DomoDomo@INSEAD

Born or Made, Create or Buy

Half of my P4 courses have started. You really get to see who's specializing in what now. The Finance Path has got ACF (Finance 3) and Super ACF going on, Private Equity, Options... The Marketing Path has got Market Driving Strategies and Brand Management going on. And Entrepreneurship has got the continuation of VOBM: Realising Entrepreneurial Potential, starring Tim Bovard, and New Business Ventures, introducing Steve Haslett.

You know you're getting into seriously real territory when Tim and Steve: 1. are not Professors anymore but serial entrepreneurs in their own sake, 2. both started their courses with heavy emphasis on the flip side.

What is the flip side?
First, they claim that entrepreneurs are most likely Born, not Made. It's even worse, you're born into a type vs. Risk -from buccaneer, promoter, farmer, to trustee.
Second, from the first time, we are seeing failure stories in cases. Two so far. Of course it's the real world, but, as Tim said his course is like a boot camp, I suspect it's also about scaring some participants off. I don't want to sound overly positive (or as someone once said in front of a famous French mineral bottle, read the label backwards*), but apart from serious takeaways like Cash is King and Never Ever give personal guarantees, the 2 INSEAD alumns took their fate pretty well indeed. It takes guts to come in front of MBAs who will know better a posteriori.

Tim and Steve also provide 2 approaches to Entrepreneurship: start-up a company, or buy and turn-around. I would say starting up is more for the buccaneer types, and buying up is more for the promoter types. I'll have the chance to go through both processes during P4 and hopefully P5 with 2 very interesting teams...


* The mineral water in question, of course, is EVIAN...

To learn about Entrepreneurs types:
http://www.robertcraven.co.uk/article-entrepreneur-traits-stimes.php

Labels: Entrepreneurship, NBV, P4 Courses, REP

posted by DomoDomo@INSEAD @ 10:15 AM