This article follows on and is related to the earlier article, “Entreprisingship through Market-ing – Why, What and How?” published by the Asia Marketing Federation journal.
“Entreprising Marketers see and do extraordinary things or in some unsual ways that help entities not only survive but thrive, even in a RUDE environment.”
Especially in a RUDE environment (Rapidly changing and at times, Ruthless; Uncertain and at times, Unpredictable; Dynamic and at times, Disruptive; Engaging and at times, Enabling), marketers need to be entreprising because entreprising Marketers can really make a significant difference to any entity, beyond just quantitative results. Marketers with Entreprising mindsets can make the critical difference between a “me-too” and an “outstanding” entity.
A key challenge for all marketing educators is how to help marketers become more entreprising through education and training which is the focus of this article.
Given the complexity and dynamism of entreprisingship, focusing on any one single aspect is not sufficient to meaningfully educate marketers to be more entreprising. Instead, a holistic entreprisingship education and training is needed to help marketers develop an entrepreneurial mindset and entreprising skills.
However, in the first place, a key question is, can entrepreneurship be taught? I still remember very clearly when none other than the daughter of Hermawan, Staphanie who herself is a successful entrepreneur posed this question to me when I was then Director of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre.
While nature no doubt plays an important part for a person to be entreprising, so does nurture. To respond to the many sceptics who doubt that entreprisingship can be developed, one does not have to look far than to take a leaf from none other than the Guru of Management, Peter Drucker who said that “Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice. It is a knowledge base… but as in all practices, medicine, for instance, or engineering, knowledge in entrepreneurship is a means to an end. Indeed, what constitutes knowledge in a practice is largely defined by the end, that is, by the practice… innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurship, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practiced.”
There are many ways to contribute to the development of entreprisingship and useful lessons can be drawn from the book, “The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators,” by Clayton M. Christensen, Hal B. Gregersen, and Jeffrey Dyer. According to the authors, the five skills are:
- Associating: the ability to make connections across unrelated questions, problems, or ideas
- Questioning: where queries and enquiries provoke new insights, connections, possibilities, and directions
- Observing: which help to provide insights into and ideas for new ways of doing things
- Networking: active search for new ideas by talking to people who may offer a radically different view of things
- Experimenting: constantly trying out new experiences and piloting new ideas.
However, entreprisingship education should address these and much more, for it encompasses more than these.
A question by a Financial Times journalist of “How do you educate entrepreneurs for the world?” and another question from the International Herald Tribune, “Can you please describe the necessary elements for the effective education of entrepreneurs?” prompted me to take a step back to recollect and further review our strategy, structure, and pedagogy as a technopreneurship education centre. The views below can be helpful for marketing educators addressing the question of How can marketing educators help to develop entreprising marketers. I must also add that through the almost 25 years of associating with Hermawan Kartajaya, I have also learnt a lot of entreprisingship from him as he is a great entrepriser and hence it is a privilege and honour to co-author this article with him.
So successful is him as an entrepriser, and success is measured beyond just revenue, that Professor Philip Kotler and I co-authored a book, “MarkPlus Inc – Winning the Future: Marketing and Entrepreneurship in Harmony, published by World Scientific to honour him and MarkPlus and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of MarkPlus. See Diagram 1.
This is not meant as a prescriptive article, but one to stimulate further discussions and ideas with the objective to lead to a better entreprisingship education for all, including marketers, for the betterment of humankind.
To address the question of how marketing educators can help to develop entreprising marketers, marketing educators and their institutions need first to determine what its mission is, in other words, the purpose for its very existence.
At the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center, our mission is to make a meaningful difference to humanity through entrepreneurship education. Hence, our purpose is not just to provide a paper qualification, but to provide a transformational journey that leads to life-long learning. It is a transformation learning journey to be transformers! Or in other words, entreprisers. Entreprisers do not only change – they transform where appropriate and not only where need be.
Entreprisingship education should not only focus on enabling students to acquire business know-how and entrepreneurship skill sets but is also meant to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set and appropriate entrepreneurial behavior. An example of a holistic Technopreneurship education is shown in the diagram below. This concept was developed by my predecessor, the late Professor Tan Teng Kee.
In developing a holistic entrepreneurship education, it would be useful to consider the Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought and Action (TETA) approach. After all, Babson must have got some fundamental things really correct to be ranked the world’s number one for entrepreneurship education by US News and World Report for so many years!
The TETA approach comprises two logics for creating the things that really matter to an entrepreneur – the Prediction (Managerial thinking) and CreAction (Entrepreneurial thinking) schools of reasoning. The former emphasizes inductive and deductive logic; mathematical tools and other analytic methods; rules of thumb. This is a core logic of virtually all educational settings and works superbly to the extent that the future can be divined or extrapolated from the past. The latter is favoured by serial entrepreneurs 89% of the time. It favours what is real and confirmable over projections and assumptions; smart actions trump analysis. This is suitable when the future cannot be predicted from the past and in extreme uncertainty or unknowability is the only logical choice.
According to Len Schlesinger, with such an underlying philosophy, CreAction proposes that entrepreneurs
- Act quickly with the means at hand
- Pay only what you can afford to and want to – Affordable loss
- Bring others along
- Build on the results you create and the things you discover
Critical questions one should ask include, “Who am I?” “What do I know or have?” and “Who do I know?”
It is interesting to note that Kathleen Eisenhardt, co-author of “Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos” argued that in more uncertain markets, strategies should be kept simpler and that unlike the traditional approach where for example, best managers analyse complex situations, develop strategic plans and gain consensus, in the edge of chaos, they discern patterns, think across time, engage in conflicts, and decide with speed.
A holistic entreprisingship education approach should employ both the Prediction (Managerial thinking) and CreAction (Entrepreneurial thinking) schools of reasoning according to Schlesinger, Keifer and Brown.
To get going, just thinking, and thinking very hard alone, will not help. Critical thinking does not result in outcomes.
Action speaks louder than thoughts! According to Thomas Edison, “the value of an idea lies in the use of it.”
Hence, entreprisngship education is not just about gaining theoretical knowledge but also applying entreprisingship concepts and frameworks in real life practices. It focuses not only on acquiring business knowhow but also sharpening the entrepreneurship skills set, learning entrepreneurial behavior, and developing an entreprising mindset as shown in Diagram 1.
The focus is not only on Content – theories and concepts such as entrepreneurship, business management, technology commercialisation, innovation etc – but also on the Context such as out-of-the classroom activities and Infrastructure, including facilities, establishing a network of academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, agency officials, NGO experts etc. Participants should also immerse themselves with the global, regional, and local business and non-business communities.
This requires building not just an educational platform but a whole ecosystem that fosters an environment conducive to developing an entreprising mind-set. No one single measure will be able to achieve this – it requires a multi- dimensional holistic approach.
Taking a leaf from the Nanyang Technological University’s Technopreneurship education, a holistic entreprinsingship education encompasses many dimen- sions including for example:
- A Multi-cultural; Cross-disciplinary approach that involves students, educators and support staff
- Strategic Alliances (global and local network and support)
- An updated and relevant curriculum
- Extra-curricular activities
- Pedagogical methods and facilities
- Research and learning materials
A Multi-cultural; Cross- disciplinary approach that involves students, educators, and support staff
Rob Wolcott, Director of the Kellogg Innovation Network, and author of the corporate entrepreneurship book “Grow from Within” argued that often good ideas are sparked at the intersections of different disciplines rather than from just within one single discipline. This calls for a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural approach, with students, educators, and support staff from a wide spectrum of different disciplines and cultures. The diversity and freedom from a single- disciplinary bias brings a much richer flow and cross-fertilization of ideas, even though more efforts need to be infused to manage the conflicts and frictions arising from differing cultural and disciplinary backgrounds and viewpoints. For example, for a technopreneurship education programme, a multi- disciplinary approach would mean students, educators and support staff should ideally come from an IDEAS background:
I Innovation – Engineering and Technology etc
D Design – architecture, fashion etc),
E Entrepreneurship – Business, Economics etc
A Arts – sight, sound, smell, hear and taste
S Science including mathematics, scientific research etc
Strategic Alliances (global and local network and support)
New approaches and fresh perspectives would need to be injected. Entrepreneurship or even Technopreneurship education is such a dynamic and rapidly changing discipline that no one single institution can attempt to do it all alone. Hence, collaborations and identifying the right strategic alliance partner(s) to work with is crucial. Such partners need not and should not just be confined to educational institutions but the whole gamut of players in this discipline. At the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center for example, we work with and learn from not just academic institutions such as Stanford and Peking University, but also industry players, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, professionals, and policy makers in governmental agencies such as Spring Singapore (now part of Enterprise Singapore) and the Agency for Science Technology and Research.
An updated and relevant Curriculum (Inside the classroom)
The curriculum for an effective technopreneurship education is different from a mere combination of a typical MBA programme and an engineering education. The reference point for curriculum development is the mind of a technopreneur – not that of a business manager nor an engineer. Hence, a possible curriculum design is one that is modeled against a venture creation cycle with emphasis not only on core business theory and applications but also on creativity, technology, and innovation. Its contents should be regularly updated given the rapid hanges in the environment.
In Diagram 3 is an example of an earlier Technopreneurship education curriculum that was developed by my predecessor Prof Tan Teng Kee. Today’s curriculum would have been updated to include new areas of knowledge.
Extra-curricular activities (Outside the classroom)
Outside-the-classroom activities and interactions are important learning tools to develop one’s leadership skills, entrepreneurial thinking, networking abilities and working in teams.
These may include activities such as participating in team bonding exercises, workshops, entrepreneurship competitions, immersion programmes, internships, and others that some typical academics may deem unconventional such as adventure camps etc.
- Pedagogical methods and facilities (enablers)
The pedagogy should be relevant to the learning objectives and outcomes. A wide variety of methods should be employed, for example case-studies, seminars, role-plays, design-thinking, switching teacher-student roles, rocket- pitch and, overnight or short-period topic-specific compact courses. It is also important to have exposure to and interactions with as many different types of players, such as venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, start-ups, government officials, lawyers, design specialists, etc.
Adequate and appropriate facilities should be provided as enablers – these may include walls covered with writable and easy-to-erase paint, chilling out rooms, design thinking fixtures and fittings, free-flow innovation labs, mobile and online networking labs, games rooms, relaxation stations, food, and beverage facilities etc.
This can help create greater learning interests and as a Babson faculty, Professor Heidi Neck argues, experiencing a variety of pedagogies can help students practise entrepreneurship and help faculty transfer theory into action and vice versa.
A holistic entrepreneurial mind-set education should aim not only to develop the minds of its recipients, but also capture their hearts and further enlighten their human spirit – a philosophy from the Marketing 3.0 book by Kotler and Kartajaya.
- Research and learning materials
How much one learns is important; How much more one wants to learn is more important. Entreprisingship is a field that keeps changing and growing. It must be given a RUDE environment. Hence, continuous, and rigorous research and updated learning materials are important – be it academic or practitioner-oriented or a mixture of both. Marketing educators themselves must continue their own education – be educated themselves such as through research and writing and be educated by others such as attending courses, talks, seminars etc. No educator can effectively educate others if they themselves are not continuously educated.
Goals of an entreprisingship education
For any marketing education institution and educators, the goals of any entreprinsingship education would be to enable participants to develop the following:
Know-what: Business, entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation knowledge etc
Know-where: An entreprising mindset to search for opportunities and resources
Know-how: Entreprisingship skillset
Know-who: Networks and relationship building
Know-whom: Value of whom to share the fruits – society, community, loved ones, self
Know-why: Self-knowledge of one’s purpose in life; strengths and weaknesses and the human spirit.
Given that the landscape is ever- changing and as expressed by so many that change is the only constant in this world, developing an entreprisingship mind-set may mean departing from conventional educational approaches where we need a combination of BOTH the Prediction and Creation schools of thought and time and again asking ourselves: “Who are we?” “What do we know or have?” and “Who do we know?”
Self-reflections and turning these into behavior and actions are important to achieve entrepreneurial results and educational institutions should provide not just the tools but the right learning environment both within and outside the institution.
Students should be encouraged to adopt the 4Ps of an entrepreneurial mind-set to develop the mind, heart, and human spirit – Purpose; Passion; Perseverance; Principles:
Purpose: Do not just be different or do things differently; do things that can ultimately make a meaningful difference to humankind, however big or small and whether it is in job creation, adding social value etc.
Passion: Do what one likes to do; try to like what one has to do
Perseverance: When the going gets tough; the tough gets going
Principles: Without integrity, all else falls apart and without a sense of social responsibility and contributing back to society, the fruits of success may not be adequately shared.
Entreprisingship education serves not only to stimulate intellectual growth for individuals but also to help further raise the standard of living for people and improve human welfare. Arguably, Ewing Marion Kauffman is exemplary to the world of entreprisingship and one of the slogans of the Kauffman Foundation which he founded, is very telling indeed – “Growing economies; Expanding Human Welfare.”
Conclusion
The world is changing – are we? Gandhi has strongly advocated that you must be the change you wish to see in this world – and we must contribute to changing for a better world – which is the entreprisingship spirit.
Especially in a RUDE environment, if we have neither the will power nor the means to change, we will remain static, if not complacent. Entreprisingship and not complacency is what is needed for a better world and to help raise the standard of living.
In this process, marketing educators play a very important role to help develop entreprising marketers so that resources, limited as they are, can be fully utilized. As educators, do not see yourselves as just offering a paper qualification, see yourselves as offering a transformation journey. Educators are not just teachers; they are inspirers!
About the Author
Hermawan Kartajaya
Hermawan Kartajaya is the co-founder of the Asia Marketing Federation, Chairman of the International Council for Small Business Chapter Indonesia (ICSB-Indonesia), and Chairman of ACSB (Asia Council for Small Business). In 2003, he was named by the United Kingdom’s Chartered Institute of Marketing on the list of “50 Gurus Who Have Shaped the Future of Marketing” that includes the likes of Philip Kotler, David Aaker, Gary Hamel, Tom Peters, and Seth Godin. In 2009, he received the Distinguished Global Leadership Award from the Pan-Pacific Business Association at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He also received a Lifetime Achievement in Marketing Award from Jawa Pos and also from the Marketing Institute of Singapore (MIS), an honorary doctorate from ITS Surabaya, Honorary Fellowship Award from Marketing Institute of Singapore (MIS), and Institute Marketing of Malaysia (IMM).
Hooi Den Huan
Hooi Den Huan is an Associate Professor at the Nanyang Business School and a past Director of the Nanyang Technopreneurship Centre, NTU Singapore. He is a Supervisory Board Member of the Asia Marketing Federation Foundation and the Asian Council for Small Business Foundation. Together with Philip Kotler and Hermawan Kartajaya, they have co-authored five bestselling books (one of these is also with Sandra Liu).
