The landscape of entrepreneurship is witnessing major changes under the influence of a variety of forces including that of technological disruptions. While service-based businesses, many in the aggregator space, are dominating the space, several manufacturing start-ups with new technologies have also come up across the country, often with support from various technology incubators. Active presence and support of management and technology institutions have facilitated the creation of a fertile ecosystem for entrepreneurship to flourish. It is in this context that we discuss the relevance of MBA education in making successful entrepreneurs.
What does MBA offer?
A good MBA education not only provides business knowledge but also equips the student with a variety of skills such as analytical, decision-making, communication and team orientation. Besides, the student is prepared to stretch himself and work under pressure on multiple fronts. They are trained to synthesise a lot of things across disciplines, using a variety of tools. In effect, an MBA graduate comes out of the programme as a transformed individual, ready to take challenging assignments with confidence. One of the major outcomes of a strong MBA is the access to a pool of alumni that offers a rich basket of contacts with unique capabilities. This is critical to get doors opened for new conversations to begin, ranging from start-up capital to team building to acquisition of customers.
While MBAs develop multiple capabilities during their studies, most of their learning revolves around existing organisations. This capability basket is good for someone to work in an existing organisation, and will also definitely help a start-up entrepreneur in many ways. But, that is not good enough to be a successful entrepreneur!