Entrepreneurship

It’s rare that I read news that actually has a near term affect on my life and those around me. I think we are bombarded with a lot of noise for the sake of infotainment. When I read a newspaper under a time constraint, I challenge myself on how much I can ignore, instead of seeing how many morsels of happenings I can suck from the headlines. So I derive some kind of mildly schadenfreudian pleasure from (non-catastrophic) news events that actually affect me and people around me.

Case in point. Recently a volcano blew in bankrupted Iceland. (My finance professor relayed a quip from their Brit lenders, “We asked for cash, they sent us ash”). Who knew that volcanic ash clouds could down airliners? Anyways, it has caused transportation chaos throughout Europe. To exacerbate things, the French rail network in the vicinity of Paris went on strike. That left only the Eurostar (Chunnel) line (remember two posts ago?) operating. People around me were definitely affected. A friend missed a UK interview, the CEO of the company that designs Ferraris could not fly in, and half the class missed a long-planned sports trip to Barcelona. But there's no reason why the volcano has to stop erupting anytime soon, so my flight to Singapore in early May is in jeopardy.

On with the week’s post. Entrepreneurship – A five-syllable buzzword if ever there was one. It captures imaginations, it instils fear. For some it represents dreams to be fulfilled, and for others I suppose it ranks with having root canal at the local dentist. I wanted to talk about INSEAD with respect to entrepreneurship. Distinct from departments such as Marketing and Strategy, which I think are all critical for entrepreneurial endeavours, INSEAD offers these courses specifically for Entrepreneurship on the Singapore campus.

Startup Bootcamp
New Business Ventures
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Entrepreneurial Field Studies
Building Business in China
Building Businesses in India
Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Brazil & Emerging Markets
Explorations in Social Entrepreneurship
Business Planning Workshop
Effective Fundraising for Entrepreneurs
Realising Entrepreneurial Potential
Private Equity (read, 'Venture Capital')
Entrepreneurship in Action

It’s actually impossible to take them all due to schedule conflicts. Even given the largest set of courses that don’t conflict with each other, I doubt that even the most entrepreneurially minded students would take them all take of them. After all, there’s other interesting courses like Business to Business Marketing, Strategy for Product and Service Development, and Economics and Management in Developing Countries.

I took the Startup Bootcamp weekend course already. This was a fantastic retreat, comprising fast paced business plan writing, cash flow formulating, and pitching competition. Thirty of us arrived to the offsite Friday evening, had an idea brainstorm, and formed into groups (companies). The next day, we clarified the ideas, fleshed out the business model, rigorously defined how cash is transferred from customers to ourselves, and after running cash flows in Excel, determined the net value of the company. Sunday we prepared our pitches to Venture Capitalists (VCs) - short and sweet, perhaps thirty seconds per person. Of course the preparation took much longer than this. As a model, the instructor brought in the former CEO of NASDAQ Europe. This added in the appropriate level of stress and sweat.

Some people may pursue the ideas coming out of this event, most probably will not. The point is that we all came away with a rigorous early stage execution formula applicable to any endeavour we will set out to accomplish in the future. I am most grateful to our instructors and entrepreneurs in their own right, Paul Keweine-Hite and Peter Sage for their offering their time. Photographed is the practice pitching session.

When I applied to INSEAD the first time, one of my biggest fears was that there wouldn't be other entrepreneurs or support for entrepreneurs on arriving here. After deferring to pursue my business, reapplying, and finally entering, I'm rather pleased with the enterprising aspirations of many of the folks I've met and what's on offer, although the final verdict for the courses won't come until after I've taken them.