When management education was introduced in India, it was unheard of. However,within a few decades it revolutionized the corporate landscape. But even 20 years post liberalization, not all Indian B-schools produce entrepreneurs who can give Indian economy the much needed boost.
As per a recent report by Morgan Stanley, India is poised to become the world's fastest growing economy surpassing China. In fact, by 2013,we might be growing at 9.5%. And by 2020, we would be adding a workforce of 136 million, which is more than the population of Japan. Seems that we are unstoppable and a truly globalised economy. But before you fantasise any further digest the fact that India is ranked second from last in Globalisation Index (GI) ranking. Part substance, part symbolism, it has been our ineffectiveness to promote entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship courses were started with an aim to fill the gap that separates ideas from execution. Sadly, for India, even after 20 years of liberalisation the void has not been filled. A case study on Bill Gates and Warren Buffet looks extremely motivating, but the reality is far from a bunch of papers. I would say that bringing in successful entrepreneurs to teach full time courses would be an excellent development. But for this we need to have supportive infrastructure. We need to create wealth, get more people on board, create more equality institutions and see that the entire population benefits. If this vision can be fostered then entrepreneurship will flourish.
There has been a quite a few success stories. For instance, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder of Naukri.com kept struggling for more than a decade but never gave up on his dreams. His patience finally paid off and Naukri became the leading job portal.
As far as performance of India is concerned, where contribution of small and medium enterprises to the GDP is just 5%. "India lacks support for budding entrepreneurs as ideas are not supported by the financial funding. Also the bureaucracy, red-tapeism and wide spread corruption makes it difficult for budding entrepreneurs to get through. Besides, structural challenges and poverty driven illiterate rural mass too are some ever surging adverse factors.
Now just to support this program all the B-schools should focus on entrepreneurial programmes where in students are required to launch, run and dissolve a business idea so that students can apply their theoretical knowledge into practical life. If I were given the opportunity to formulate a programme today, it would cover the standard curriculm, but with an integration of such exercises at regular intervals. This would help the student's to integrate the two learning's. This puts them in charge of their own business idea and clearly attaches the importance of everything one would do in a business.
It's high time that Indian B-schools should pay attention to the shift in scenario, i.e, cultural creative entrepreneurs.
