The Entrepreneur – Born or Made?

17 Oct The Entrepreneur – Born or Made?

Dear entrepreneurs,

         I think that there are clear cases of entrepreneurs born with an innate ability to create businesses; Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Amancio Ortega…people who have developed a special talent for seeing the world in terms of opportunities, detecting needs and successfully fulfilling them. But it is equally true that there is another class of entrepreneur, somewhat late in developing, who manage to launch their own businesses after a spell working in someone else’s’ employ. In many of these cases I have heard people repeating the same phrase; if only I had started earlier….

    In any case, regardless of the origin of their talents, entrepreneurs also need training. Managing business successfully in today’s reality is especially complex due to ever increasing competitiveness in the marketplace, increased globalization and rapidly changing markets. Arguably the ability to detect new opportunities is a skill which born entrepreneurs don’t require training to develop but, on the other hand, they do need training to improve their skills in risk management, talent management, stakeholder management, corporate governance, innovation management, managing growth, managing internationalization…In summary, the transition from a business idea to a successful business organization require a combination of skills which rarely exist in one single individual regardless of how intelligent, hard-working and motivated they may be. It requires a team and, of course, training.

From its beginnings IE Business School has always supported entrepreneurship. Originally our focus was on explaining the need for business creation and showing the value of entrepreneurs to modern society. Later we began to include entrepreneurship in the curriculum of many of our Master programs with the aim of helping young post-graduates with entrepreneurial acumen. Additionally, we launched many initiatives to tutor entrepreneurs and give them access to potential investors in their projects.

 IE’s Top Management Programs are now taking this a step further with the launch of the Owners and Entrepreneurs Management Program, a program  which is designed to help already successful entrepreneurs grow their businesses further, innovate and internationalize.

 At the end of the day we believe that a more entrepreneurial society is a better society. Our responsibility drives us to continue with a task which for many of us has become a life’s vocation.

 Until next time, try to be happy, which is after all the most important thing and we look forward to your comments.