Applying entrepreneurship in graduate studies would be one of the key
qualitative improvements in the field of management education. However, still
very few Sri Lankan Universities have initiated specialized entrepreneurial
courses or ELP within their degree programmes. There is still a big question about
applying entrepreneurship in management education or youth empowerment and that
is; why isn’t it applied widely across the universities and professional
education field if entrepreneurial endeavors have created a world of
sustainable innovations during the past two decades? Another alarming issue in
absorbing graduates in to the private sector emerged repeatedly in Sri Lanka
during the past decade. The private sector desperately pointed out the lack of appropriate life-skills is the common
deficiency among today’s university graduates. These skills
such as creativity and innovation, risk taking, communication, teamwork,
marketing and leadership are critically requires to perform in the highly
competitive and changing business environment. As a matter of fact entrepreneurship
is the only subject where one can truly learn and
practice such life-skills through a well designed Entrepreneurial Learning Process. Learning
entrepreneurship without practicing, just for the sake of getting ahead of the
exams does not motivate students in to possible ventures or may not sharpen
their skills in a significant manner.
In order to design an effective entrepreneurial learning process (ELP), it may be worthwhile to understand the concept of entrepreneurship in a skill empowerment perspective and the key competencies within the entrepreneurship. It will help us to formulate a realistic scope for a successful entrepreneurial project for university students and sets a framework of possible outcomes (what skills would better off and to what extant) of such project.
Entrepreneurship?
The French economist most commonly credited with giving the term this particular meaning is Jean Baptiste Say who make an effort to put it in a different way giving a different definition to the one traditionally accepted in 19th century and he praise entrepreneurship as the mechanism of creating economic value. He says “The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield. Entrepreneurs create value.”
However in the 20th century, the economist most closely associated
with the term was Joseph Schumpeter. He described entrepreneurs as the
innovators who drive the creative-destructive process of capitalism.
In his words, “the function of entrepreneurs is
to reform or revolutionize the pattern of production.” They can do
this in many ways: “by exploiting an
invention or, more generally, an untried technological possibility for
producing a new commodity or producing an old one in a new way, by
opening up a new source of supply of materials or a new outlet for
products, by reorganizing an industry and so on.” Later Peter Drucker starts with Say’s definition, but amplifies it to
focus on opportunity. Drucker does not require entrepreneurs to cause change,
but sees them as exploiting the opportunities that change (in technology, consumer
preferences, social norms, etc.) creates. He says, “The
entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an
opportunity.”
Putting the most vital aspects of above three
definitions raised by Say, Schumpeter and Drucker, we can come in to a common
idea of key aspects of a successful Entrepreneurial Learning Process (ELP).
Say Change
agent or a creator of higher value on resources
Schumpeter Innovating
new methods, products and technologies
Drucker Exploiting
new opportunities
To be continued......
