The blood of an entrepreneur
The week will see a core course start and finish - Business Start Up (BSU).
Cranfield MBA has generated entrepreneurs and this course is the first step in that direction. It provides one with an opportunity to produce an outline of a business plan for a new venture. It is a highly experiential series of sessions. The output is an interim presentation of the business plan and the completion of a written business plan in another four weeks.
The BSU course simulates as realistically as possible what it is like to start a business. But rather than text book theory being dished out in the sessions, it involves "live experience" talking. So far we have had speakers like Ms Lara Morgan - the gladiaterix of Pacific Direct, Paddy Radcliffe (Cranfield MBA 2004) and his "snowbone" , Naz Chaudhary (Cranfield MBA 2001) and his Real Burger World. Tomorrow we meet Rod Younger (Cranfield MBA 1995) with his MBA-Direct and Harry Clarke (Cranfield MBA 1992) with his Cobalt Telephone Technologies.
Our team picked up the venture of setting a New world wine store in London. Though no one in our team intends pursuing the entrepreneurial path, the learning has been more than just understanding how to make a business plan. And specially for me. Despite being an entrepreneur's son and having entrepreneur friends', I never ventured in this line. The course is telling me many things - what motivates an entrepreneur and yet what s/he should need to do or look at. Cash flow, for example, can be more important than profits. Not surprisingly, the survival rate in entrepreneurial world is not too appealing.
But I realize that the blood of an entrepreneur is different - it survives and thrives on enthusiasm, drive and motivation. It is amply evident in our batch too. While some teams are going through the motions of this course, a few are dead-serious. Be it an innovative product such as concrete shelter for refugees or a plain concept of fast-food chain in China. The passion to do it is conspicuous.
The next year MBA course has been changed to take this "compulsory" bit away and instead it has been put into the Entrepreneurial themed track, which is a good move.
The coming Friday shall see all the teams present their ventures to the faculty and I need to go back to do my bit of the work.
Cranfield MBA has generated entrepreneurs and this course is the first step in that direction. It provides one with an opportunity to produce an outline of a business plan for a new venture. It is a highly experiential series of sessions. The output is an interim presentation of the business plan and the completion of a written business plan in another four weeks.
The BSU course simulates as realistically as possible what it is like to start a business. But rather than text book theory being dished out in the sessions, it involves "live experience" talking. So far we have had speakers like Ms Lara Morgan - the gladiaterix of Pacific Direct, Paddy Radcliffe (Cranfield MBA 2004) and his "snowbone" , Naz Chaudhary (Cranfield MBA 2001) and his Real Burger World. Tomorrow we meet Rod Younger (Cranfield MBA 1995) with his MBA-Direct and Harry Clarke (Cranfield MBA 1992) with his Cobalt Telephone Technologies.
Our team picked up the venture of setting a New world wine store in London. Though no one in our team intends pursuing the entrepreneurial path, the learning has been more than just understanding how to make a business plan. And specially for me. Despite being an entrepreneur's son and having entrepreneur friends', I never ventured in this line. The course is telling me many things - what motivates an entrepreneur and yet what s/he should need to do or look at. Cash flow, for example, can be more important than profits. Not surprisingly, the survival rate in entrepreneurial world is not too appealing.
But I realize that the blood of an entrepreneur is different - it survives and thrives on enthusiasm, drive and motivation. It is amply evident in our batch too. While some teams are going through the motions of this course, a few are dead-serious. Be it an innovative product such as concrete shelter for refugees or a plain concept of fast-food chain in China. The passion to do it is conspicuous.
The next year MBA course has been changed to take this "compulsory" bit away and instead it has been put into the Entrepreneurial themed track, which is a good move.
The coming Friday shall see all the teams present their ventures to the faculty and I need to go back to do my bit of the work.
posted by Sandeep Gupta at
9:00 pm
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