Entrepreneurship: inspiring

ambitions

Entrepreneurs need to have plenty of self-confidence and be passionate about their projects – not

just when starting up their own businesses but also when innovating within large corporations.

Visit INSEAD Knowledge

http://knowledge.insead.edu

01

Copyright © INSEAD 2022. All rights reserved. This article first appeared on INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu).

“The biggest difference I see between managers

and entrepreneurs is that managers analyse a lot

and entrepreneurs act a lot,” says INSEAD Associate

Professor of Entrepreneurship Filipe Santos, who is

also Director of the Rudolf and Valeria Maag

International Centre for Entrepreneurship (Maag

ICE). For instance, whereas management executives

spend a lot of time analysing data and research

before crafting a decision, “entrepreneurship is the

opposite. You need to have the confidence to act

and then learn from the outcomes.”

Just ask entrepreneurs such as Tom Adams and

Peter Sage (see related articles). “It’s not about the

money,” says Adams, CEO of Rosetta Stone Inc., a

language learning solutions provider. “Most people

who succeed at being entrepreneurs are doing it for

other reasons.” Peter Sage, who’s been at the helm

of multiple ventures including mail order, land

development and health clubs, says, “The most

important environment for an entrepreneur is the

internal environment. What is your passion? What is

your ability to handle uncertainty? What is your

drive?” His latest venture Space Energy aims to

deliver solar power collected in space using

satellite.

INSEAD’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp tries to instill

the confidence that entrepreneurs will need if

they’re to be successful in pitching their business

ideas to potential investors.

It’s a 48-hour immersion programme in which the

participants – INSEAD alumni and MBA students –

are put through the rigours of conceiving,

developing and presenting an executable new

business venture. They arrive at off-campus

locations near the school’s Europe and Asia

campuses in Fontainebleau and Singapore on a

Friday night. Instructors lead students through a

series of workshops designed to help them identify

ideas, to recruit dynamic teams and then formulate

strategies. The final test: a two-minute pitch to a

panel of angel investors on Sunday afternoon.

The Bootcamp “really challenges people to think

about themselves more than anything,” says Santos.

“Am I an entrepreneur? Do I like entrepreneurial

contexts? Do I have it in me? And can I build the

capabilities to deliver?”

Getting started

Recent studies show that, apart from having the

confidence to take calculated risks, aspiring

entrepreneurs often find it difficult to pin down the

necessary funding. That said, Santos believes you

should “never start with raising funds.” He adds: “It

has to be about solving a problem, assembling a

passionate group of people and coming up with a

venture design that you can take to market quickly.”

His sentiments are shared by Paul Kewene-Hite,

recently appointed Adjunct Professor of

Entrepreneurship and Director of the

Entrepreneurship Accelerator at INSEAD. “I

emphasise the team as being the most important,

that execution is the next most important, and then

the idea,” says Kewene-Hite, who developed and

leads the Bootcamp workshops. With two decades of

experience with start-ups and building and

managing technology companies, Kewene-Hite

doesn’t limit entrepreneurship to setting up new

businesses. “We need more corporate

entrepreneurs and more entrepreneurs in big

companies,“ he explains. Consequently, the school

has just launched a Corporate Entrepreneurship

Initiative to build capabilities and develop new

programmes that can help established companies

become more effective at launching new

businesses.

A former technology evangelist at Apple, Kewene-

Hite adds: “You can be entrepreneurial inside a

machine if you are thinking laterally, if you are

thinking about how to materially improve and

innovate. If you are proactive, if you are dynamic,

refining the questions to get better answers, you are

an entrepreneur.”

Having an entrepreneur as a role model can help,

whether it’s a parent, family member or friend, says

Visit INSEAD Knowledge

http://knowledge.insead.edu

02

Copyright © INSEAD 2022. All rights reserved. This article first appeared on INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu).

Santos, as it can encourage would-be entrepreneurs

to look beyond traditional careers and jobs.

Downturns can also mean resources are available at

a lower cost, whether in terms of office space or

talent.

But ultimately, to succeed, it will be your innate

abilities to discover something you are passionate

about, to be able to assess trends, find new

opportunities or problems that can be solved

differently, and to persevere despite setbacks.

It’s not so much a question of finding the biggest

opportunity, says Santos, but rather one which fits

with your personal goals and beliefs. “It’s wrong to

say that the internet is great so let’s all do

internet(-related projects). That is a recipe for

disaster.” Effective entrepreneurs tend to be

contrarians, he adds. They see emerging trends and

connect the dots before other people. By the time

everyone is doing something, then it is already too

late for the entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship at INSEAD

In July, the school received a five million euro

endowment from alumnus Rudolf Maag (MBA ‘73) to

fund the continued growth of the Maag Centre for

Entrepreneurship, which was set up in 2003. The

Centre runs an Entrepreneurship Accelerator, a

series of events designed for MBA students seeking

a more focused entrepreneurial education and

experience at INSEAD.

The highlight of the Accelerator is the two-day

Bootcamp. “If anything should validate why

(students) need the strategy class and the marketing

class and the ethics class and all the different

courses that are offered, this experience should

really emphasise that,” says Kewene-Hite on how

the Bootcamp can complement the MBA curriculum.

“(They) should really develop them as practical

tools that you can use as entrepreneurs.” Kewene-

Hite heads a group of 30 Entrepreneurs in

Residence who mentor MBA students interested in

entrepreneurial projects.

In addition to the Bootcamp, the school also offers a

New Ventures elective for MBA students who are

interested in becoming entrepreneurs. “The

Bootcamp opens the door and the New Ventures

course allows them to fill the holes and understand

the different elements of entrepreneurship,”

explains Santos.

The Maag Center offers access to external projects,

entrepreneurial sales training, pitch mentoring and

a Global Entrepreneurship Forum which brings

together alumni and MBA students. The Accelerator

complements the MBA entrepreneurship

curriculum, which offers 20 electives, an

Entrepreneurship day and a Business Venture

Competition. Maag has also launched a Global

Angel Investing Network (GAIN) to connect INSEAD

angel investors and entrepreneurs, relying on the

strength of 40,000 alumni worldwide.

This month, the Maag Centre has launched a new

programme – The Social Entrepreneurship Catalyst -

to promote social entrepreneurship and impact

investing for the INSEAD MBAs and alumni. “An

interesting trend in entrepreneurship is the

formidable growth and interest in entrepreneurial

efforts that are not focused on capturing value,” says

Santos, “but on creating value for society by solving

important problems that markets and governments

have failed to tackle.”

“In essence entrepreneurship is an approach to

create value by solving neglected problems through

new business initiatives. These initiatives could

happen as new commercial ventures, social

ventures, corporate ventures, even government-led

ventures. The essence of entrepreneurship is

solving problems in innovative, practical and

sustainable ways. Our society needs more

entrepreneurship.”

Find article at

https://knowledge.insead.edu/entrepreneurship-

innovation/entrepreneurship-inspiring-ambitions-661

Download the Knowledge app for free

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Visit INSEAD Knowledge

http://knowledge.insead.edu

03

Copyright © INSEAD 2022. All rights reserved. This article first appeared on INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu).