BLOG POST

by Dr. Pietro Borsano, Deputy Executive Director, Industrial and Global Alliances, & Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship & Core Business.

In the famous myth of the cave, the Greek philosopher Plato describes a group of people who have been chained in the depth of a dark cave, where they can observe only the shadows of objects, which they believe to be real. In this allegory, only philosophers, with decades of education (in the ancient Greek language, paideia), can achieve freedom, getting to know artificial objects, fire, a reflection of natural things, natural things, and finally, the sun. The rest of the prisoners would stay in the cave and wouldn’t trust that there is an entire world outside of the cave – instead, they would go as far as even killing whoever tries to influence them to get out of the cave.

Fast forward two thousand five hundred years, are we now in a position to help anyone else, besides philosophers, flee the cave?

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Entrepreneurship has earned pivotal importance in business schools’ curricula over the past decades, and it is now a fundamental course for any management program, following the practice of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action approach by Babson College, a paramount entrepreneurship education institution worldwide. 

In our transdisciplinary program, Entrepreneurship serves not only an introductory course to the whole Core Business curriculum, building the requirements for more advanced management courses, but helps establish a pedagogical methodology, a way to explore the unknown and prepare students for the future.

Why entrepreneurship? Do we expect that all the students will set up their own business?

The short answer to this is … no, we don’t. 

The value of entrepreneurship education – which can be defined as “entrepreneurial mindset” and “entrepreneurial initiative” – goes beyond creating a new venture. It pairs with the typical managerial thinking, which is more familiar to us. In fact, throughout decades of mandatory school education, we are primarily trained to adopt a predictive logic in our reasoning and problem-solving approach. The short explanation of predictive logic is – study, learn, understand, master your knowledge, and then eventually apply it by taking action.

Is This Approach Wrong? 

Again, the answer is no; it is not. However, besides being overly mainstream, it struggles to tackle the business dynamics of 21st century, where businesses battle to keep up with an exponential growth of technology and the disruption caused by unexpected, aggressive, and fast-paced digital competitors entering traditional industries – being them banking, transportation, or education. Additionally, predictive logic is not the most successful methodology for new innovations (especially in the very early stage of the product life cycle) and new product development – statistically, the odds are against new product developments. Studies show that only 67% of new products will still be in the market three years after their introduction.

This is where we can supplement – sometimes, even replace – managerial thinking with creative thinking, i.e. entrepreneurial mindset and initiative. The entrepreneur learns by taking actions, experimenting, pre-totyping (according to the landmark concept by Alberto Savoia). In a word, entrepreneurs explore the unknown. In the allegory of Plato’s cave, an entrepreneur will not wait for decades of paideia, but rather take some baby steps, touching the walls and the floor in the depth of the darkness, to test any path that is conducive to the exit from the cave. Throughout the entrepreneurial journey to the sun, entrepreneurs will progressively enrich their knowledge based on the feedback that they will receive by exploring new paths. We can see in this example all the main components of entrepreneurial exploration: take initiative, but in calculated and risk-mindful way (“baby steps” rather than “a giant leap forward”), utilize every resource available, test, iterate, and learn along the ride (life-long learning notion).

Why Teaching Entrepreneurship paideia Then?

For its mindset. For the ability by students to explore the unknow and get out of the cave with a proven methodology and a relative safe approach. In fact, entrepreneurs are not a gambler, but they rather take calculated risks with the acceptance of limited potential losses.

By nurturing this mindset since an early age, learners are equipped with an additional intellectual resource to thrive in their academic, professional and, perhaps, even start-up adventures!

Also Read our previous BLOG POST: Post-Pandemic – A Great Opportunity to Reset