UK business school awards innovators

As the first business school in the United Kingdom offering a MBA in entrepreneurship, Manchester Business School (MBS) has provided vast advice for budding entrepreneurs. After seeing students' desire to embark upon self-made startups are on the upswing in China and while also facing shrinking recruitment demands, MBS then decided to snap up the opportunity to raise recognition in the country by launching a Business Innovation Award in the hope of tapping innovative ideas and promising young leaders in China.

Nigel Banister, chief global officer & CEO of MBS Worldwide, recently spoke with China Business Weekly reporter Zhou Yan about the emerging awareness of entrepreneurship triggered by current economic hardship, and how business schools will be transformed by the financial crisis.

Q: The Business Innovation Award organized by Manchester Business School has been held in the UK for three years, but it's the first time in China. Why?

A: Within Manchester Business School, we have a center for enterprise, covering not just the business school, but activities across the university and out into business sectors. It's a successful center, and there are 40 spin-out companies that come from works the students have done. And there are many other companies we support through our incubator within our business school, giving them facilities and so on. So we're much involved with enterprise innovation. And we also offered competitions outside the UK and we've seen it's very appropriate to launch the competition here in China now, as China is very enterprising, and we know that small-and medium-sized companies are the backbone of Chinese economy, and have seen many entrepreneurial activities taking place in China. So we hope this competition will allow us to identify some budding entrepreneurs and help them bring their ideas to commercial reality.

Q: What kind of expectations do you have from this competition?

A: We'd like to stimulate many potential entrepreneurs to think about their ideas, and to think more seriously about launching a business. If it helps to motivate them to structure their thoughts, then we can give them some feedback on that. That will be great!

Q: We've seen a great number of SMEs in China go into bankruptcy during the economic meltdown. What kind of characteristics should entrepreneurs possess to survive this economic hardship?

A: Entrepreneurs have to be optimistic and believe in what they're doing. Optimism obviously is a characteristic that we expect to find in them. Many people think they're risk takers, but in fact they're very less likely to take risks. Instead, they're more likely to be people who think out the risks and think out how they can overcome them. So it's likely that the one who is more successful are those who appear more capable at planning their business, and able to sustain the difficulties like cash flow during the downturn.

That's also where the teaching comes in. If people are taught the ways that they can best identify the best opportunities, and how they can then bring those products or services to the public, and how they can manage growth of the business, then these techniques will help them. Therefore, I'll expect those who have a good idea, and a very good planning and managing skills will take their enterprise forward and become successful.

Q: People say that the key role for business schools right now is changing to put the economic disorder in context. Is it true from Manchester Business School's perspective? And how business schools will be transformed by the financial crisis?

A: It's an interesting time for business schools. People are questioning and don't know the answers, so the governments or large companies wanting to look at the ways to manage their risks and set the rules will turn to very experienced academics for advice. Certainly, it's a time when those people and faculty of ours have been called already to assist with those areas, trying to strengthen some regulations, and suggesting how risks could be managed better.

It's notable in recent years, sectors like the retailing industry have particularly done things to support research and education in areas like sustainability and ethics. I think now many of those initiatives have come from other sectors other than the finance sector. I think it's quite likely now that we'll see more engagement with the finance sector in terms of these subject areas, and it'll be seen by many large companies that operate in an ethical way is good for business as well. Therefore, those gradates that have studied those subjects might be more popular in the future.

The financing industry is obviously the major destination for top MBA graduates, and the opportunities temporarily will be less, so many more of these graduates are likely to find ways into other sectors. But I don't think top MBA graduates from top schools are going to find it difficult to find a career, but maybe temporarily less of them will go into investment banks.

During difficulties, where there are industries changing totally and large redundancies taking place, you'll find that many people decide to try to start their own business. That's always a factor when you have economic conditions like this. Therefore, business school graduates may consider that although working for multinational companies has its rewards, it also might have its risks in the future. And more will be eager to start their own businesses.

(China Daily 02/09/2009 page6)