Killing Entrepreneurs
 |
Paul is the author of Great Applications for Business School. Click here to learn more about Paul S. Bodine products and services. |
Anil Bhoyrul, editorial director of Arabian Business, takes a swipe at business schools in the latest issue of AB:
“Can you be taught to become a great businessman? I ask this question because of the flood of emails I have received recently from the string of new business schools setting up in Dubai lately. For a hefty price, they promise to turn you into the next Richard Branson or Bernie Ecclestone. Everything you ever wanted to know about a P&L sheet can be quickly learned. If you believe all the promotional material, you could probably turn a $2m company into a $200m operation within a few years. Of course we all know this almost never happens. And when it does, it usually isn’t the clever Harvard boys with their fancy MBAs that did the trick — it is the old-school entrepreneurs.”
After elaborating the example of an unschooled entrepreneur—Raju Shroff, founder of the Regal Group of Dubai—Bhoyrul concludes: “The reality of all this is that nobody can teach anybody to be an entrepreneur. Not even the best MBA (and there some good ones out there) can teach you to get of bed, take a risk, and make a difference.”
True enough, but are there any well-respected business schools in Dubai actually claiming to teach their MBAs how to be “the next Richard Branson”? And how many business school wannabes really want to use the MBA to start companies anymore? The percentage of MBAs pursuing new ventureship immediately after graduating is rather small, even at entrepreneurial powerhouses like Stanford (16% of Class of 2011 MBAs), MIT Sloan (8%), and Harvard (7%). Methinks Bhoyrul doth protest too much.
Source: “Google has killed a generation of entrepreneurs,” Arabian Business, by Anil Bhoyrul, April 3, 2012.
This article was originally published on Paul Bodine’s blog. Paul is a graduate admissions consultant with over 13 years of experience, having helped hundreds of applicants get into their dream business, law, medical, and graduate schools. He has also published several books on graduate admissions.
