M.B.As and Entrepreneurship in India

Why is that M.B.A graduates in India are not inclined to start their own business?

Here are some reasons that I have come across...

- Huge pay packages after MBA, offered by the Corporate. Money like that offered at the age of 23 – 25 for most of them seems like a huge motivation to work for someone else. As a matter of fact about 60 percent of students in Harvard Business School are running their own business while in school.

- Cultural Issue: How many Indian parents can think that their son who graduated from top college is going to work in a garage? The thought itself might evoke strong emotions.

- The education system in India is not inclined towards developing entrepreneurs. The most that the system gives a young Indian is the knowledge but no way to implement it in the real world. Think of this, there are people through out the country with multiple degrees and they just can't talk in front of a crowd of ten people let alone any application of such knowledge.

- Yet another cultural Issue is of making money by running a business is still not considered as a good sign of character. Indians do not believe in materialistic aspects of life (well this is changing with every new generation though).

I believe, since 1947, with creation of jobs by the govt. there came an era of secured jobs and that unfortunately still exists in people's minds. What we have got in legacy is the worker attitude. I have come to know about an example where the student of MBA has gone on strike just for a silly matter. What we have here is not a culture where we can develop the next generation of entrepreneurs but we can still develop workers. No one wants to start their own company/business but all they want is to get a secured JOB.

I once spoke to my ex-boss on this subject he explained to me “we all want to work just for ourselves but the moment we decide to do so there is the next big job offer that comes knocking on our door.” There are many examples where people with brilliant idea were rejected owing to this mindset.

I can say that I am working against this mindset while being in the same system and I am sure there are many others like me who are willing to or already had started sail against the tide. Like me even they are looking to make a mark in this world with their entrepreneurial skills. But there are things which are proving to be barriers. Just to name a few there not too many examples to follow, lack of supportive environment and lack of information are of the key constraints in moving forward.

But if one looks around carefully they can find a lot of examples. I am looking, are you?

Sumit Jaswal

Tomorrow I will be talking about the 1st step towards been a young Entrepreneur with setting Personal Vision and Mission.

(Please leave comment on what you feel on this topic. Furthermore please don’t hesitate in disagreeing with me on this subject. I would love to hear from you.)