Thursday, April 9, 2009

Entrepreneurship - WTF is it?

One of things that I've wanted to look at since being at business school was to understand what entrepreneurship actually means. Who is an entrepreneur? Is it the person who has that great idea? Or is it the team that takes an idea and implements it? Luckily, some of the answers to these questions were answered in a few months.

If you are curious as to what those answers are, here it goes: Merriam-Webster defines an entrepreneur as "one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise." Pay attention to the word "risk". That to me is the core around which entrepreneurship is. So you dont necessarily have to come up with an idea to be an entrepreneur. If you can take an idea and build an enterprise around it, you are automatically taking all the above mentioned risks.

Once those questions were answered I asked myself "So it it is just a matter of taking risk, why do we need to go to business school to become an entrepreneur?" To answer that question I recruited a classmate of mine and off we went talking to entrepreneurs from Sloan. The result is an article published at Xconomy. Here is the link to it:

Can business schools teach entrepreneurship?

hope you have fun reading it?

later

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Happennings - Summer internship, CEOs, Private equity etc

So let me get this out of the way first:

-Summer internship! After months of networking like nobody's business I received two offers for summer internships in the last 10 days. It was an interesting feeling at first - I had to deal with the stress of taking one and saying no to another. Saying no to a VC is by the way something to be handled delicately (they are not used to hearing NO remember!) Anyway, I am psyched to be working at a Energy only VC fund for the summer! In Boston. I am not going to post the name for the obvious reasons but safe to say it is one of the biggest Energy only funds in the US and well known. 10 weeks from June to August. Excited to be learning from some of the veterns in the industry.

Moving on to other things:

-I noticed that Bloomberg online had an interesting article about Harvard Business School. Professors at HBS are going to prepare a case-study on the reputation hit that it has taken because of the CEOs involved in the financial mess. Apparently the brand has taken a bit hit and they are going to analyze it. Well, I would be interested in seeing what the case analysis brings out.

-I attended the MIT Private Equity symposium this weekend in Cambridge. I sat in on the energy panel and enjoyed what the panelists had to say. I ended up having lunch with them at the same table and got to hear what they are thinking of in terms of oppurtunity, affect of the stimulus package, and policy on investments in the energy space. (by the way I started using 'space' a lot in my writing these days, not cool!)

-We are going to have an Indian cultural function at MIT at the end of the April. yaay! Going to be exciting. Every ethnic group at MIT Sloan hosts a cultural event once a year and the Indian one usually coincides with Admit weekend II. Lots of dancing, indian beer, hopefully some skits etc. I am running logistics for the show and it should be a lot of work. There are supposed to be 400-500 people at the event and luckily one of my friends in the Boston area who owns an Indian restaurant will be catering the food. Should be a good time. If in the Boston area, you are welcome to join in.

-One of my roomates is a certified pilot with more than 400 hrs of flying. He is promising to take four of us on a flight from Boston to Cape Cod for Patriot's day weekend. Basically we will be flying out, eating lunch, and getting back! Sounds like an expensive lunch to me!

-My classmate and I just finished writing a new column for Xconomy about Business schools and Entrepreneurship. We interviewed several budding entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs and it was a good experience. Everyone had interesting things to say. Will post the link.

-Enough school stuff. What's new? Movies, I ended up watching quite a few movies during Spring Break. "Gomorah" (Italian mafia flick) was one which ended up being too slow and nothing worth remembering. Oh yeah, finally watched "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and it was a good movie. Let's see can't remember anything else.

-March madness! yaaaaay! How about them 'Nova wildcats? The last second shot to beat Pitt in the Elite 8 was fantastico. I am about to head out in a few minutes to watch the final four. Go 'Nova. On the flip side, I am 3rd from the last in my old colleagues' Pool! Whatever.

-Looks like Baseball season is upon us. I am amazed at how little I have followed baseball since I've been back in Boston. Ahhh, what b school does to you. I am hoping to go to a few games at Fenway this summer! Would be interesting to see how the Phillies defend, how the Spankees do with all that moollah that they've spent, and of course how Boston does with no Manny for the whole reason. And all you peeps who doubted Manny, get a life.

Allrite peeps, enjoy your weekend. Will be back with more later.

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