{"id":56481,"date":"2022-11-07T05:46:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=56481"},"modified":"2022-11-07T05:46:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T12:46:12","slug":"how-an-mba-can-help-entrepreneurs-podcast-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-an-mba-can-help-entrepreneurs-podcast-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"How an MBA Can Help Entrepreneurs [Podcast Episode]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"How<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a> | Embed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts<\/a> | Google Podcasts<\/a> | Spotify<\/a> | Android<\/a> | Stitcher<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you need an MBA as an entrepreneur? [Show Summary]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What does it take to become an entrepreneur who drives impact and change? Is an MBA necessary? Inge Kerkloh-Devif, Senior Executive Director and Senior Vice President of the HEC Paris Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, shares her thoughts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview with Inge Kerkloh-Devif, Sr. Exec. Dir. & Sr. Vice President of the HEC Paris Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center [Show Notes]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the 492nd episode of Admissions Straight Talk<\/em>. Thanks for tuning in. Are you trying to figure out how you should approach the four to eight applications that you\u2019re planning to submit when applying to an MBA program? You can get tips and answers by taking Accepted\u2019s free, short quiz \u2013 just six questions \u2013 at accepted.com\/mapmba<\/a>. By taking the quiz, you\u2019ll get a sense of how well you\u2019re approaching this critical process and gain access to relevant resources, both free and paid, that will provide you with an effective and efficient strategy for your MBA application effort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our guest today, Inge Kerkloh-Devif, earned her masters in Marketing and Communications at HEC Paris in 2006. Since then, she worked in business in Paris and then became Executive Vice President of HEC Paris\u2019s Executive Education Program, focusing on Global Business Development. In 2019, she moved into her current role as Senior Executive Director and Senior Vice President of the HEC Paris Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center. In 2021, she added to her responsibilities the role of Co-Site Lead Executive at the Creative Destruction Lab in Paris in partnership with the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Can you tell us a little bit about both HEC\u2019s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center and the Creative Destruction Lab in Paris? [2:11]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Of course. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center is the whole ecosystem we have built as a school around innovators and entrepreneurs. As we say, we think, we teach, and we act around innovation and entrepreneurship. That means we do research on innovation and entrepreneurship. We have more than 20 programs we are teaching at the school to teach innovation and entrepreneurship to our students. And we have all of our incubator acceleration programs, so students are learning by doing. Entrepreneurship is really part of the DNA of the school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Creative Destruction Lab, or CDL, was founded 10 years ago in Toronto, Canada at the Rotman Management School. They\u2019re now partnering with 12 universities all over the world to offer this objective-based program from massively scalable, seed-stage science and technology-based companies. It\u2019s really an acceleration program for deep tech. The program has an intake from more than 600 companies per year. We have one lab in Paris, we have one lab on climate, and one lab on space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the difference between deep tech and tech? [4:15]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Very good question. I think I can give 10 different answers to this. For us, we can see this really emerging more and more in engineering and scientific projects. Those are really long-term projects. We are working with scientists and engineers to get these projects to grow. For us, it\u2019s specifically based on scientific and engineering projects to give this deep tech long-term projects. When I say we are working with scientists and engineers, they\u2019re coming out of the laboratories. It\u2019s very research-based. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I have a business idea, or maybe I don\u2019t yet have a business idea, but I know that I want to be an entrepreneur at some point in my career, how can an MBA help me succeed? [5:33]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I think of these as two different stages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you already have your idea or if you\u2019re just joining an MBA, what we can see is very often, students are launching their business or their ideas a little bit after completing their MBA. They learn all the basics, they build their network, and then the business idea emerges a little bit later. So the MBA is first, and the business idea and growing it come after they graduate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But also we have some students who already have a business idea. At HEC, we offer a specialization in entrepreneurship. Even during your MBA studies, you can meet investors, learn from peers, and you can get access to this amazing ecosystem we have to grow your idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are two different ways to do your entrepreneurship project when you come to an MBA at HEC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any idea how many HEC grads start their own business either while at HEC or immediately after, and how many do it a few years down the road? [7:03]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Almost 25% of our grads have the plan to build their own business when they\u2019re graduating, which is an amazing amount to be honest, because five or ten years ago, it was not this way. People were going into consulting or banking. Now people are more and more interested in building their own businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On campus, we have 400 projects per year that our students are building. That includes the MBA and Executive MBA students. Not all of them are growing and going further, but we have the HEC Incubator. We see that the projects that come to the Incubator have a survival rate of about 85% about three or four years down the road. It\u2019s a very high figure. Most students are really pursuing their businesses once they have joined the HEC Incubator. We currently have 200 projects in the Incubator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of support do students receive from the HEC Incubator? [9:10]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

They have a very fancy office space because our Incubator is at Station F, which is the most important startup campus worldwide, and we have our 200 startups there. But the office space is a small part. I think the important part is we have a specific custom-made program, which is not a fixed program. They have an \u201c\u00e0 la carte\u201d menu. They have office hours with our experts, our alumni, and our professors. We have 650 experts around our \u201cIncubees,\u201d so to say. They get custom-made support depending on their project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also really benefit from our alumni network, which helps with many things beyond access to finance or funding but general business connections. I think it\u2019s even more important to get business access to have those first customers. It\u2019s not just about fundraising. They\u2019ll really benefit from this ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some will say that entrepreneurs would be better off investing money in their entrepreneurial venture instead of getting an MBA and learning from the experience. How would you respond to that? [11:13]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We get this question quite often. I think there are a few answers to this. What we can see is the competencies students get during the MBA help them be very efficient in the business world. Especially during the pandemic and this uncertainty, people are looking more for MBA training. We really had increasing numbers of people joining the MBA during these uncertain times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We follow our MBA students a couple of years after they graduate and what we can see is they all have a ROI, or return on investment. They don\u2019t ask if it\u2019s worth it three or four years later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last but not least, I think our network and community are priceless. Students are getting access to a big alumni community. We have 68,000 alumni all over the world. We have more than 80 chapters in different countries. Students immediately gain access to a global network. HEC\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is deep tech entrepreneurship developing going forward? Can you touch on the conference you attended regarding this? [14:25]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We really see an exciting development in this. In Europe and in France, you have a lot of important engineering schools, and we can see more and more projects coming out of that. At HEC, we actually mix up those engineers with our business people. When we think about the future of tomorrow, there\u2019s a lot of technology. Our economy and our world will benefit from future technology. Things like the climate crisis can be addressed through technology and innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference I attended was IAC, which is the International Congress for Astronauts that took place in Paris this year. I see entrepreneurs taking part in the space adventure. Obviously, there\u2019s Elon Musk and SpaceX, but there are so many developments coming and out from entrepreneurs who are able to contribute to the future space adventure. Space will be part of our world tomorrow. We really see the momentum here in the present moment. We are really excited about combining this potential with our business students to be a part of building our future. This is what we\u2019re seeing worldwide, especially in Europe and in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is space exploration going to improve our lives? [16:59]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I think there are a lot of examples already. There\u2019s been a lot in medical research. Even L\u2019Or\u00e9al is doing some exciting research in space. I think this is what we can see today already having an impact, but in the future, it can have an impact on the climate, for example. The information we can get from space can give us innovation to solve the climate problems we are facing on earth. There are more and more solutions coming out of space that are helping us. One important impact is that we can get access to the internet worldwide. It\u2019s step by step. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think there are a lot of things coming in the future, and I don\u2019t know what we will discover once we are on the moon. I think there are a lot of things coming, but immediately I think research, communication, and information. And last but not least, we\u2019ll probably get some help with the climate challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your favorite piece of advice for college students or adults out of college who have what they think is a great idea for a business? [18:36]<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Interesting question. One thing we say is, \u201cMake it happen, make it big.\u201d That means you can have a small and beautiful idea, but look at it and be excited about the idea to grow it in order to have a big impact. When one of our students has an idea, we challenge them to make it happen and to make it big. Think about how your project, even though you need to start small, can grow and if there\u2019s an opportunity to grow, how you can scale it in order to get a more important impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are really looking at all of our projects and asking what impact they have on business and society, so my second piece of advice is to ask, \u201cIs this project able to positively contribute to business and also society?\u201d We can see our students are looking for those results. Businesses can really help and have an impact tomorrow. If you start a business, you need to be responsible for what you\u2019re doing with your business and the way you\u2019re growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So make it happen, make it big, and look for the impact on the economy and society. Those would be the two answers I would give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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