在哈佛 沃顿 哥伦比亚 MBA创业热正如火如荼

On their Kickstarter video, Columbia Business School MBA candidates Connor Wilson and Nolan Walsh stand in a room where a group of male and female models cavorts around a pile of boots and shoes as they shower dollar bills upon it. “Welcome to the world of fast fashion,” Walsh says. “Models, celebrities, and huge advertising budgets, all designed to sell us inferior products that wear out quickly.”

在众筹网站Kickstarter上发布的宣传视频中，哥伦比亚商学院MBA学生康纳o威尔逊和诺兰o沃尔什站在一个房间里，一群男女模特围着一堆靴子和鞋子欢欣跳跃，而威尔逊和沃尔什则朝着那堆鞋子撒美钞。沃尔什说：“欢迎来到快时尚的世界，模特、名人以及巨额广告预算都是为了向我们兜售不耐穿的劣质产品。”

The Kickstarter campaign set a record for sales in the first 24 hours, and Wilson and Walsh have received more than $275,000 in orders for their $199 Thursday Boot Company boots. Production started about a few months ago.

这则视频在24小时内带来了一个销售记录，威尔逊和沃尔什的星期四靴业公司接到了超过27.5万美元的订单，购买他们199美元一双的靴子。该产品已于数月前开始生产。

“I really like the idea of growing something small into something big,” says Wilson, a former investment analyst and portfolio manager for Thornburg Investment Management.

威尔逊之前是索恩伯格投资管理公司的一名分析师及投资组合经理，他表示：“我真的很喜欢这种将小业务做大的想法。”

The two Columbia MBAs are part of a striking trend among business school students toward entrepreneurship. MBA program officials are seeing dramatic growth in student demand—including, for example, annual increases of 20% to 30% at Harvard Business School—for entrepreneurship-related offerings. Increasingly, MBAs are rushing to apply their business skills to their own enterprises.

威尔逊和沃尔什两人是商学院学生创业热潮的真实缩影。MBA项目工作人员发现，学生对创业相关课程的需求显著增加，比如说在哈佛商学院这一需求的年增幅为20％-30％。越来越多地， MBA学生正迫不及待的将其商业技能应用于自有的企业。

The Graduate Management Admission Council’s recently released 2014 Alumni Perspectives Report reveals a significant rise in the number of business school graduates launching new businesses. From a survey of self-employed alumni who graduated from 1959 to 2013, GMAC has found that 45% of 2010-2013 grads started businesses directly after finishing B-school, while 80% of self-employed alumni from years past worked several years for an employer before embarking on entrepreneurial ventures.

美国管理专业研究生入学考试委员会新近发布的2014年校友展望报告显示，创办新企业的商学院毕业生大大增多。该委员会对1959至2013年毕业的个体经营者校友调查显示，45％的2010至2013届毕业生，刚从商学院毕业就直接自行创办企业。而往年毕业的个体经营者校友中，有80％的人是工作几年后才开始创业。

Wilson says he and Walsh, both 29 years old and interested in “fashion broadly and boots specifically,” identified a market gap between “precious,” costly boots sold at a high markup and “cheap, low-quality fashion brands.” They also saw an opportunity to combine the durability of work boots with a fashionable product, Wilson says.

威尔逊与沃尔什都年仅29岁，威尔逊表示，他们两人都对“整个时尚产业特别是靴子”很感兴趣，并且发现在标价过高的“高价”靴子与“廉价劣质的时尚品牌”间存在市场空白。威尔逊称，他们还发现了将时尚性与工装靴的耐用性相结合的商机。

Wilson say that he went to business school to become an entrepreneur, and he chose Columbia because of the quality of education, its focus on entrepreneurialism—Dean Glenn Hubbard has for more than a decade touted the school’s entrepreneurial offerings—and its location in New York City, now reported to be the nation’s second-largest startup ecosystem, behind Silicon Valley.

威尔逊称，他读商学院是为了成为一名企业家，而他之所以选择哥伦比亚商学院，一是因为该校教育质量卓越，且重视培养企业家精神——十多年来，哥伦比亚商学院院长格伦o哈伯德一直大肆宣传该院的创业相关课程；二是因为该校位于纽约，而纽约据报道目前是全美第二大创业基地，仅次于硅谷。

Columbia mentors, including 37 Angels founder Angela Lee, helped the two students, and they received assistance from the Columbia Startup Lab’s summer program, where they took advantage of office space, legal advice, and marketing expertise, Wilson says.

威尔逊表示，他和沃尔什获得了包括37 Angels创始人安吉拉o李在内的哥伦比亚大学导师的帮助，并得到了哥伦比亚创业实验室暑期项目的支持，后者向他们提供了办公场地、法律咨询以及市场营销专业知识。

“That was where we hashed out the idea that became Thursday Boots,” Wilson says.

威尔逊说：“创办星期四靴业的想法就诞生于此。”

Across the U.S., business schools are ramping up entrepreneurship programming, as students pursue dreams of lucrative innovation, and startup glory.

鉴于MBA学生纷纷追寻创业梦想，期望通过创新获得丰厚利润和辉煌成就，美国各地的商学院都在增设与创业相关的课程。

At the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School’s Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program, lecturer Patrick FitzGerald has seen a tripling in the number of his students setting forth post-haste into entrepreneurial enterprises over the last four years. Now, 7% of Wharton students are starting companies right after graduation, a five-fold increase over 2007, FitzGerald says.

宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院高尔根创业管理项目讲师帕特里克o菲茨杰拉德看到，过去四年来，匆匆进入创业企业的学生数量增长了两倍。菲茨杰拉德表示，如今，沃顿商学院有7％的学生毕业后立即自行创业，这一比例是2007年的5倍。

At the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, some 40% of the class of 2015, 103 out of 280 students, are studying entrepreneurship—a “recent surge,” says Ted Zoller, director of the school’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

北卡罗莱纳大学凯南-弗拉格勒商学院创业研究中心负责人泰德o佐勒表示，该院2015届学生学习创业课程的比例“近来激增”， 280名学生中有103人在学习此类课程，占比约 40%。

“Entrepreneurship is entering the mainstream in the economy and therefore it’s starting to enter the mainstream in the business schools,” Zoller says. “You’re starting to see people increasingly seeking out high-growth venturing as a pathway for their professional success.”

佐勒表示：“创业正成为经济的中流砥柱，因此，它也开始成为商学院的主流。越来越多的商学院学生正在寻找高增长性的创业机遇，作为通往职业成功的途径。”

The U.S. tech boom, expanding from the West Coast, has served as the primary impetus toward entrepreneurship, Zoller says.

佐勒称，由美国西海岸蔓延开来的科技热潮是创业热的主要推动力。

“We’ve seen really the rebirth of Silicon Valley, and the most important companies that are making strides are the ones that have IPO’d in the last five years,” Zoller says. “Students are increasingly interested in these types of companies.”

佐勒说：“我们见证了硅谷的重生，那些正快速发展的大牌企业，很多都是在过去5年内上市的。学生们对此类企业的兴趣日益浓厚。”

At the same time, technological advances and the availability of cheaper talent, such as skilled bachelor’s degree graduates, outside Silicon Valley have made it easier and far less expensive to start companies, FitzGerald says.

菲茨杰拉德表示，与此同时，技术发展以及在硅谷以外雇佣娴熟的本科生的成本下降，使得创业更加容易，创业成本也大大降低。

“Where it used to cost $200,000, you can now build a company for half that,” FitzGerald says. “You can build something quite quickly and quite cheaply.”

菲茨杰拉德表示：“过去，创建一家公司需要花费 20万美元，如今只需花一半的钱。现在，你可以实现迅速且低成本创业。”

As these tech-driven companies are spreading, highly ranked business schools are right on their heels, Zoller says. “Any top 20 business school needs to be relevant in every technology hotspot,” Zoller says. “You’re seeing all the major business schools focusing on New York, Chicago, Boston, Silicon Valley, and increasingly overseas: Shanghai, London.

佐勒表示，随着这些科技驱动型公司不断扩张，顶尖商学院正紧随其后。佐勒说：“排名前20的商学院都需要占据所有技术热点地区。我们可以看到，美国各大商学院正聚焦纽约、芝加哥、波士顿、硅谷，并日益关注海外，比如上海、伦敦等地。”

“In tomorrow’s business market, business schools will need to be where the greatest growth is.”

“在未来的商学院教育市场上，商学院需要占据增长最快的地区。”

Many schools are planning satellite operations in these tech hubs, and they are forging links with graduates already entrenched in them.

许多商学院正计划在上述科技中心运作卫星项目。他们正与已经扎根上述地区的毕业生建立联系。

“Many of them have built the capacity to create a really cohesive cadre of alumni in each of these markets that helps their students get placed and become leaders in the given region,” Zoller says.

佐勒说：“许多商学院已经有能力在上述各市场建立真正具有凝聚力的校友网络，帮助本院学生在特定地区落脚，并成为地区领袖。”

Stanford’s Graduate School of Business saw a considerable jump in interest in entrepreneurship in the class of 2013, with 18% of grads starting businesses within a year, compared to 13% in 2012. The percentage didn’t change much in 2014 over 2013, but the types of startups did. Seventeen per cent of class of 2013 entrepreneurs went into finance, 13% into Internet services, and 11% into media and entertainment. In 2014, those who went into finance dropped to 11%, while Internet services and media and entertainment both plummeted to 2%; 9% went into each of three areas: energy and clean technology; health care; and software.

斯坦福大学商学院发现，该院2013届毕业生对创业的兴趣大增，18%的学生在毕业1年内创业，而2012年该比例为13%。2014年与2013年相比，创业比例变化不大，但创业公司的类型发生了很大变化。2013届毕业生中，17%的创业者选择了金融行业，13%选择了互联网服务业，另有11%选择了媒体和娱乐行业。2014年，进入金融业的创业者比例降至11%，选择互联网服务以及媒体和娱乐行业的比例双双跌至2%；而进入能源与环保技术、卫生保健和软件这三个领域的创业者比例均达到9%。

This year, Kenan-Flagler started the Adams Apprenticeship program, selecting the top entrepreneurial prospects from its student body to work with UNC entrepreneur alumni for a year, with each participant committing to becoming an entrepreneur within five years of graduation.

今年，凯南-弗拉格勒商学院开启了亚当斯学徒项目，从该院学生中选择最具潜力的未来企业家，与北卡罗莱纳大学企业家校友共事1年，所有参与者都致力于在毕业5年内成长为企业家。

Demand for the Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship’s services has been surging in recent years, says director Meredith McPherron. The center’s New Venture Competition matches students with mentors and judges around the world as they develop and ultimately pitch their ventures.

哈佛商学院洛克创业中心负责人梅雷迪思o香农表示，近年来，对该中心服务的需求大涨。该中心的创业大赛在学生开发并最终推销自身创业项目的过程中，将他们与导师和来自世界各地的裁判配对。

In the Rock Accelerator program, which receives more than 120 applications for 20 spaces, student founder teams receive $5,000 to $8,000 to work on business ideas, while student “Venture Partners” help select and support participant teams. In the Summer Fellowship program, students either work at an existing startup or work on their own startup, between their first and second years. “Over the last couple years, we’ve had enormous pickup in demand on that,” McPherron says.

在洛克加速器项目中，120多位申请者竞争20个席位，学生创始人团队获得5000-8000美元，用于实现其商业创意，而学生“创业伙伴”则帮助选择并支持参赛团队。在夏季奖学金项目中，学生在第一学年和第二学年之间，可在已有的新创企业中就职，或者自行创建新创企业。香农说：“过去几年，对此项目的需求大大增加。”

Although HBS recruiting reports show that the number of students who didn’t seek employment because they were starting their own businesses hovered at 7% from 2012 to 2014, half of its graduates are entrepreneurs by 15 years after finishing school, according to HBS. Student debt is a main factor behind that timing, McPherron says. To help graduates jump into startups, HBS gives out 20 to 25 debt reductions per year, valued at $10,000 to $20,000 each. “You have to be a founder with an idea with traction, that has shown some merit,” McPherron says. Two years ago, responding to increased demand for the reductions, McPherron asked for and received more funding for the program, which pushed reduction amounts toward $20,000, McPherron says.

尽管哈佛商学院的招聘报告显示，2012-2014年间，因自行创业而未求职的学生比例一直在7％左右徘徊，但据该院称，毕业15年时，其半数毕业生都成了企业家。香农表示，哈佛毕业生创业时机选择背后的一大因素是学生贷款。为了帮助毕业生创业，哈佛商学院每年给出20到25个债务减免名额，各减免1万-2万美元。香农表示：“你必须是创始人，有一个具有吸引力且已经展现出价值的创意。”两年前，鉴于对债务减免的需求增加，香农为该项目申请并获得了更多资金，将减免上限提升到2万美元。

Among the top B-schools, there are stated divisions in what entrepreneurial roles they’re training their graduates to enter. Wharton, says FitzGerald, is chock full of MBA candidates champing at the bit to launch companies and replicate the achievements of Wharton alumni startups such as smartphone-based payment app developer Venmo; eyewear retailer Warby Parker; startup investor SeedInvest; and baby products company Quidsi, which was bought by Amazon for $545 million in 2010.

在顶级商学院中，对于将自家毕业生培养成哪种企业家，各家区别明显。菲茨杰拉德称，沃顿商学院到处都是急于创业，想要复制该院校友成功故事的MBA学生。该院校友大获成功的初创企业包括基于智能手机的支付应用程序开发商Venmo；眼镜零售商Warby Parker；初创企业投资公司SeedInvest；以及2010年被亚马逊以5.45亿美元收购的婴儿用品公司Quidsi。

“They see the successes of those companies and realize that there’s a real possibility that [their] startup can do well,” FitzGerald says.

菲茨杰拉德表示：“他们看到了上述公司的成功，并认识到自己的初创企业也真的有可能获得成功。”

At Kenan-Flagler, Zoller says they’re taking a different approach, combating the media’s “prototype of the successful entrepreneur being the maven, the Steve Jobs profile, the Larry Page,” Zoller says. “We are finding that entrepreneurs are more everyday entrepreneurs, people who run businesses that are making huge contributions but may not be necessarily brand names,” he says.

佐勒称，在凯南-弗拉格勒商学院，他们正采取与众不同的方式，对抗媒体千篇一律的将成功企业家描绘成史蒂夫o乔布斯和拉里o佩奇那样的专家所形成的刻板印象。佐勒说：“我们发现，企业家其实大都是普通人，他们经营的企业做出巨大贡献，但他们不见得都是社会名流。”

At some B-schools, entrepreneurs are romanticized and a degree of “hero worship” exists, says higher education consultant and Eduvantis founder Tim Westerbeck,. “I’ve spoken with several business school deans who privately express some concerns that celebrating the glorious side of a successful entrepreneur’s story, while it may be inspiring, does a potential injustice to students, because they don’t develop the skills they need to deal with the often terribly difficult dimensions of entrepreneurship: the financial hardships, the inevitable failures, health challenges, the family disruption and conflict, the isolation, extreme stress, and need for steely resilience for prolonged periods of time.”

高等教育顾问、Eduvantis创始人蒂姆o韦斯特贝克表示，在某些商学院，企业家被浪漫化，大家对企业家存在一定程度的“英雄崇拜”。 韦斯特贝克说：“我与几位商学院院长有过交流，他们私下对大肆宣传成功企业家的光辉事迹表示担忧，这些事迹虽然鼓舞人心，但可能对学生并不公平，因为这无益于他们培养面对创业重重困难所需的技能，这些困难包括资金困难、不可避免的失败、健康问题、家庭破裂和冲突、孤立无援、极端压力，以及长期需要钢铁般的意志。”

“These are the essential skills and competencies of entrepreneurs that are perhaps not being properly addressed in business schools.”

“这些都是企业家所需的基本技能和能力，但商学院对此的注重和培养可能并不够。”

Not all schools are focusing on giving students tools to start their own enterprises. “We’ve decided not to be the best school for startups,” Kenan-Flagler’s Zoller says. “We’re going to be the best school for ‘grow-ups.’ We’re building a program that serves not only to support management training for large enterprises, but also high-growth enterprises.”

并非所有商学院都将重心放在培养学生的创业能力上。凯南-弗拉格勒商学院的佐勒表示：“我们决定，不做创业方面最厉害的商学院，而是在帮助企业成长方面做到最好。我们正在设计一个项目，不仅支持大企业的管理培训，而且支持高成长性企业的管理培训。”

Kenan-Flagler is putting an emphasis on preparing students to enter executive positions in high-growth companies, or becoming funders of entrepreneurial and expanding businesses, Zoller says. “There are many ways that you can participate in entrepreneurial ventures without being the founder.”

佐勒称，凯南-弗拉格勒商学院将重点放在培养学生在高成长性企业担任管理职位，或者成为创业型以及成长型企业的出资人。佐勒说道：“不做创始人，你也有很多种方式参与创业企业。”

But at Wharton, such a focus would conflict with candidates’ ambition, FitzGerald says. “Wharton folks are certainly A-type personalities. They’re probably more inclined to go out and start their own company rather than bring that entrepreneurship talent in house.”

菲茨杰拉德则表示，上述理念与沃顿商学院学生的雄心壮志存在冲突。菲茨杰拉德说：“沃顿商学院的学生绝对是A型人格，他们可能更倾向于出去创办自己的企业，而不是将创业能力用于为雇主效力。”

While Wharton students may be inspired by alumni successes, that doesn’t mean Wharton is teaching hero worship, FitzGerald says. “Trying to follow iconoclasts’ models doesn’t really work,” FitzGerald says. “If you’re not true to your own business model and your own mission, you’ll fail really quickly.”

菲茨杰拉德称，虽然沃顿商学院的学生可能会从校友的成功中得到启发，但这并不意味着该院在鼓励英雄崇拜。菲茨杰拉德说：“试图照搬反传统者的模式并不管用。如果你不忠于自身商业模式和使命，你很快就会失败。”

Demographically speaking, it makes sense for B-school grads to take a leap into founding enterprises while they have the chance, FitzGerald says. “It’s actually more economically feasible to do your startup now when you’re 27 as opposed to at 33 when you may have a spouse and one or two kids,” FitzGerald says.

菲茨杰拉德表示，从人口统计学上讲，商学院毕业生在有机会时创办企业合情合理。菲茨杰拉德说：“事实上，就经济角度而言，你27岁时就开办新创企业，要比你等到33岁再创业更可行，因为到时候你可能已经结婚，而且有了一两个小孩。

However, Columbia Business School’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center uses a slogan to encapsulate a definition of entrepreneurship that includes “intrapreneurship,” the buzzword description of entrepreneurship within existing companies. The slogan, “Think, Start, Grow,” is intended to represent the need for an entrepreneurial approach within any organization, regardless of size or time in business.

不过，哥伦比亚大学商学院的尤金郎创业中心用了一条标语来概括定义企业家精神，其中包含了“内部企业家精神”这个描述现有公司中企业家精神的流行词。该标语——“思考、开始、成长”旨在表明，任何组织，不论其大小或历史长短，都需要创业精神。

“The ‘think’ element is really for anybody, I don’t care where you go to work,” says Lang Center Director Vince Ponzo. “More and more, people need the ability to think entrepreneurially, just because of the rate of change.”

尤金郎创业中心负责人文斯o庞佐表示：“‘思考’适用于所有人，不论你在哪里就职。当今世界瞬息万变，人们日益需要能像企业家一样思考。”

Columbia is seeing heightened interest in entrepreneurship, adding seats every year to entrepreneurship courses, and holding workshops, panels, and other events on topics such as red flags in the startup process and financing ventures. Two years ago, Columbia opened its Entrepreneurs in Residence program with six residents; this year, there are eight. The program was developed to give students educational and networking entry points into specific industries and regions, to complement the school’s Entrepreneurial Sounding Board, a mentoring program involving 30 alumni who mostly advise on tactics and operations, Ponzo says.

哥伦比亚大学商学院发现，学生对创业的兴趣见长，该院将创业课程的座位数量逐年增加，并举办了研习会、专门小组以及其他活动，探讨创业过程中的危险信号以及为创业企业融资等主题。两年前，哥伦比亚大学开创了驻校企业家项目，当时有6名驻校企业家，今年已经有8名企业家。庞佐称，该项目旨在使学生获得进入特定行业和地区的教育和人脉切入点，与该校的创业参谋项目互为补充。庞佐介绍称，创业参谋是一个指导项目，包括30名校友，主要就战术和操作给出建议。

Harvard operates under the notion that entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship derive from the same mindset, of “breakthrough thinking,” McPherron says. “We’re teaching entrepreneurial management.”

香农称，哈佛大学的理念是，创业和内部创业源自同样的心态，即“突破思维定势”的心态。香农表示：“我们教授的是创业管理。”

Westerbeck believes differences between stated goals on entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship in MBA programs can be chalked up to the need to address prospective students’ desire for success, whether they want to start companies or work in established businesses.

韦斯特贝克认为，各MBA项目在创业或内部创业上的既定目标不同，可归结为需要满足潜在学生对成功的渴望，不论他们是想创办企业，还是想在老牌企业工作。

“Every school knows that entrepreneurship as a concept is in high reported demand by incoming student populations. They also know that the vast majority of their students will not ultimately become successful entrepreneurs and will eventually go to work within an organization established by someone else,” Westerbeck says. “In a sense, it is preparing would-be entrepreneurs with the skills they will also need to be engines of growth and high-value employees within established organizations, which can be equally rewarding, ultimately, and perhaps less painful then the entrepreneurial life.”

韦斯特贝克说：“每所学校都清楚，创业这个概念在新来的学生中很受追捧。它们同时也清楚，大部分学生最终不会成为成功企业家，而是会在别人创办的机构中就职。从某种意义上说，商学院在为有志成为企业家的人士培养老牌机构中增长火车头以及高价值员工所需要的技能。在老牌机构就职，最终同样可能获得丰厚回报，而且或许比创业更轻松些。”（财富中文网）