Should you consider an MBA if you plan to become an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs use MBA to: Network, Refine Business Plan and for Seed Funding

I have seen several people start companies while at Business School or immediately after they graduated. They use their time at school to develop and refine their plan through discussions with classmates, professors and by the feedback they gain through entering Business Plan competitions. Not only do they get feedback from such competitions but often also the opportunity to network with potential investors and the money they won from these competitions often serve as seed money for them to develop their idea further. For example, the Said Business School at Oxford University has the SBS Venture Fund which funds the best entrepreneurial business ideas from the School’s students. The £1million fund aims to promote the School’s students’ education in research, due diligence and other aspects associated with investing in early-stage businesses; the Fund has now invested in several established companies.

Passion and Enthusiasm vs. MBA

Most people still wonder whether passion and enthusiasm makes an entrepreneur successful or whether a person needs an MBA to take their venture to new heights? This is one question which has always had two very radical schools of thought for & against it, and understandably so, because in recent history, we have seen so many intelligent individuals like Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Steve Jobs (Apple) who dropped out of school to start hugely successful business ventures; and on the other side there are successful entrepreneurs like Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems (Alma Mater Stanford Business School) and Chris DeWolfe of My Space (Alma Mater University of Southern California) who have got their management degrees before setting up equally successful ventures which have revolutionized industries.

Then, maybe, the answer to this question is found in these lines by Thomas J.Watson; the president of IBM, who oversaw the company’s growth into an international force from 1920’s to the 1950’s and a man who’s one of the first self made industrialists in modern history- “In order to be a success in business, there is one thing you must do. You cannot be successful without it. That is WORK. I have not told you anything new. Everyone knows that you cannot be successful in anything without work. Why does not everyone work? Because some lack the one thing that makes men want to work - ENTHUSIASM. That is something no one can give you. You must acquire it yourself, and the only way that you can become enthusiastic about anything is to have a thorough KNOWLEDGE of it. You have never seen an enthusiastic man who was lazy.”

So, if Thomas is to be believed, the right mix is one of enthusiasm and knowledge, because an entrepreneur needs both the skills and knowledge to effectively start and grow a company. Therefore, if you are someone who has a product idea or a brilliant technology which you think can revolutionize the industry but you aren’t confident about your leadership and management skills required to convert this idea into an organization; then an MBA with entrepreneurial emphasis could be the missing link for you. However, to emulate the likes of McNealy or De Wolfe and to attain an MBA degree from a top institute in the world is indeed a very a difficult task. Over the years the selection norms in the tier-1 colleges have been exceedingly stringent and as a result, the numbers have been low. The acceptance rates (from all applications received) for MBA courses in some of the Ivy league & equivalent colleges this year look like this-  Columbia- 15%, Stanford-8%, Harvard- 12%, and Yale- 14% (Source: official websites of said schools).

How to pick top MBA programs for Entrepreneurship?

It’s equally crucial then, that one is very mindful of what they are looking to get out of an MBA program and choose the school/course accordingly. . On that note, let’s look at some top MBA programs for entrepreneurship; Harvard Business School has the highly credible “Entrepreneur-in-Residence program” as a result of which in 2008, nearly 50% of its MBA graduates evolved into successful entrepreneurs. This program adds real life experience to the course curriculum by inviting accomplished entrepreneurs to advise MBA students interested in starting companies and work with faculty on research and course development - a crucial and great value-add for a student.

There are other top-tier schools like Stanford School of Business and Columbia Business School who have entrepreneurship as a major component in their academic courses. Columbia, in its MBA and EMBA course, has charted subjects like financial social ventures covering topics like ‘Entrepreneurship Marketing’ and ‘Corporate Finance Entrepreneurship’ taught by the faculty such as John Donaldson, Antony Bugg Levine and Rick Larson (Columbia Entrepreneurship Directory). Likewise, Stanford has organized a four week long summer institute for entrepreneurship (SIE) this summer, form June 19 - July 15, 2011 (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sie/) - to be facilitated by an equally stellar faculty.

Therefore, if you are an aspiring entrepreneur who is considering an MBA degree to propel your entrepreneurial journey; whether with a startup or as part of a family owned legacy business- you need to be very mindful of what course, institute(s) and specialization(s) you zero in on to pursue this goal.

Remember, one man’s meat is another’s poison… Eat carefully.

About Kavita Singh

Kavita Singh has over 13 years of experience working in the U.S. and India. Kavita is the CEO of FutureWorks Consulting. She is an MBA graduate of Columbia Business School and holds a BA (Hons) from Oxford University. She has worked for leading companies such as Mars, Colgate-Palmolive and Web MD at higher management and consulting roles.Kavita writes for elite publications like the Hindustan Times


FutureWorks Consulting offers array of services for both undergraduate and postgraduate admissions at leading institutes abroad. FutureWorks Consulting also runs NDTV.com’s study abroad center.