A Business Incubator for Startups
A Microcosm for New Venture Creation

The objective of the centre is to imbue in students a sense of enterprise coupled with entrepreneurial skills. We are committed to producing graduates who have the confidence and the ability to set up and run their own business enterprise rather than spend their careers working for others. We want our graduates to be involved in the creation of wealth and the generation of economic activity of their own rather than becoming a clog in the wheels of foreign enterprises.

Philosophy

Most business schools in Pakistan are geared towards developing managers and not entrepreneurs. The key difference between an entrepreneur and a manager is the ability of the entrepreneur to take the risk (investing his/her time, effort, and money) and not only to conceive an idea but also to implement the idea into a commercial/social venture with the objective of earning economic/social profits from it.

It is the ability to convert a business idea into a commercial venture that is at the heart entrepreneurship. Experience shows that it is a spirit that is seldom acquired through teaching but can only be acquired by ‘doing the thing’. Traditional courses like Entrepreneurship and Small Business Finance only teach the nuts and bolts of conceiving and implementing a business idea. They do not generate the entrepreneurial spirit that is necessary for a business graduate to take the risk of starting a new business venture and sacrifice the opportunity cost of gaining a secure salary stream from a job.

We have come to the conclusion that the only way of generating entrepreneurial spirit among the business graduates is to incorporate the experience of starting a new business venture as a part of their business curriculum. It is precisely the deficiency of hands on “experience” in the curriculum of our Business Schools and lack of role models that is at the heart of the failure of the Pakistani Business Schools to produce entrepreneurs.

Another major reason why business graduates end up working on fixed salary as a manager rather than taking the risk of starting their own venture is the fact that starting a new business venture is a team effort. To start a new venture it is imperative that a team of like minded people having the entrepreneurial spirit and the same zeal and commitment towards their project is created – a team that is ready to undertake the effort and to make the economic sacrifice (opportunity cost of money, time and effort) necessary to achieve their dreams. It is therefore imperative that a team of like minded people takes its shape during the period of their education. It is during this period that a spirit of camaraderie between the students is developed. It is this spirit that needs to be harnessed before they graduate for imparting the entrepreneurial experience.

Entrepreneurship Integrated Curriculum

Our business program has now the distinction of taking the lead in incorporating the “entrepreneurship experience” as an integral part of the curriculum. Students joining the BBA and MBA programs automatically become a part of a process that provides the “entrepreneurship experience” through a business startup in groups of up to five students. Each group of students would be assigned a project to setup an enterprise during their stay at the institute. The project would be linked to strategically designed courses in successive semesters that would motivate the students and would help them in conceiving the idea, planning, financing, marketing and managing the growing enterprise. By the end of the degree program the student would have had the satisfaction of being the creator of an enterprise and running it.

First course in the series is “Entrepreneurs of Pakistan” that is designed to provide exposure to the practice of entrepreneurship through Pakistani role models. “Entrepreneurship” is the second course that would provide the foundations for the study of entrepreneurship and ingredients for developing a business plan for a new business venture and its critical success and failure factors. The plan will have to be of a micro-level business which is executable given the resource constraints of the student groups. The Entrepreneurship Project 1 and Entrepreneurship Project 2 will actually involve the implementation of the business plan developed earlier. Students may like to further develop their business in the final year project. It is quite possible that quite a few of these businesses may fail, but there will also be some that will prosper and blossom into successful enterprises. But the significance of our idea is the generation of the experience of converting an idea into a commercial venture and its operation; it is an experience that cannot be replicated through the medium of teaching.

Consultation and Advisory Services

Center for Entrepreneurship is an advisory body as well as a business incubation centre involved in advising as well as nurturing the students groups for the duration of their business startup projects.

The Center is responsible for ensuring the success of the “entrepreneurship experience” that is now an integral part of the BBA and the MBA curriculum. The center develops the courses and provides resources for initiating and monitoring the progress of the enterprises started by various groups of students. It is responsible for providing guidance and counseling for such groups at various stages of their projects.

Advisory services include generation and stimulation of new business ideas, business feasibility planning, inviting entrepreneurs for motivating the students and sharing of experiences, and development of entrepreneurship case studies.