Is a college education your path to becoming an innovative entrepreneur?
This month a very interesting report was released. The research was prepared for the Small Business Administration (SBA) by Summit Consulting, LLC, and is titled, Toward Effective Education of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Small Business: Initial Results from a Survey of College Students and Graduates.
While you may wish to read it in entirety, the gist of the report says that the US historically turns out more entrepreneurs than any other country, producing during the twentieth century almost 80 percent of all entrepreneurs and a little over 60 percent of all inventors—two‐thirds of whom were both inventors and entrepreneurs. But even more interesting is the fact, according to the study, that while the American system of higher education does a fair job of training the mainstream entrepreneur, it offers very little to help train and prepare the budding “innovative” entrepreneur.
“It is important to note, however, that while business schools throughout the United States have programs that generally seem to be well designed and effective for the training of entrepreneurs who can be expected to establish new firms of some conventional variety, matters are very different for the nation’s prospective innovative entrepreneurs. There are few, if any, business schools with programs that specialize in the education of this group. Surely it should be disquieting that so little is known about this important matter and that relatively little is being done about it.”
And the report goes on to say:
“There is considerable evidence showing the need for well‐educated entrepreneurs.* This evidence indicates, however, that rigidly structured teaching methods, which help to produce personnel skilled in operating techniques and well‐versed in previously accumulated information, may not be the best way to prepare students to explore the kinds of breakthrough innovations and radically different ideas and approaches that have kept the U.S. economy in the vanguard of innovation and new product development. In fact, rigid educational structures have been identified as a major barrier to economic growth in developing countries.**”
Surprised? Can’t say that we are here at The Obvious Expert. The need for training, books, seminars, and other educational information that targets the real world needs of entrepreneurs, innovative entrepreneurs, small business people, solopreneurs, sole practitioners, consultants, freelancers, and every visionary who believes that business can be more creative, more fulfilling, and generally better for all is a need that has long been very apparent to us …that’s why we are here.
