Pushing the envelope in business and innovation
THE essence of entrepreneurship lies in the spirit of innovation that inspires a passion to go beyond the limits in search of the best possible outcomes that will enhance people’s lives.
Having recognised the far-reaching dynamics of change that entrepreneurship fosters, educators around the world have taken pains to develop programmes and activities based on curricula that are designed to nurture this spirit of innovation in students, who are the leaders of tomorrow.
Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) was among the earliest institutions of higher learning in Malaysia to offer a degree in entrepreneurship (Bachelor of Entrepreneurship with Honours).
From the time the programme was introduced in 2003 at UUM, entrepreneurship was never seen as the sole preserve of students majoring in business.
At UUM, a student from any discipline is free to take the three credit hour entrepreneurship programme as an extracurricular course.
Currently, we have about 300 students who major in a variety of disciplines undertaking this programme where they are exposed to, among others, the basics of business planning and initiating a variety of entrepreneurial activities, the entrepreneurship ecosystem and insights into predictors of entrepreneurial success, as well as the finer points of registering a company under the Companies Commission of Malaysia.
Joseph Schumpeter, a former professor from Havard, was among the first to study entrepreneurship during the early 20th century and believed that the capabilities of innovating, introducing new technologies, increasing efficiency and productivity and generating new products or services were characteristic qualities of entrepreneurs.
This view holds true today – the entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a generator of new ideas and business processes as well as being an agent of change.
This underscores the importance of entrepreneurship to the nation’s economic growth and prosperity through the creation of innovative ventures that act as sources of employment and income.
The entrepreneurship programme at UUM has nurtured graduates who have become successful business owners, corporate leaders, political leaders, managers and administrators.
They evince the characteristics ascribed to entrepreneurs, including forward thinking, willingness to take risks, being self-inspired and guided by a sense of purpose.
Besides this, the Siswaniaga programme to cultivate incipient entrepreneurial talents in undergraduates and provide students with the opportunities to run businesses on campus.
Throughout this programme, they are provided with the location and the capital to run their businesses.
Since its introduction in 1988, the programme has benefited more than 1,000 students. We are also proud of the fact that the programme has been replicated in other local universities.
UUM was also the first university to set up the Student Mall, which was built in 1990 and provided a platform for students to run a variety of businesses to provide a wide range of goods and services on campus. Just as with our Siswaniaga programme, other universities and tertiary institutions in Malaysia have adopted our idea of the student mall.
The other programmes introduced at UUM to further encourage entrepreneurial undertakings among students are the Entrepreneur Career Day and Expo, Entrepreneur Talk and Forum, Business Plan Challenge, and Franchise Day and Expo.
Many of our graduates have attained success as chief executive officers and directors of companies.
Some of these are Datuk Mohd Nizam Mohd Sherif, executive director of Maya Maju; Datuk Dr V. Shanmughanathan, managing director of the audit firm of Idris, Shan & Partners; and Datuk Denis Latimer, managing director of Latimer Corporation.
The Ministry of Education has also acknowledged the importance of entrepreneurship by requiring the yearly exposure of 8,000 students to entrepreneurial activities besides academic subjects and co-curricular courses on entrepreneurship.
The ministry also requires that the subject introduction to entrepreneurship be made a core study at all local universities.
I am proud to say that we have been meeting the ministry’s key performance indicator every year, contributing the largest number of students exposed to entrepreneurship after Universiti Teknologi MARA with 30,000 students.
We have also successfully produced about 120 entrepreneurs on average from among our students. Last year, there were 320 entrepreneurs among our graduates, which exceeded our target of 250 entrepreneurs.
I am confident that UUM will produce at least 500 entrepreneur graduates in the next two years.
The future of the business world is in the hands of entrepreneurs who are the agents of change as they will change the way business is done through the invention of new technologies, innovative products, services and more efficient business processes.
As a university, UUM will play its part by providing the space, programmes, networking opportunities, supervision and financial resources that will encourage our students to become successful entrepreneurs.
Prof Datuk Wira Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak is the vice-chancellor of Universiti Utara Malaysia.