Unveiling the Entrepreneurial Mindset: A New Approach to Education

Entrepreneurial competencies

Bridging the gap in entrepreneurial education, our newly developed framework, comprising 15 principal competencies, offers universities a comprehensive tool to intentionally cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset. This innovative tool ensures a targeted, nuanced approach to fostering entrepreneurship, replacing hopeful coverage with intentional teaching.

Note: from this introduction page you can click through to our interactive framework where you may explore all the principal competencies and their sub-competencies. You are also able to download a pdf of the full framework from there.

Certain competencies distinguish the mindset of the successful entrepreneur

The entrepreneurial landscape, ever-changing and thrilling, is a captivating world of possibilities and challenges. At its heart lie certain competencies and capabilities that constitute the quintessential entrepreneurial mindset. It is these traits that often distinguish a successful founder and their venture. Moreover, even for those not intending to delve into entrepreneurship, these characteristics can prove invaluable. They are sought after by corporates and organizations alike, underscoring their broader relevance.

Understanding these competencies allows us to know what and how to teach entrepreneurship

As educators vested in the realm of entrepreneurial pedagogy, the comprehension of these competencies becomes crucial. It serves two fundamental purposes: it enlightens us on what to teach, and perhaps more importantly, how to teach it. The competencies, a blend of cognitive and non-cognitive elements, are not merely subjects to be communicated but traits to be nurtured. A deeper understanding of these elements provides us with a robust metric to gauge the efficacy of our educational programs in cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset.

A framework to help design, develop and measure programs has remained elusive

Indeed, significant work has already been undertaken in this sphere. Noteworthy examples include Saras Sarasvathy’s exploration of “effectuation,” the European Union’s EntreComp framework, and the initiatives by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NTFE). Yet, despite these substantial efforts, a comprehensive framework catering to the unique requirements of designing, developing, and implementing high experiential programs remains elusive.

“Standing on the shoulders of giants” we have developed a framework for program designers

Addressing this gap, we have synthesized our experiences and insights from existing research to develop a set of 15 principal competencies, each supported by several sub-competencies. The product of rigorous research, partially funded by an EU-based Higher Education Initiative, this framework promises a nuanced and holistic approach to entrepreneurial education.

We invite you to use this framework in your programs

We extend an invitation to universities developing and implementing entrepreneurial programs to utilize our work. Whether these programs form part of the accredited curriculum or are extra-curricular initiatives like accelerators or incubators, the framework can prove beneficial. Of course, the complexity and extensiveness of the framework mean it may not be fully covered by all programs, especially shorter ones. However, the framework enables educators to consciously choose which competencies to focus on, replacing reliance on hopeful coverage with targeted teaching.

Let us reshape entrepreneurial education together

Discover our framework at Mashauri Entrepreneurial Competency Framework  (MecFrame ) and join us on this exciting journey to reshape entrepreneurial education. We hope that, through deliberate design based on our framework, we can collectively nurture future entrepreneurs, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and mindset they need to succeed.

Over the weekend, I watched a fascinating interview of Chamath Palihapitiya sharing some valuable wisdom on a number of topics of interest to entrepreneurs and investors. Admittedly, I had not heard of him before – but he is the guy responsible for Facebook’s growth and AOL before then; and now founder at Social Capital … and so has some credibility.

The video is posted below and if you can spare about 30 minutes, it is worth watching. I am also posting my thoughts and takeaways in case you want a quick overview or a little more detail to see if you think it is worth viewing.

Note: the interview was conducted by the Founder Institute. Mashauri and FI overlap in a competitive space, but we acknowledge the great work they are doing.

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Thoughts on trends

Chamath discusses trends and likens them to a pendulum. His point is that the best ideas (and deals) are from companies who can adapt both sides of the extremes and still find a balance.

Gretzky skating to where the pucks goingMy personal takeaway was:
As founders, are we really building for the future? We tend to look at the mainstream companies in our industry and build something different to them and believe we are riding the future wave. I am not sure if we look hard enough at the future to see where that is going and try and build for that. Or using the one on my favourite metaphors, the skater Wayne Gretzky’s comment: “Skate to where he puck is going, not to where it is ….” Are you really building for where the puck will be?

 

 

Thoughts on investments

Chamath sees some sort of crash or at least an industry “reset” in about 3 years caused by some externality (he discusses a few). He makes some great points about companies not having to reach $1billion valuation to be successful as he discusses the craziness of the levels of investment in some B and C rounds. He shares some sensible thoughts about reaching a moment when it is time to just “buckle down and make this f$%^^ thing work” rather than chasing the next round of funding.

My favourite quote of the interview:
“Failure should be celebrated. Stupidity should not be”.

Thoughts on education

Chamath covers question at the end of the interview about education. He notes how it is now obvious that the US College system is fundamentally broken; but applauds the idea that Edtech is moving from a “save the seal” type mentality to one of recognising that it is about building and deploying human capital.

 

Mashauri has the mission of increasing the success rate of startups around the world. Beyond the acceleration programmes and training courses we host, we also share ideas and cases from successful founders to motivate and educate our users. Why not sign up to make sure you receive these articles when we publish them?