Ross Geraghty talks to Prof Ed Roberts of MIT Sloan about Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Business Schools...and Babe Ruth.
It�s one of the more controversial aspects of business school, leading some commentators to suggest that it�s an oxymoron. Can a top business school really teach entrepreneurship? Isn�t innovation something that you either have or don�t? If you do possess an entrepreneurial spirit, isn�t it better to spend the next 12-24 months developing your skills in the real world than sitting in lecture rooms listening to people who, were they able to do it themselves, surely would be?
According to one of the world�s leading academics in the field of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) and the man who set up the E&I Centre at MIT�s Sloan School of Business, there is a definite role for business school in developing the skillsets of entrepreneurs and innovators. Not only that, Professor Ed Roberts says, being an academic does not mean that you don�t get your hands dirty in the �real� business world. Far from it.
�I have been involved in nine or ten companies including a venture capital firm, and been a founder role in a lot of those firms,� he says. In a career spanning almost five decades Prof. Roberts has also been a board member of almost 20 companies, both public and private, and has worked with entrepreneurial spirits on several occasions. All the time he has stayed close to the academic side of his work.
�I worked with start-ups where there was one entrepreneur and nobody else, to boards of companies that have several thousand employees trading on NASDAC. In addition I am a real academic, so I read the research done by colleagues all over the world, I look at the theory and the empirical evidence that people are pulling together. I can combine the theory and empirical research with the practise and deliver that to students.�
Prof. Roberts knows what he is talking about. With almost half a century of academic expertise behind him � Prof. Roberts began at MIT Sloan in 1961 - he has seen generations of business aspirants come and go through the system at this esteemed business school. In addition he is the most recent winner of the Monosson Prize for Entrepreneurship Mentoring, a prize he respects and holds dear.
�As part of MIT for almost 50 years, I personally have become very actively involved in a lot of different things, building programs, educational research, personally engaging in entrepreneurial activities outside of MIT, and so on. As an internal counsellor, mentor and coach I�ve done a lot of work with student teams and groups. Essentially it�s the cumulative of that for which I was recognized of being awarded the prize.�
Despite the immense range of activities he has undertaken, it is the mentoring that gives Prof. Roberts the most satisfaction. �The most enjoyable part is working with young nascent teams, helping them, guiding them, criticizing to do their own thing and it has been very rewarding. We have had and continue to have some amazing students at MIT.�
As for the million dollar question: Can Entrepreneurship be taught? Prof. Roberts laughs as he considers this perennial conundrum: �That�s an excellent question. My answer is that some aspects can be taught. Consider Babe Ruth (the American baseball legend). Even he had a batting coach. His coach didn�t break the league records in home runs but he was a skilled and trained observer and could comment, suggesting �raise your elbow,� or �you need a different weighted bat,� or �strengthen your wrists�. One thing about entrepreneurship is that there are many opportunities for that form of experience or observation-based coaching and helping in all aspects of entrepreneurship.
�There are a series of skills that entrepreneurs do need, which are teachable. Launching a business involves considerations of finance, market, organization, strategy, technology, and intellectual property. The third thing you can teach is prior experience. Is doesn�t mean you are lecturing that �this is great and this is bad,� but you are exposing alternative models and the outcomes of them. In entrepreneurship, by being able to call out how different companies have approached different types of issues where there may not be a clear answer as to what�s best, you�re doing some mind expanding. That can be done as a part of teaching entrepreneurship.�
To read more about Prof. Roberts insights on Entrepreneurship and Innovation, register for the Fall 2008 QS World MBA Tour and be one of the first 100 through the door in your city to pick up a copy of the TopMBA Career Guide. Alternative you can subscribe to the new TopMBA Career Guide ezine on www.topmba.com.
_________________________________________________________________________
QS TopMBA Scorecard � scorecard.topmba.com - is the world�s only online search tool allowing MBA candidates to personalize a business school search according to their own criteria. With 15 search criteria including School Specializations, Return on Investment and searches by Strength of Faculty, candidates can narrow down from a list of the world�s top 350 business schools to a manageable shortlist which they can then contact using Scorecard. Ricky Couprie, Product Manager of QS TopMBA Scorecard, says: �It is testament to the progress that Scorecard is making in the MBA world to have Professor Roberts, an exceptional and renowned mentor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, agree to participate in a Scorecard Expert Chat. He is extremely experienced, informative and genuinely devoted to the welfare of business students worldwide.� |
Professor Roberts has agreed to answer MBA candidates� questions on TopMBA Scorecard next month. His expert chat will take place on July 22nd 2008 (1300GMT). Candidates can post questions for Prof. Roberts to answer from July 14th. Questions can cover a range of topics from Entrepreneurship and Innovation to theoretical questions about study methods at the world�s top business schools. To participate in the Scorecard expert chat, candidates must register at www.topmba.com/scorecard. Registration is free.
The Scorecard Online Expert Forums provide a free and unrivalled chance for international MBA candidates to pose questions to the world�s leading business school experts. After registering for free at www.topmba.com/scorecard, candidates post questions from July 14th. They then return to the site at the allotted time, where Prof Roberts will attempt to answer their questions in a live online format. These can be from questions about Entrepreneurship and Innovation to theoretical questions about study methods at one of the world�s top business schools.
Details
School: MIT Sloan School of Business
Expert: Professor Ed Roberts, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Date: 22nd July. 0800EST, 1300GMT, 2030 Delhi, 2000 Beijing.
Topic: �Can entrepreneurship and innovation be taught?�
Candidate�s questions can be posted on scorecard.topmba.com from July 14th.
Ross Geraghty talks to Prof Ed Roberts of MIT Sloan about Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Business Schools...and Babe Ruth.
It�s one of the more controversial aspects of business school, leading some commentators to suggest that it�s an oxymoron. Can a top business school really teach entrepreneurship? Isn�t innovation something that you either have or don�t? If you do possess an entrepreneurial spirit, isn�t it better to spend the next 12-24 months developing your skills in the real world than sitting in lecture rooms listening to people who, were they able to do it themselves, surely would be?
According to one of the world�s leading academics in the field of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) and the man who set up the E&I Centre at MIT�s Sloan School of Business, there is a definite role for business school in developing the skillsets of entrepreneurs and innovators. Not only that, Professor Ed Roberts says, being an academic does not mean that you don�t get your hands dirty in the �real� business world. Far from it.
�I have been involved in nine or ten companies including a venture capital firm, and been a founder role in a lot of those firms,� he says. In a career spanning almost five decades Prof. Roberts has also been a board member of almost 20 companies, both public and private, and has worked with entrepreneurial spirits on several occasions. All the time he has stayed close to the academic side of his work.
�I worked with start-ups where there was one entrepreneur and nobody else, to boards of companies that have several thousand employees trading on NASDAC. In addition I am a real academic, so I read the research done by colleagues all over the world, I look at the theory and the empirical evidence that people are pulling together. I can combine the theory and empirical research with the practise and deliver that to students.�
Prof. Roberts knows what he is talking about. With almost half a century of academic expertise behind him � Prof. Roberts began at MIT Sloan in 1961 - he has seen generations of business aspirants come and go through the system at this esteemed business school. In addition he is the most recent winner of the Monosson Prize for Entrepreneurship Mentoring, a prize he respects and holds dear.
�As part of MIT for almost 50 years, I personally have become very actively involved in a lot of different things, building programs, educational research, personally engaging in entrepreneurial activities outside of MIT, and so on. As an internal counsellor, mentor and coach I�ve done a lot of work with student teams and groups. Essentially it�s the cumulative of that for which I was recognized of being awarded the prize.�
Despite the immense range of activities he has undertaken, it is the mentoring that gives Prof. Roberts the most satisfaction. �The most enjoyable part is working with young nascent teams, helping them, guiding them, criticizing to do their own thing and it has been very rewarding. We have had and continue to have some amazing students at MIT.�
As for the million dollar question: Can Entrepreneurship be taught? Prof. Roberts laughs as he considers this perennial conundrum: �That�s an excellent question. My answer is that some aspects can be taught. Consider Babe Ruth (the American baseball legend). Even he had a batting coach. His coach didn�t break the league records in home runs but he was a skilled and trained observer and could comment, suggesting �raise your elbow,� or �you need a different weighted bat,� or �strengthen your wrists�. One thing about entrepreneurship is that there are many opportunities for that form of experience or observation-based coaching and helping in all aspects of entrepreneurship.
�There are a series of skills that entrepreneurs do need, which are teachable. Launching a business involves considerations of finance, market, organization, strategy, technology, and intellectual property. The third thing you can teach is prior experience. Is doesn�t mean you are lecturing that �this is great and this is bad,� but you are exposing alternative models and the outcomes of them. In entrepreneurship, by being able to call out how different companies have approached different types of issues where there may not be a clear answer as to what�s best, you�re doing some mind expanding. That can be done as a part of teaching entrepreneurship.�
To read more about Prof. Roberts insights on Entrepreneurship and Innovation, register for the Fall 2008 QS World MBA Tour and be one of the first 100 through the door in your city to pick up a copy of the TopMBA Career Guide. Alternative you can subscribe to the new TopMBA Career Guide ezine on www.topmba.com.
_________________________________________________________________________
QS TopMBA Scorecard � scorecard.topmba.com - is the world�s only online search tool allowing MBA candidates to personalize a business school search according to their own criteria. With 15 search criteria including School Specializations, Return on Investment and searches by Strength of Faculty, candidates can narrow down from a list of the world�s top 350 business schools to a manageable shortlist which they can then contact using Scorecard. Ricky Couprie, Product Manager of QS TopMBA Scorecard, says: �It is testament to the progress that Scorecard is making in the MBA world to have Professor Roberts, an exceptional and renowned mentor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, agree to participate in a Scorecard Expert Chat. He is extremely experienced, informative and genuinely devoted to the welfare of business students worldwide.� |
Professor Roberts has agreed to answer MBA candidates� questions on TopMBA Scorecard next month. His expert chat will take place on July 22nd 2008 (1300GMT). Candidates can post questions for Prof. Roberts to answer from July 14th. Questions can cover a range of topics from Entrepreneurship and Innovation to theoretical questions about study methods at the world�s top business schools. To participate in the Scorecard expert chat, candidates must register at www.topmba.com/scorecard. Registration is free.
The Scorecard Online Expert Forums provide a free and unrivalled chance for international MBA candidates to pose questions to the world�s leading business school experts. After registering for free at www.topmba.com/scorecard, candidates post questions from July 14th. They then return to the site at the allotted time, where Prof Roberts will attempt to answer their questions in a live online format. These can be from questions about Entrepreneurship and Innovation to theoretical questions about study methods at one of the world�s top business schools.
Details
School: MIT Sloan School of Business
Expert: Professor Ed Roberts, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Date: 22nd July. 0800EST, 1300GMT, 2030 Delhi, 2000 Beijing.
Topic: �Can entrepreneurship and innovation be taught?�
Candidate�s questions can be posted on scorecard.topmba.com from July 14th.
First steps For choosing the right business schoolAre you interested in becoming an international manager? Would you like to have a qualification that can enable you to work anywhere in the world? Then you should be considering taking an MBA and you should be thinking about which business school will be right for you.
How does anyone about to embark on one of the major personal investments in their lifetime (certainly more important than buying a house because it will affect your stream of income for the rest of your life) make a decision?
Information, advice and articles about the MBA
Ross Geraghty talks to Prof Ed Roberts of MIT Sloan about Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Business Schools...and Babe Ruth.
It�s one of the more controversial aspects of business school, leading some commentators to suggest that it�s an oxymoron. Can a top business school really teach entrepreneurship? Isn�t innovation something that you either have or don�t? If you do possess an entrepreneurial spirit, isn�t it better to spend the next 12-24 months developing your skills in the real world than sitting in lecture rooms listening to people who, were they able to do it themselves, surely would be?
According to one of the world�s leading academics in the field of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) and the man who set up the E&I Centre at MIT�s Sloan School of Business, there is a definite role for business school in developing the skillsets of entrepreneurs and innovators. Not only that, Professor Ed Roberts says, being an academic does not mean that you don�t get your hands dirty in the �real� business world. Far from it.
�I have been involved in nine or ten companies including a venture capital firm, and been a founder role in a lot of those firms,� he says. In a career spanning almost five decades Prof. Roberts has also been a board member of almost 20 companies, both public and private, and has worked with entrepreneurial spirits on several occasions. All the time he has stayed close to the academic side of his work.
�I worked with start-ups where there was one entrepreneur and nobody else, to boards of companies that have several thousand employees trading on NASDAC. In addition I am a real academic, so I read the research done by colleagues all over the world, I look at the theory and the empirical evidence that people are pulling together. I can combine the theory and empirical research with the practise and deliver that to students.�
Prof. Roberts knows what he is talking about. With almost half a century of academic expertise behind him � Prof. Roberts began at MIT Sloan in 1961 - he has seen generations of business aspirants come and go through the system at this esteemed business school. In addition he is the most recent winner of the Monosson Prize for Entrepreneurship Mentoring, a prize he respects and holds dear.
�As part of MIT for almost 50 years, I personally have become very actively involved in a lot of different things, building programs, educational research, personally engaging in entrepreneurial activities outside of MIT, and so on. As an internal counsellor, mentor and coach I�ve done a lot of work with student teams and groups. Essentially it�s the cumulative of that for which I was recognized of being awarded the prize.�
Despite the immense range of activities he has undertaken, it is the mentoring that gives Prof. Roberts the most satisfaction. �The most enjoyable part is working with young nascent teams, helping them, guiding them, criticizing to do their own thing and it has been very rewarding. We have had and continue to have some amazing students at MIT.�
As for the million dollar question: Can Entrepreneurship be taught? Prof. Roberts laughs as he considers this perennial conundrum: �That�s an excellent question. My answer is that some aspects can be taught. Consider Babe Ruth (the American baseball legend). Even he had a batting coach. His coach didn�t break the league records in home runs but he was a skilled and trained observer and could comment, suggesting �raise your elbow,� or �you need a different weighted bat,� or �strengthen your wrists�. One thing about entrepreneurship is that there are many opportunities for that form of experience or observation-based coaching and helping in all aspects of entrepreneurship.
�There are a series of skills that entrepreneurs do need, which are teachable. Launching a business involves considerations of finance, market, organization, strategy, technology, and intellectual property. The third thing you can teach is prior experience. Is doesn�t mean you are lecturing that �this is great and this is bad,� but you are exposing alternative models and the outcomes of them. In entrepreneurship, by being able to call out how different companies have approached different types of issues where there may not be a clear answer as to what�s best, you�re doing some mind expanding. That can be done as a part of teaching entrepreneurship.�
To read more about Prof. Roberts insights on Entrepreneurship and Innovation, register for the Fall 2008 QS World MBA Tour and be one of the first 100 through the door in your city to pick up a copy of the TopMBA Career Guide. Alternative you can subscribe to the new TopMBA Career Guide ezine on www.topmba.com.
_________________________________________________________________________
QS TopMBA Scorecard � scorecard.topmba.com - is the world�s only online search tool allowing MBA candidates to personalize a business school search according to their own criteria. With 15 search criteria including School Specializations, Return on Investment and searches by Strength of Faculty, candidates can narrow down from a list of the world�s top 350 business schools to a manageable shortlist which they can then contact using Scorecard. Ricky Couprie, Product Manager of QS TopMBA Scorecard, says: �It is testament to the progress that Scorecard is making in the MBA world to have Professor Roberts, an exceptional and renowned mentor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, agree to participate in a Scorecard Expert Chat. He is extremely experienced, informative and genuinely devoted to the welfare of business students worldwide.� |
Professor Roberts has agreed to answer MBA candidates� questions on TopMBA Scorecard next month. His expert chat will take place on July 22nd 2008 (1300GMT). Candidates can post questions for Prof. Roberts to answer from July 14th. Questions can cover a range of topics from Entrepreneurship and Innovation to theoretical questions about study methods at the world�s top business schools. To participate in the Scorecard expert chat, candidates must register at www.topmba.com/scorecard. Registration is free.
The Scorecard Online Expert Forums provide a free and unrivalled chance for international MBA candidates to pose questions to the world�s leading business school experts. After registering for free at www.topmba.com/scorecard, candidates post questions from July 14th. They then return to the site at the allotted time, where Prof Roberts will attempt to answer their questions in a live online format. These can be from questions about Entrepreneurship and Innovation to theoretical questions about study methods at one of the world�s top business schools.
Details
School: MIT Sloan School of Business
Expert: Professor Ed Roberts, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Date: 22nd July. 0800EST, 1300GMT, 2030 Delhi, 2000 Beijing.
Topic: �Can entrepreneurship and innovation be taught?�
Candidate�s questions can be posted on scorecard.topmba.com from July 14th.