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Entrepreneurship Education
Entrepreneurship Education
The unprecedented pace and scale of change in the world today is almost too great to comprehend. As
custodians of tomorrow’s leaders, business schools need to keep pace, otherwise their relevance and
impact could be terminally diminished. PRME is here to inspire and hold business schools account-
able for meeting this urgent challenge.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003186311-35
41 6 PA U L P O L M A N
More alarming still, these are all deeply interconnected issues, and the
lack of a coordinated response weighs heavily on the chances of driving
positive change.
Our global governance system is broken. International political coopera-
tion is lacking, multilateral institutions are marginalised and leaders of cour-
age and principle are in worrying short supply – too often playing not to lose
by protecting the status quo, rather than playing to win. COVID-19 has only
exposed humanity’s vulnerabilities even further and shown that we face mul-
tiple health, economic, social and environmental crises all at the same time.
As a consequence, trust is at an all-time low in many parts of society,
and this has given rise to increasing protests, voter apathy and the gradual
erosion of confidence in globalisation as a force for growth and prosperity.
It is clear that we have reached a critical inflection point and that we
urgently need to shift to a new model of economic growth – one that
promotes shared prosperity and protects the wellbeing of our people and
planet. If we are to successfully build back better, capitalism needs to be
redefined for the 21st century and, crucially, this must include delivering
the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Carving this new path will not be possible without business schools.
They sit at the nexus of society, their research informs and inspires and
their teaching prepares new leaders for the challenges of the future.
But business schools currently need to re-evaluate their own role in
society, due to digital disruption, increasing student demands for higher
quality and cheaper teaching and calls to have a broader purpose that helps
create cleaner and fairer economies.
There are two obvious imperatives where business schools need to act if
they are to stem declining MBA enrolments and win back confidence. First,
they need to quickly change their traditional models and methods of teach-
ing. And second, they need to think again about ‘what’ to teach students.
Business schools can seize this moment to emerge stronger and more
relevant than before. But they need to change and without delay. PRME and
its network of 800+ business schools is a key driver of this change.
A good leader is first and foremost a good human being. True leadership
is putting yourself to the service of others, knowing that by doing so you
are also better off yourself. It is about helping others succeed by inspiring
and uniting people behind a common purpose. It is not just about giving
energy. It is about unleashing it. It’s the ability to motivate others to higher
levels of performance.
This includes supporting people through mentoring, training and new
opportunities and, most importantly, in helping them to find their own
clear sense of direction. As Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, has said,
it is about helping people find their true north so they can become ‘genuine
and authentic’ leaders.
It is not about preaching or being self-righteous. Instead, moral leaders
are driven by purpose, inspired by elevating and supporting others and
guided by humility and understanding.
These are the leadership qualities business schools should now be
teaching.
inclusivity, equality and fairness, which should give us all hope about the
future.
If the world really is going to change, we can be certain it will be young
people who will make it happen. All business schools need to do is give
them the tools for the job. With the support of PRME, business schools can
and must step up to the challenge.