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Can entrepreneurship be taught?

5/19/2018

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Can entrepreneurship be taught? Who is the right person to teach someone how to be an entrepreneur? The answers to these questions are vital for every young aspiring entrepreneur who wants to succeed. Opinions, however, vary depending on the person you might be asking.
Guest article by the Institute of Entrepreneurship - a member of the SME Academy Network
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Things you can or cannot learn

According to some people, entrepreneurship skills can be taught at higher education institutes and high schools. Others believe that entrepreneurship can only be taught to people by other entrepreneurs who have practical experience on the field. And finally there are people who believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught by someone. It is something that every entrepreneur can learn only while doing it. And the question still remains. Can entrepreneurship be taught?

If you look at the matter from a spherical point of view, you will notice that the concept of entrepreneurship is divided in different stages. And although entrepreneurship, as a whole, might not be easy or possible to teach, some stages might be:
  • The Idea Stage. To be an entrepreneur you need an idea to build on. The original idea that will be giving birth to your company. And no one can teach you how to think and innovate. The idea will have to be something that you will come up with on your own.
  • Setting up a business plan is the second stage. You need funding and the right business plan will be able to give you that funding. Now this stage can be taught. Business departments in colleges and universities all around the world have classes that focus on teaching future businessmen and businesswomen how to create successful business plans.
  • Setting up the company, after you receive the funding is the next stage. This is where things get a little tricky. Although the way you are going to be choosing your employees might follow a certain pattern, you also need, what entrepreneurs call, critical way of thinking. The details will be based on the original idea as well as the future that you visualize, for your business. No one can teach you how to think and judge based on the needs of your company because no one knows them apart from you.
  • Last but not least we have the evolution stage. You have created your business plan. You got the funding you needed and you hired your employees. Now is the time for you to put your ideas into practice and start evolving them and here is where creativity comes in. Creativity skills cannot be taught in a classroom. They are acquired through experience and through creative thinking processes. One cannot learn to be innovative and entrepreneurial, while on desk duty.  You need to explore things, use your imagination, question assumptions and connect information in order for you to achieve the best result.

Some entrepreneurial skills can be taught and others cannot. “The key factor is motivation.” The teachers need to be motivated in order to teach important parts of entrepreneurship to students and students need to be motivated in order to understand the importance of the entrepreneurship skills and learn them. “Entrepreneurship can, partially, be taught.” But without imagination, innovation and a thirst to meet the unknown people will not be able to become true entrepreneurs.
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What is a Digital Entrepreneur?

3/24/2018

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Of course there are as many ways to describe a Digital Entrepreneur as there are trees in the Forrest - but some common ways of creating and running a business can be identified.
By knowing these activities and ways of running a business you can start to look for the competences needed to manage the challenges to digitize your business and to take the step to be a Digital Entrepreneur.
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‘being a solopreneur has forced me to learn how to handle all aspects of business’
As a solopreneur or working with a team spread all over the world - you can also add the "Digital Nomad" title to your business card. There the digital tools allows you to work from any place and there you might have automated a large number of your business processes - giving you a chance to also just work when you want to.

Are you planning to start a new business or restart your existing one?

In some ways it can be easier to start a new business based on the idea of Digital Entrepreneurship - there are no changes required - just set up a new business environment that supports your digital business model. Restarting and implementing the digital tools step by step can be more difficult since you need to take care of the existing business and the customers and other relations you have worked so hard to reach. In that case you need to create a "step-by-step" digitization plan to secure the change. Depending on if you are a solopreneur or have employees you also need to involve your staff or partners in the process. Maybe you need to replace staff/partners to get the required competences into your business - or maybe start a training process in parallel with the change.
Whatever it takes - you need to analyze the situation and start moving in the direction of a digitally supported or digitally based business.

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Why are Innovative Entrepreneurs different than others?

1/23/2018

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Economic development is highly associated with entrepreneurship by means of creating new wealth, contributing employment creation and socio-economic change in all settings. That is why ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ as a term become so prominent in the last decades. Traditionally, the entrepreneur is often defined as the one who starts own new and small business. The essential act of entrepreneurship is new entry which can be accomplished mostly through launching a new venture. But not every new small business is entrepreneurial or represents entrepreneurship
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Being innovative means to be open to change and not just open to change but proactively seeking change so it is always asking the question of what is next, what can we do better, what can we do differently and not just for the sake of doing it differently but to create more value than it’s currently created.”
An entrepreneur from UK

Read full article here...

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MAKRO is a member of the SME Academy Network
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How will Robotics, 3D-printing and other emerging technologies affect SMEs?

5/2/2017

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There is no doubt about the fact that SMEs already now needs to change their Business Models and recruitment of new staff with up-to-date competences and knowledge based on the emerging technologies and their impacts on several domains. 

In this blog post you will get information about and links to a project that is working with the definition of a new curriculum for the future jobs. By future we don't mean many years - but maybe many months... 
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To the article

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8 challenges every Entrepreneur is guaranteed to face

4/28/2017

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If you are an Entrepreneur with some experience you have probably already faced several of the challenges that Dan Western, founder of the Wealthy Gorilla,  mentions in this article posted by David Seagraves. 
If you are working with entrepreneurs and individuals on their way to become entrepreneurs - these are 8 challenges that you need to prepare them for. To the article...

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Find the Article on LinkedIn
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Disruptive Innovations - Arvind Gupta in GEC 2017

4/12/2017

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Open Innovation + Digital Infrastructure = Entrepreneurs able to solve real problems for Citizens all over the World

One clear message from serial entrepreneur Arvind Gupta at the GEC 2017, Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Johannesburg, is "Don´t invent the Wheel again". He gives us a great and engaged speech about the giant leap taken by India and some fantastic examples on what you can do - once you have the digital infrastructure as a part of the open innovation systems.
The interaction between Entrepreneurs and Governments is something worth supporting as can make a difference to all citizens.
Serial Entrepreneur Arvind Gupta in GEC 2017, Johannesburg - South Africa 

Visit GEN
Learn more about Global Entrepreneurship Network
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The importance of being digital...

3/10/2017

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 The Straits Times write:

"Many local companies, for example, are poorly equipped to take advantage of the digital world to improve the way they run their businesses, to serve their customers better and reach out to new markets."


More or less all around the world SMEs are lacking  a vision for their digital development of business. In this article you can read about the situation in Singapore and the efforts of the Government to support the process of getting a vision, develop competencies and innovate business models. In the e-Book "The Digital Entrepreneurship" 

In his e-Book"The Digital Entrepreneur" Kenneth OE Sundin gives an overview of why being digital is so important for existing and new businesses of today. Beside you can find and download an Infograph that takes you through some of the reasons why small businesses needs to be a part of the digital world.

In the project REAL - there a group of 10 partners from 8 European member states produced inspirational material and lessons in entrepreneurship and business - it was very obvious that the digital environment we all are living in is an important prerequisite  and resource for our small businesses.  


Governmental support?

In the article we refereed to above it is mentioned that the Singaporean Government gives a great opportunity for SMEs with the SMEs Go Digital program with funding of $80 million and gives no excuse for not making the step. Do you think it is the only way to get the SMEs on board the digital train? Please share with us your comments and thought. ​
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Check this Infograph, download it, share it, discuss it. 

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IoT - Internet of Things - a great business opportunity for SMEs

1/3/2017

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The Internet of Things might seem like it only benefits large corporations with massive budgets, but the IoT has already started to bear fruit for small businesses, too. In fact, approximately 57% of small business think the IoT will have a significant effect on their bottom line, according to an AVG survey.
BI Intelligence expects that from 2015 to 2020, business investments in the IoT will grow from $215 billion to $832 billion. This is just one slice of the overall pie, as compounded, we project more than $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions between 2015 and 2020 among businesses, consumers, and governments.
Read the full article here


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47 countries where young people are living in an unemployment crisis

12/12/2016

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From Business Insider
Since the global financial crisis, high youth unemployment has been a problem across the world. But even though the issue is widespread, the causes and the effects vary greatly within each country. Business Insider took a closer look at the economic and geopolitical factors that have led to continued high youth unemployment in 47 countries, as well as some of the major regional and global trends. Read the full article here...
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Entrepreneurship a part of the solution to youth unemployment

11/20/2016

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Globally, 73 million youth are registered unemployed. Considering how many aren’t registered, this number is actually much higher. 620 million are currently not in employment, education or training (NEET), according to the World Bank.
Meanwhile, with 600 million young slated to enter the job market in the next decade – with only 200 million jobs awaiting them – the youth unemployment crisis is not projected to improve anytime soon.  Read the full article here
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This article was written in 2015 - but is still valid today.
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