, why, why’!!!
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2nd April 2013:
Irony of Ironies! The famous Vivek Wadhwa wrote this article in the Wall Street Journal today!!!
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Read ALL my other articles published in Entrepreneur mag HERE.
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