It's a big question, one that conjures up many different perspectives; a question that I had the chance to briefly ask to one of my favourite professors. David Brown is currently teaching in (and helped build) one of UTS’s flagship degrees: the MBA Entrepreneurship. David’s work spans many research areas, and his fascination with integrating principles of entrepreneurship within curriculum across the university sector made him an ideal candidate to help me investigate why it is that we are so fascinated by entrepreneurship, and what value it really brings to industry in terms of graduate attributes.
One question I have, is around the amount of focus being given to students who want to work on their own entrepreneurial project. The data shows that 40% of students at UTS want to be their own boss at some point. In the UTS landscape, we are hearing about startups, opportunities to learn entrepreneurship, places where your startup can be fostered and grow – what benefit is there to industry if we are constantly 'teaching' these startup principles to students? Surely it’s a risky thing to be doing?
“Many employers we speak to are looking for 'intrapreneurship'. Jochen Schweitzer, who directs the MBA Entrepreneurship would say that many students involved in that degree are coming from the perspective that they want to bring values and principles of entrepreneurship into corporate environments. We are talking about skills and knowledge that apply to projects and activities regardless of whether they are inside a larger organisation.
As you would remember, in the subject which I taught (Opportunity Commercialisation), part of the thrill was in building something together, as we were teaching it. There was collaboration involved the whole way through that process, and input both from faculty and from the students enrolled.”
So around these skills in 'entrepreneurship', you would say that students can take those and apply them to many different settings? Not just in relation to their own projects?
“Yes. Students who have been involved in entrepreneurship have capabilities that make them valuable. They are far more likely to initiate in situations and are likely to apply innovative techniques to problem solving. All of these traits give them an advantage, in my view, over students who have not had an opportunity to be entrepreneurial. They have a different view on the nature of responsibility within organisations, what you would call more of an 'enterprise mindset'.”
“It’s not just about a job to them. They are thinking about the way that they fit into a business from a bird’s-eye view. The sense of responsibility around their role is greater, because they are thinking 'how can I make this place better'.
Once you think like that, it’s extremely difficult to switch it off. And that affects different parts of the organisation in which they work.”
So in terms of focussing more on entrepreneurship and on startups means we're actually producing graduates who are more valuable to industry?
“Exactly. When we look more broadly at the University, industry partnerships are interlinked across almost every single piece of the puzzle. The University, as a whole, has strategic partnerships which enable many of the projects we undertake. Each faculty then has industry partnerships which feed into the way curriculum is designed. Each discipline group then, is also able to engage and involve industry in specific course material, whether it be through practice-based learning for students, sponsoring scholarships, etc.
Academics are also often involved in industry, either as part-time teachers who hold a position within a firm, as consultants, board positions, or perhaps they simply work to include an industry perspective within their subjects because they see the value in doing so. UTS has a symbiotic relationship with the different networks and you can see that through the employability of graduates. This ethos manifests itself in the way we do almost everything as a faculty and I see this across the University as a whole. We want to be known as a university that is ‘good to do business with’, and I think we are.”
How important is it that UTS listens to the needs and wants of industry?
“Much of the work we do is around accreditation within the industry, across the variety of courses we offer. Obviously relevant to my area are things like accounting, MBA’s, etc. This ensures that what we teach is at a certain level and quality, and internationally recognised.
The way we engage industry helps us to continually be looking at the content we teach and the methods we use.
We are aiming to see graduates leave work-ready. This means understanding the industries in which they want to work. Students need to have experience working within those industries.
There isn’t a need to retrain, because there are parts of the job function which have been missed in their education – UTS students need to hit the ground running.
This means we are constantly looking at employer feedback, student and alumni responses and finding ways to improve what we offer. Within this, we also look to innovate around course delivery. The MBA is a good example of this; we realised that not all prospective students wanted to transition into traditional MBA management roles. They were looking at ways to build their own knowledge and experience so that they could bring something unique.
There were elements that were not being taught within traditional course structures and so we developed new offerings. Having said that, we embed principles of innovation through the degree, because that is something we identify as valuable to employers. For instance, take driving factors of success and failure within firms. This sort of learning is critical to entrepreneurs desiring to work on their own startups, just as it is to the firms we are learning from, who desire to learn from successes and mistakes.”
I’ve also been really enjoying the ‘Think Business Futures’ Podcast; how does that support the University’s’ efforts to engage across different industry stakeholders?
“Well, it’s been fun. I really didn’t expect that it would build the sort of following it has. Our aim in that project is to get right into the ‘why’ behind the what – really de-mystifying some of these buzz words that have become common within the business community and entrepreneur communities.
We are talking about concepts that anyone can understand and access, and bringing in experts in each field who are able to give us deeper insight. I would hope that regardless of your background, you would be able to engage and consider the topics we cover, and able to form your own views on what are some pretty important societal issues.
About David Brown:
Professor David Brown is the Associate Dean of External Engagement for the Business Faculty at the University of Technology Sydney.
His research and teaching is primarily focused on how to design and use management and accounting systems to address behavioural, decision-making, and coordination problems in organizations.
David’s research interests span environmental sustainability, mental models, decision-making, interorganizational research contracting, open strategy and innovation, sustainable agriculture, and management of research performance in universities.
He has undertaken a range of projects with CPA Australia, including a joint research project with the Strategic Business Management Centre of Excellence on factors that influence the adoption of Activity-Based Costing & Management in Australian Firms, as well as projects on the current use of the Balanced Scorecard and Predictive Business Analysis in Australia.
He is also part of the team on the new 'Think Business Futures' podcast alongside Nicole Sutton, produced at UTS by 2SER.