Entrepreneurship Education in B Schools

Dr. SK Prasad, MBA, Ph.D.

Professor
School of Management Studies,
REVA University
Entrepreneurship education is considered to be one of the most influential factors that is
capable of accelerating the growth in any economy. In India due to rapid growth of IT, ITES
and Services sectors in the recent past, we are witnessing tremendous growth of first
generation entrepreneurs in these domains. India is capable of transforming into an
entrepreneurial society from a knowledge society in the next five to ten years. This changing
scenario calls for a corresponding changes in curriculum design and delivery of
entrepreneurship courses.

At macro level the recent initiatives of the Central Government like announcing a
comprehensive Start-up policy and a number of incentives and concessions being rolled by
various state governments is contributing for the creation of a conducive eco-system for
fostering entrepreneurship initiatives by students graduating from engineering and
management education in institutions. It is imperative for the education institutions to gear up
preparations to make good use of the emerging opportunities.

A typical entrepreneurship education program could be framed with a three -fold objective-
 Train and Develop well rounded first generation entrepreneurs who can establish and
run their own businesses
 To groom the younger generation members of business families and prepare them to
take the reins of family business
 To prepare well trained management professionals and equip them to run the
businesses as managers

Curriculum Design : It is important to consider the following factors in designing the

curriculum for entrepreneurship courses.

Level of Programs: Management Education is imparted at Undergraduate and Post Graduate

levels and the courses at UG and PG Levels need be differentiated. At UG level courses need
to be simple and concept oriented with a focus on providing the learners a strong conceptual
foundation. At PG level the courses need to be more application oriented with a focus on
enabling the learners to be capable of making decisions, formulating strategies and capable of
starting up a business and run the same.

Electives: The electives need to orient learners on emerging business opportunities with a
strong sectoral orientation.

Global Orientation: The contemporary entrepreneurship is not confined to local markets and
will always carry a potential to grow beyond the borders of a country. This largely due to
growth of information technology and any business can reach any destination with seamless
ease.
Blended Learning: While designing curriculum it is necessary to ensure a judicious mix of
online and classroom learning. Entrepreneurship education shall liberate students from class
room learning and make them to learn through field experience for at least 50 percent of the
course contents.

MOOCs : In each course introduce Massive Open Online Courses to enable students to
experience international faculty and understand global trends in business and
entrepreneurship. The faculty members could identify and map MOOCs with the main
stream course and ask students to enrol and complete the certification course as a part of
internal assessment. This approach has multiple advantages like there is no need to monitor
and evaluate the student’s performance as the student will get certificate with a grade from
the MOOC platform. The student will have flexibility to complete the course in his own pace
and outside the class.

Career Paths:

After successful completion of entrepreneurship education programs the students will be have
multiple career paths:

Starting a New Venture : The Programs shall give complete knowledge and skill sets to
the learners that they can start their own business. Educational institutions need to create
necessary infrastructure for incubating new businesses on the campus by setting up
incubation centres. Students with viable entrepreneurial projects need to be connected with
venture capitalists and angel investors.
Joining Family Business: Family Business Management Programs support students who
come with business background with excellent professional knowledge and with a focus on
emerging business trends and markets to enable them to join family businesses with
refreshing ideas to take them to new trajectories
Taking up a Job as Small Business/ Start-up Professional: Those students who are
looking for jobs will find exciting job opportunities in Small Businesses and Start-ups with
decent salaries. In fact, start-ups are offering attractive salaries with stock options and
partnerships in their new ventures.
Typical Job Roles include:
 Executive Assistant to CEO
 Project Manager
 Finance Manager
 Marketing Development Executive
 Product and Brand Manager
 Business Consultant
 Business Analyst
Pre-requisites for successful entrepreneurial education:
1. Faculty Development: One of the first and foremost perquisite for successful
entrepreneurial education is well trained faculty members and also extensive
involvement of entrepreneurs in the teaching learning process. The Department of
Science and Technology (DST), Government of India funding educational institutions
for conducting Faculty Development Programs and Entrepreneurship Development
Institute of India( EDII) Ahemdabad, National Institute of MSME, Hyderabad,
National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business
Development(NIESBUD), Noida are some of the prominent institutions providing
Faculty Development support to educational institutions.
 2. Core Courses: Inclusion of Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Courses as
core courses in management programs would help in creating an awareness among
students about entrepreneurship.
a. Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation as a Specialization: In order to
strengthen the knowledge and skill base of students of management it is vital to
offer Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Specialization with relevant
electives like, Business Plan, Project Feasibility Analysis, New Venture
Marketing, New Venture Finance, Compliance Management Process in New
Ventures, Patents and IPRs
b. Family Business Management: Of late, a good number of students enrol into
management programs are from business families and are aspiring to join the
family business or start new outfits. In order to meet the learning needs of this
emerging group of students the B Schools need to start a separate stream of
electives which will equip them with necessary skills and knowledge to run their
family businesses successfully as successors.

3. Organization Setup for Entrepreneurship Development: The B Schools need to

create a dedicated organization set up for a sustained entrepreneurship development.
Entrepreneurship Development Cells need to be staffed with well qualified and
experienced faculty who can run various programs like Entrepreneurship Awareness
Programs, Entrepreneurship Development Programs, Faculty Development Programs
from time to time and network with various entrepreneurship development
institutions, funding agencies and research organizations. B Schools need to consider
this as a Full Time activity and provide necessary flexibility to ED Cell Coordinators
by allotting less number of teaching hours and with a freedom to attend
entrepreneurship conferences, seminars etc., in entrepreneurship development area to
keep abreast with the latest developments.
4. Stakeholders Networks: Create a platform to bring in key stakeholders in
entrepreneurship development process like venture capitalists, angel investors,
bankers, technology experts in thrust areas.
5. Entrepreneurship Clubs: Students need to be trained and empowered to take various
initiatives and their creative and innovative capabilities need to be tapped. This is
possible through Entrepreneurship Clubs driven by students.
6. Annual Competitions: Competitions always work as strong motivators and platforms
for path breaking innovations hence it is imperative to conduct Entrepreneurship Fests
to showcase various activities of the School and conduct Business Plan Contests, Talk
Shows by eminent entrepreneurs, exhibitions, seminars etc.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it may stated that, restructuring entrepreneurship education in management

education institutions is imperative and it is high time for B Schools to respond proactively to
the emerging opportunities in the form of a favourable start-up environment. This change will
also help in enabling B Schools to create job creators rather than job seekers.