EDUCATION:THIS SUMMER I had the opportunity to attend the Harvard Business School (HBS) executive programme on Entrepreneurship Education (EECPCL). Designed for European lecturers in entrepreneurship, it focused on the rigorous Harvard case teaching method.
The programme is sponsored by Dutch millionaire industrialist Bert Twaalfhoven, who believes European third-level institutions do not produce enough high -growth oriented international entrepreneurs.
A Harvard MBA graduate, Twaalfhoven made his wealth in aluminium extrusions and formed 54 start-up companies in 11 countries in three continents. Apart from a weekend sailing round Cape Cod, the sprightly 79-year-old sat in on all the EECPCL classes.
Along with fellow Irish lecturer, Dr Michelle O'Dwyer from the University of Limerick, 65 Europeans attended, with six from Russia and five from India and Singapore. Over 250 have completed the programme, including 13 from Ireland.
The programme defines entrepreneurship as "the relentless pursuit of opportunities beyond the resources that you currently control". Indeed, the HBS faculty say that 50 per cent of their alumni are running their own businesses within 15 years of graduating. This allowed one professor to reflect that his personal network included 20 billionaires and his research led him to some simple but core observations about entrepreneurs. They seize opportunities as life presented them;tend to be very optimistic, living and enjoying the here and now; and avoid decisions they might later regret.
For programme leader Prof Howard Stevenson, entrepreneurship education is all about the student. It must develop business knowledge, practical skills and entrepreneurial attitudes. It should cover alternative industry sectors and enterprises to help students select the right ones for them in terms of their personalities. And while some people are more pre-disposed to enterprise than others, everyone is capable of becoming more entrepreneurial.
It wasn't necessary that every budding entrepreneur be a financial expert, so long as one knew how to access the expertise. In terms of entrepreneurial attitudes, three were core: the view that every situation can be improved but you must understand the problem you are attempting to fix; the confidence that you can make a difference through your own efforts, regardless of your position and resources and experts may be wrong.
The case method is HBS's chosen way of teaching. Borrowed from Harvard medical and law schools, each case presents a difficult issue facing a memorable entrepreneur. Students prepare the cases in small teams and then in class are led through the financials, personalities, people management issues and problems in an intense, highly-structured, interactive and rigorous way.
Active participation is demanded with 50 per cent of marks going for class performance; students are regularly 'cold-called' - they are expected to respond incisively to unpredicted questions on key aspects of the case. The logic is that life is a cold call. "When was the last time you went to a meeting and said: 'Sorry, I am not prepared'," said one of the professors.
Much emphasis is placed on integrating knowledge across subjects - even in the marketing cases, students must consider finance and strategy issues. The first case covers Bob Reiss, a veteran of the games industry, who made $2 million (€1.36 million) in 15 months without taking any risk. He convinced the US TV Guide in the 1980s to develop a Trivial Pursuit-type board game. The case showed the importance of knowing a sector, having the ability to get an idea past the "knock-down guy" to persuade the senior level decision-maker and the value of a network of contacts - in this case, a business angel and a distributor - to mitigate the risks.
Another told the story of Dr John Osher, a psychology graduate and restless serial inventor who had "a huge ability to observe". He regularly walked the aisles of Wal-Mart looking for opportunities. There he noticed the price chasm between the $3 manual tooth brush and Braun's $80 electric one. In 1999, he developed the $5 high-quality battery-operated SpinBrush. Test market results were impressive and in 2000 it sold 10 million units. In 2002, he sold the concept with three years future design to Proctor and Gamble. They liked the fact that they could co-brand it with their Crest toothpaste and paid Osher $165 million (€112 million) in cash plus an earn-out. Three months later Osher accepted $310 million (€211 million) to surrender the earn-out.
The Harvard faculty on the EECPCL strongly advocate the case method but would acknowledge that it's not the only way of teaching entrepreneurship. Academics like the UK's Prof Allan Gibb, believe that developing leadership, and attitudes of confidence and courage to act, require a whole raft of learning-by-doing situations such as student consulting projects, placements, role-playing, interviews, practiced selling, negotiation and small business simulations, to name but a few. And according to HBS's Prof Tom Piper, there is a global view that probably not enough is being done on the "doing and being" aspects of enterprise.
This is only one of the many debates in entrepreneurship education. There is also the belief that lecturers and entrepreneurs need to work more closely and entrepreneurs must be a constant presence at third-level so that students identify with them.
Specifically, European institutions need to produce more high-growth oriented entrepreneurs. Twaalfhoven calls these "gazelles", as they are the job creators and engines of economic growth; third-level institutes can help with spin-offs, develop networks, attract funding and build a critical mass of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Ironically, he says recessionary times, like the current one, can be some of the most favourable for enterprise, as large companies cut back on new developments, allowing scope for entrepreneurial initiative, while lump-sum redundancy receipts can provide potential seed capital. Or who knows, maybe a student walking down the aisles of their local supermarket may conceive the world's next million-euro business.
Catherine Cronin lectures on the BBS degree in Dún Laoghaire Institute of Technology, www.iadt.ie
EECPCL at Harvard has been sponsored for the last four years by Bert Twaalfhoven via the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research. From next summer, EFER will focus on a follow-on programme in Europe. See: www.efer.eu
