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.
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“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
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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.”
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