Don't get a business degree, get angry

Don't get a business degree, get angry

By Anita Roddick

I never went to business school. I went to the business schoolof life. And I did so from an early age. I was brought up in anItalian immigrant family with a work ethic that teetered on theverge of slave labour.

We got up each morning at five to make breakfast for the localfishermen in our café in Littlehampton and did not close until thelast customer wandered home. The other cafés opened at nine andshut at five. This was a clue to me about what makes some peopleentrepreneurs and not others. Our café was owned by ferociouslydetermined immigrants; the others were not.

This is an important difference and the reason that I do notadvise new entrepreneurs to submit themselves first to the rigoursof an MBA is that business schools do not understand it. Theconventional advice to budding entrepreneurs is that they shouldgroom themselves to be the whizz-kid with a suit and a fascinationfor spreadsheets that bank managers like.

Actually, potential entrepreneurs are outsiders. They are peoplewho imagine things as they might be, not as they are, and have thedrive to change the world. Those are qualities that businessschools do not teach. An MBA can give you useful skills that can beapplied to a life in business. But they will not teach you the mostcrucial thing: how to be an entrepreneur. They might also sap whatentrepreneurial flair you have as they force you into the templatecalled an MBA pass.

I often get asked to talk about entrepreneurship - even byhallowed institutions such as Harvard and Stanford - but I am notat all convinced it is a subject you can teach. How do you teachobsession - because often it is obsession that drives anentrepreneur's vision? How do you learn to be an outsider if youare not one already?

In the business school model, entrepreneurs are most at homewith a balance sheet, a cash-flow forecast and a business plan.They dream of profit forecasts and the day they can take thecompany public. These are just part of the toolbox of re-imaginingthe world: they are not the defining characteristics ofentrepreneurship. The problem with business schools is that theyare controlled by, and obsessed with, the status quo. Theyencourage you deeper into the world as it is. They transform youinto a better example of corporate man. We need good administrationand financial flair, after all, but we need people of imaginationtoo.

So here are 10 lessons that entrepreneurs need more than whatthey teach in business school.

Tell stories. The central tool for imagining the worlddifferently and sharing that vision is not accountancy. It has moreto do with the ability to tell a story.Telling stories emphasiseswhat makes you and your company different. Business schoolsemphasise how to make you toe the line.

Concentrate on creativity. It is critical for anyentrepreneur to maximise creativity and to build an atmosphere thatencourages people to have ideas. That means open structures, sothat accepted thinking can be challenged.

Be an opportunistic collector. When entrepreneurs walkdown the street they have their antennae out, uating how whatthey see can relate back to what they are doing. It might bepackaging, a word, a poem or something in a different business.

Measure the company according to fun and creativity.Business schools are obsessive about measurement. The result isvast departments of number-crunchers, but often little progress.What is most important in a company - or anything else - isunquantifiable.

Be different, but look safe. If you are different, youwill stand out. But do not take risks with people who can make thedifference between success and failure, especially if you are awoman trying to borrow money from the bank - which is how I came tobe turned down for my original loan.

Be passionate about ideas. Entrepreneurs want to create alivelihood from an idea that has obsessed them; not necessarily abusiness, but a livelihood. When accumulating money drives out theideas and the anger behind them, you are no longer anentrepreneur.

Feed your sense of outrage. Discontentment drives you towant to do something about it. There is no point in finding a newvision if you are not angry enough to want it to happen.

Make the most of the female element. Companies as we knowthem were created by men for men, often influenced by the militarymodel, on complicated and hierarchical lines and are both dominatedby authoritarian principles and resistant to change. By setting uptheir own businesses, women can challenge these models and will bewelcomed by customers for doing so.

Believe in yourself and your intuition. There is a fineline between entrepreneurship and insanity. Crazy people see andfeel things that others do not. But you have to believe thateverything is possible. If you believe it, those around you willbelieve it too.

Have self-knowledge. You do not need to know how to doeverything, butyou must be honest enough with yourself to know whatyou cannot provide yourself.

Until they can teach these lessons, business schools will remainthe whited sepulchres of the status quo.

Dame Anita Roddick, founder of Body Shop, will speak at theBritish Library tonight for Enterprise Week on the subject ofCommerce with a Conscience.

中英文翻译 ：    http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001007976/ce