Dare caught up with Eric Morse, Associate Dean of Richard Ivey Business School. Eric speacializes in entrepreneurship and says he is surprised how many people do not act upon an opportunity they discover. Eric oversees Ivey's Quantumm Shift Executive Education program. Excerpts:
What's the biggest myth you have come across about entrepreneurs?
A lot of people say entrepreneurs are just lucky. I didn't belive them to be true. A lot of acaemics have lived with that question and have pondered long.
Is it a case of right people at the right time?
It's usually about the combination of experience; industry contacts; customer and supplier influence. It's a pattern. It is seen before and they [entrepreneur] recognize. It's also that someone who recognizes an opprtunity are the ones who are looking for an opportunity. They are trying to look for it and they land it.
Individuals who recognize an opportunities also have experience on executing. They see a path to do something. It's tough to do something if we don't know anything about it. If we have seen it before then it seems easy.
How does your program help?
Doing without knowing something is tough. Entrepreneurship is a lot tough than it is thought to be. We help people look for opportunities, screen ideas which are interesting in a brief period of time. We encourage them to start off and make money from it.
We also talk about trouble people have. Most people do not know how hard it is to sell something without knowing it. We help students understand: "This is now a possibility that I have."
Richard Ivey School comes to India
Richard Ivey School is part of The University of Western Ontario. Ivey is a case based school. It is the largest producer of cases in Asia. Worldwide it is second only to Harvard Business School in cases. Ivey is doing research here in India with IIM Bangalore. Ivey works with ISB for case writing for India.
Ivey is planning to set up is base in India directly starting this year. It will focus on Executive Education, typically non-degree courses that are shorter programs for mid-level executives.
How do you help figure out what patterns to watch for?
We focus on training on, say, what was the problem that Bill Gates was looking to solve; how would you go about that; Gates didn't build DOS but found a better way to build it; obviously he saw an opportunity but never have thought it could turn out to be lot bigger.
Should we look at patterns that helped older generations of enterprise builders?
Case studies are contextual and context does matter. It matters if we are comparing a local business or a global business. You do have a mix of those types of things.
Is it any different to start up today. No. Are the tools different. Yes absolutely. Its a global market.
Do you believe in Entrepreneurship Quotient in any culture?
I don't know but I have never met a culture that discourages entrepreurshi.In Japan it is not encouraged much but not outright rejected. Its different in different cultures. Regulation, raising money and context change a lot.
What do you think of the boom in startup accelerators?
I don't think they have a tremendous chance for success. I am all for anything that encourages entrepreneurship. Most [accelartors] in America have not been successful. Those that are successful are the larger ones who have made it to a critical mass.
Can you talk of Ivey School's Quantum Shift program?
We select companies who are growing at 20 to 30 per cent rate and try and take them to the next level. In the past 9 years, we have brought together 40 very best companies in Canada. We put them in a room and ask them what do you need to be successful 5-10 years from now. All these have to be CEOs. The case methodology helps in drawing all the experience and build an expertise. KPMG and a large bank in Canada are sponsors and one of large newspaper is a partner.
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