在哈佛、沃顿、哥伦比亚，MBA创业热正如火如荼

    尽管哈佛商学院的招聘报告显示，2012-2014年间，因自行创业而未求职的学生比例一直在7％左右徘徊，但据该院称，毕业15年时，其半数毕业生都成了企业家。香农表示，哈佛毕业生创业时机选择背后的一大因素是学生贷款。为了帮助毕业生创业，哈佛商学院每年给出20到25个债务减免名额，各减免1万-2万美元。香农表示：“你必须是创始人，有一个具有吸引力且已经展现出价值的创意。”两年前，鉴于对债务减免的需求增加，香农为该项目申请并获得了更多资金，将减免上限提升到2万美元。

    在顶级商学院中，对于将自家毕业生培养成哪种企业家，各家区别明显。菲茨杰拉德称，沃顿商学院到处都是急于创业，想要复制该院校友成功故事的MBA学生。该院校友大获成功的初创企业包括基于智能手机的支付应用程序开发商Venmo；眼镜零售商Warby Parker；初创企业投资公司SeedInvest；以及2010年被亚马逊以5.45亿美元收购的婴儿用品公司Quidsi。

    菲茨杰拉德表示：“他们看到了上述公司的成功，并认识到自己的初创企业也真的有可能获得成功。”

    佐勒称，在凯南-弗拉格勒商学院，他们正采取与众不同的方式，对抗媒体千篇一律的将成功企业家描绘成史蒂夫•乔布斯和拉里•佩奇那样的专家所形成的刻板印象。佐勒说：“我们发现，企业家其实大都是普通人，他们经营的企业做出巨大贡献，但他们不见得都是社会名流。”

    高等教育顾问、Eduvantis创始人蒂姆•韦斯特贝克表示，在某些商学院，企业家被浪漫化，大家对企业家存在一定程度的“英雄崇拜”。 韦斯特贝克说：“我与几位商学院院长有过交流，他们私下对大肆宣传成功企业家的光辉事迹表示担忧，这些事迹虽然鼓舞人心，但可能对学生并不公平，因为这无益于他们培养面对创业重重困难所需的技能，这些困难包括资金困难、不可避免的失败、健康问题、家庭破裂和冲突、孤立无援、极端压力，以及长期需要钢铁般的意志。”

    “这些都是企业家所需的基本技能和能力，但商学院对此的注重和培养可能并不够。”

    并非所有商学院都将重心放在培养学生的创业能力上。凯南-弗拉格勒商学院的佐勒表示：“我们决定，不做创业方面最厉害的商学院，而是在帮助企业成长方面做到最好。我们正在设计一个项目，不仅支持大企业的管理培训，而且支持高成长性企业的管理培训。”

    佐勒称，凯南-弗拉格勒商学院将重点放在培养学生在高成长性企业担任管理职位，或者成为创业型以及成长型企业的出资人。佐勒说道：“不做创始人，你也有很多种方式参与创业企业。”

    菲茨杰拉德则表示，上述理念与沃顿商学院学生的雄心壮志存在冲突。菲茨杰拉德说：“沃顿商学院的学生绝对是A型人格，他们可能更倾向于出去创办自己的企业，而不是将创业能力用于为雇主效力。”

    菲茨杰拉德称，虽然沃顿商学院的学生可能会从校友的成功中得到启发，但这并不意味着该院在鼓励英雄崇拜。菲茨杰拉德说：“试图照搬反传统者的模式并不管用。如果你不忠于自身商业模式和使命，你很快就会失败。”

    菲茨杰拉德表示，从人口统计学上讲，商学院毕业生在有机会时创办企业合情合理。菲茨杰拉德说：“事实上，就经济角度而言，你27岁时就开办新创企业，要比你等到33岁再创业更可行，因为到时候你可能已经结婚，而且有了一两个小孩。

    不过，哥伦比亚大学商学院的尤金郎创业中心用了一条标语来概括定义企业家精神，其中包含了“内部企业家精神”这个描述现有公司中企业家精神的流行词。该标语——“思考、开始、成长”旨在表明，任何组织，不论其大小或历史长短，都需要创业精神。

    尤金郎创业中心负责人文斯•庞佐表示：“‘思考’适用于所有人，不论你在哪里就职。当今世界瞬息万变，人们日益需要能像企业家一样思考。”

    哥伦比亚大学商学院发现，学生对创业的兴趣见长，该院将创业课程的座位数量逐年增加，并举办了研习会、专门小组以及其他活动，探讨创业过程中的危险信号以及为创业企业融资等主题。两年前，哥伦比亚大学开创了驻校企业家项目，当时有6名驻校企业家，今年已经有8名企业家。庞佐称，该项目旨在使学生获得进入特定行业和地区的教育和人脉切入点，与该校的创业参谋项目互为补充。庞佐介绍称，创业参谋是一个指导项目，包括30名校友，主要就战术和操作给出建议。

    香农称，哈佛大学的理念是，创业和内部创业源自同样的心态，即“突破思维定势”的心态。香农表示：“我们教授的是创业管理。”

    韦斯特贝克认为，各MBA项目在创业或内部创业上的既定目标不同，可归结为需要满足潜在学生对成功的渴望，不论他们是想创办企业，还是想在老牌企业工作。

    韦斯特贝克说：“每所学校都清楚，创业这个概念在新来的学生中很受追捧。它们同时也清楚，大部分学生最终不会成为成功企业家，而是会在别人创办的机构中就职。从某种意义上说，商学院在为有志成为企业家的人士培养老牌机构中增长火车头以及高价值员工所需要的技能。在老牌机构就职，最终同样可能获得丰厚回报，而且或许比创业更轻松些。”（财富中文网）

    翻译：Hunter

    审稿：李翔

    Although HBS recruiting reports show that the number of students who didn’t seek employment because they were starting their own businesses hovered at 7% from 2012 to 2014, half of its graduates are entrepreneurs by 15 years after finishing school, according to HBS. Student debt is a main factor behind that timing, McPherron says. To help graduates jump into startups, HBS gives out 20 to 25 debt reductions per year, valued at $10,000 to $20,000 each. “You have to be a founder with an idea with traction, that has shown some merit,” McPherron says. Two years ago, responding to increased demand for the reductions, McPherron asked for and received more funding for the program, which pushed reduction amounts toward $20,000, McPherron says.

    Among the top B-schools, there are stated divisions in what entrepreneurial roles they’re training their graduates to enter. Wharton, says FitzGerald, is chock full of MBA candidates champing at the bit to launch companies and replicate the achievements of Wharton alumni startups such as smartphone-based payment app developer Venmo; eyewear retailer Warby Parker; startup investor SeedInvest; and baby products company Quidsi, which was bought by Amazon for $545 million in 2010.

    “They see the successes of those companies and realize that there’s a real possibility that [their] startup can do well,” FitzGerald says.

    At Kenan-Flagler, Zoller says they’re taking a different approach, combating the media’s “prototype of the successful entrepreneur being the maven, the Steve Jobs profile, the Larry Page,” Zoller says. “We are finding that entrepreneurs are more everyday entrepreneurs, people who run businesses that are making huge contributions but may not be necessarily brand names,” he says.

    At some B-schools, entrepreneurs are romanticized and a degree of “hero worship” exists, says higher education consultant and Eduvantis founder Tim Westerbeck,. “I’ve spoken with several business school deans who privately express some concerns that celebrating the glorious side of a successful entrepreneur’s story, while it may be inspiring, does a potential injustice to students, because they don’t develop the skills they need to deal with the often terribly difficult dimensions of entrepreneurship: the financial hardships, the inevitable failures, health challenges, the family disruption and conflict, the isolation, extreme stress, and need for steely resilience for prolonged periods of time.”

    “These are the essential skills and competencies of entrepreneurs that are perhaps not being properly addressed in business schools.”

    Not all schools are focusing on giving students tools to start their own enterprises. “We’ve decided not to be the best school for startups,” Kenan-Flagler’s Zoller says. “We’re going to be the best school for ‘grow-ups.’ We’re building a program that serves not only to support management training for large enterprises, but also high-growth enterprises.”

    Kenan-Flagler is putting an emphasis on preparing students to enter executive positions in high-growth companies, or becoming funders of entrepreneurial and expanding businesses, Zoller says. “There are many ways that you can participate in entrepreneurial ventures without being the founder.”

    But at Wharton, such a focus would conflict with candidates’ ambition, FitzGerald says. “Wharton folks are certainly A-type personalities. They’re probably more inclined to go out and start their own company rather than bring that entrepreneurship talent in house.”

    While Wharton students may be inspired by alumni successes, that doesn’t mean Wharton is teaching hero worship, FitzGerald says. “Trying to follow iconoclasts’ models doesn’t really work,” FitzGerald says. “If you’re not true to your own business model and your own mission, you’ll fail really quickly.”

    Demographically speaking, it makes sense for B-school grads to take a leap into founding enterprises while they have the chance, FitzGerald says. “It’s actually more economically feasible to do your startup now when you’re 27 as opposed to at 33 when you may have a spouse and one or two kids,” FitzGerald says.

    However, Columbia Business School’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center uses a slogan to encapsulate a definition of entrepreneurship that includes “intrapreneurship,” the buzzword description of entrepreneurship within existing companies. The slogan, “Think, Start, Grow,” is intended to represent the need for an entrepreneurial approach within any organization, regardless of size or time in business.

    “The ‘think’ element is really for anybody, I don’t care where you go to work,” says Lang Center Director Vince Ponzo. “More and more, people need the ability to think entrepreneurially, just because of the rate of change.”

    Columbia is seeing heightened interest in entrepreneurship, adding seats every year to entrepreneurship courses, and holding workshops, panels, and other events on topics such as red flags in the startup process and financing ventures. Two years ago, Columbia opened its Entrepreneurs in Residence program with six residents; this year, there are eight. The program was developed to give students educational and networking entry points into specific industries and regions, to complement the school’s Entrepreneurial Sounding Board, a mentoring program involving 30 alumni who mostly advise on tactics and operations, Ponzo says.

    Harvard operates under the notion that entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship derive from the same mindset, of “breakthrough thinking,” McPherron says. “We’re teaching entrepreneurial management.”

    Westerbeck believes differences between stated goals on entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship in MBA programs can be chalked up to the need to address prospective students’ desire for success, whether they want to start companies or work in established businesses.

    “Every school knows that entrepreneurship as a concept is in high reported demand by incoming student populations. They also know that the vast majority of their students will not ultimately become successful entrepreneurs and will eventually go to work within an organization established by someone else,” Westerbeck says. “In a sense, it is preparing would-be entrepreneurs with the skills they will also need to be engines of growth and high-value employees within established organizations, which can be equally rewarding, ultimately, and perhaps less painful then the entrepreneurial life.”