Education and Entrepreneurial Success - Term Paper Example

? Introduction: Education is an essential element in entrepreneurship, and this is because it provides it provides knowledge, and inserts skills to entrepreneurs on the various methodologies of conducting a business (Gohdes, 2012). Education motivates entrepreneurs, and gives them the ability to manage human capital. Entrepreneurial education exists in a variety of stages, the primary level, the secondary level, the tertiary level, up through the graduate programs (Gohdes, 2012). Education provides new economic opportunities, and it makes an entrepreneur to develop and focus on the objectives of his businesses. Due to education, an entrepreneur will acquire the skills and capability of starting a new business, introducing new products in the market, and creating charitable organization, which in turns helps in building a strong brand name (Coutts and Wlyie, 2011). This is essential for the success of business because it will attract customers, and therefore enhance profitability. There are different views on the importance of education to entrepreneurial success. Various scholars denote that well educated entrepreneurs, are guilty of building the wrong types of business models (Gohdes, 2012). This is because they view education as a quality problem, as opposed to an investment. According to Gohdes (2012), education benefits business organizations in the long run. In their view, business organizations must perform in the present, to guarantee their successes in the future, in view of this, education is not an important element in entrepreneurial success. To them, a business man needs to acquire social skills that will help in convincing customers to buy their products, for purposes of making a profit (Coutts and Wlyie, 2011). This paper looks at the correlation between education and entrepreneurial success. This paper seeks to answer the following questions, 1. How do different thinking styles affect efficiency, and competency in a business environment? 2. What is the relationship between business education and entrepreneurship? 3. Does business education erode the risk taking tendency? While answering the mentioned questions, this paper takes a stand that business education is an important element of entrepreneurial success. How do different thinking Styles affect efficiency and competency in a business environment: Creativity is an important element in a business organization. An entrepreneur can only benefit from this notion if he/ she adopt different thinking styles and strategies in his business enterprise (Gohdes, 2012). Creativity helps an organization to maintain a competitive advantage over its rivals, and it results to innovation. A creative mind is also an innovative mind, and innovation improves the efficiency of conducting a business, and therefore results to increased profitability. An example of a company that has performed so well because of the emergence of different thinking styles is CEEMEA, a division of the banking giant citigroup (Rose and Sesia, 2009). CEEMEA came into existence in 1998, after the merger of Citicorp with travelers group, a private equity company. CEEMEA employed Mr. Bakhshi as the head of its sales and trading unit in 2000, and immediately he embarked on the introduction of information technology in the affairs of CEEMEA (Rose and Sesia, 2009). The results were immediate. The profitability of the company increased by 100%, and over the coming years, the company achieved growth in its profitability. Due to this innovative ideas, and creativity, the company managed to win numerous awards, and in Hong Kong, the company won the entrepreneurship award, in recognition to its role of introducing Information Technology in the banking services (Rose and Sesia, 2009). This success is attributed to understanding, and encouraging different thinking styles within the organization (Gohdes, 2012). This is because the board of directors encouraged Mr. Bakhshi to introduce these changes had the board refused; the company would not achieve the profits it had. It is not only important to accept different thinking styles within a business organization, it is essential to understand and know the various stages of creative and strategic thinking processes. This is because it enables an entrepreneur to take advantage of the ideas presented, and apply them in running the business organization (Rose and Sesia, 2009). This policy is practiced by automobile giants Toyota. Toyota is a multinational organization, with a presence in over 100 countries of the world. Toyota introduced a management policy of getting ideas from its employees, and customers. This was through the electronic feedback system introduced by the company (Liker and Hoseaus, 2008). When a customer made some purchases, the organization sought to know how to improve their services better. It also incorporated employees into the decision making process, by asking them to give ideas on the better management approaches (Gohdes, 2012). This made the managerial group to access different views, and pick on the best ideas. This strategy made the company to increase the sales of its products, and create an edge over its competitors. The company realized that, in the current century, it is important for business leaders to remove the notion of rigidity in their operations (Liker and Hoseaus, 2008). They should encourage creativity, and struggle to get the best ideas, from those willing to offer. In view of this, different thinking styles encourage innovation in a business environment. An innovative business gains the ability to compete favorably in a business environment, and gives it an advantage over its competitors (Coutts and Wlyie, 2011). This paper highlighted an example of CEEMEA, branch of Citigroup. Another example is Apples, the software company. Due to its innovative products, the company became a leader in the production of software services, overtaking Samsung and Nokia. What is the relationship between business education and entrepreneurship? There is a big relationship between business education and entrepreneurship. Questions emerge on whether formal education results to an increase in profitability of a business organization (Coutts and Wlyie, 2011). Starting a business does not require formal education, but is dependent on factors such as accessibility to capital, the risk taking attitude of an entrepreneur, his psychological orientation and family set up. However, tertiary education is important in the management of the business set up. This will ensure efficiency in the operations of the business organization, resulting to increased profitability. There are business operations that require specialized skills, and it is only possible to acquire these skills through education (Coutts and Wylie, 2011). Human capital is essential in a business organization. These entail the knowledge, the values and the skills an employee brings to an organization (Gohdes, 2012). To develop human capital, an entrepreneur must spend on education and training. Basing on this, one relationship between an entrepreneur and business education entails on the development of human capital. Most entrepreneurs insist on a minimum level of education when they advertise for a certain job (Coutts and Wlyie, 2011). For instance, when a company requires accountant, the qualifications set is a basic education on accountancy. There is no way a lay person can understand the accounting principles and procedures, and therefore it is important to hire a qualified and skillful person for the job. Entrepreneurs can train employees once they are hire (Gohdes, 2012). Some large organizations, train their employees for a set number of years, before they employ them on a permanent basis. This is an aspect of business education. It is also important to understand the current business trends and practices. An entrepreneur cannot understand them if he does not read business journal or books. This is an element of business education, since reading such items imparts knowledge and understanding to the entrepreneur (Coutts and Wlyie, 2011). From this analysis, it is better to deduce that education is not necessary for starting a business. However education is important because it imparts skills of running a business organization. These skills are in finance, human resource management, sales and marketing, and operations management (Gohdes, 2012). There are business leaders who are successful in their business life, with little education. However, they have hired educated personalities to manage their business enterprises. An example includes Bill Gates, Richard Bronson, and Steve Jobs (Lu?sted, 2012). Bill Gates developed the Microsoft products, which is a leader in the software industry, while Richard Bronson owns a group of companies under the brand name, Virgin Atlantic. They have hired educated personnel to manage their business enterprises. For instance Mr. Gates has Steve Ballmer, as the manager, and director of his enterprises. Steve Ballmer has a degree in economics. On this note, it is therefore important to conclude that there is a relationship between business education and entrepreneurship. The relationship exists in the sense that education imparts skills for the management of business organizations. Does business education erode the risk taking tendency? Business education does not erode the risk taking tendency. Business education encourages innovation and risk taking, as an element of fighting poverty. Through business education, an entrepreneur will acquire the skills of evaluating the risks the business faces, or a new business will face. Through evaluation, an entrepreneur will develop strategies that will help him overcame the risks his business organization faces. The entrepreneur can only develop these strategies if he has knowledge on the market conditions of his business enterprise, and the various risks that he wants to mitigate (Gohdes, 2012). Through education, an entrepreneur will identify emerging markets, and their potential in terms of profitability, and the growth of a company. A company can adapt the use of surveys, or other research methodologies to identify a need in an emerging market. An entrepreneur will look for ways of satisfying the needs of the customers. This is an aspect of creativity, and innovation (Gohdes, 2012). This comes with the knowledge a business man acquires from business education. It is therefore prudent to conclude that, business education does not impede on risk taking, but encourages it. However it is not only educated entrepreneurs who take risks. Uneducated entrepreneurs also take risks. An example is Steve Jobs, the founder and proprietor of Apples. Mr. Jobs, through his risk taking tendencies, helped to make extreme wealth to the shareholders, and investors of apples. He designed electronic products that have transformed the electronic industry, making Apples an electronic giant, competing with the likes of Nokia and Samsung (Coutts and Wlyie, 2011). Mr. Jobs was guided by the principles of innovation, and this is seen on products such as iPods, and iPhones. This was possible because of the risks the business magnate was taking. He developed products, without knowing how the market will receive them. Mr. Jobs created a culture of innovation at apples, where every staff was encouraged to contribute their ideas and skills towards the success of the company. In developing the iPods, Mr. Jobs simply designed the gadget, but there were experts who developed the product (Lu?sted, 2012). On this note, education played a key role in the success of Mr. Jobs. It is therefore prudent to conclude that formal education matters in the risk taking aspect of a business organization, but it must be supplemented by real life experiences (Gohdes, 2012). This was denoted on Steve Jobs, who upon leaving Apples in 1985; he founded two other companies, namely, Next and Pixar. Upon his return to apples in 1996, Mr. Jobs embarked on risk taking tendencies that made the company achieve growth, as an important player in the electronic industry. Conclusion: In conclusion, Business education is an important element of entrepreneurship. In as much as an investor does not require a degree to start a business, he will need managerial skills to ensure the business are profitable. These skills are acquired through trainings, experiences and college education. All this are aspects of business education because they impart knowledge and understanding to the student. An entrepreneur will also need certain specialized skills for running his organization. For instance accounting skills to calculate his profits, and the amount of tax he has to pay. Another skill that is essential for the operation of a company is the marketing and sales skills. These skills are acquired through business education. This will help him develop strategies that will enable his company penetrate the target market. References: Coutts, L., & Wylie, A. (2011). Business education. Paisley: Hodder Gibson. Gohdes, W. (2012). Trends and issues in business education. Reston, Va.: National Business Education Association. Liker, J. K., & Hoseus, M. (2008). Toyota culture: the heart and soul of the Toyota way. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lu?sted, M. A. (2012). Apple: the company and its visionary founder, Steve Jobs. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub.. Rose, C., & Sesia, A. (2009). What happened at Citigroup? (Rev. ed.). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School. Top of Form Bottom of Form Read More