The invention of entrepreneurship--in the sense that Drucker means--and of the professional entrepreneur arguably began in 1979, when David Birch, a researcher associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shocked and upset the disbelieving establishment of academics and policymakers with the news that the Fortune 500 had stopped creating jobs. Birch's research showed that small business--later emended to "growth companies," a minuscule but incredibly fertile subset of small business--had become the principal creator of jobs in the United States. (See " Help Wanted," an interview with Birch.) It took a few years, but from that time on, managers' gray flannel suits ineluctably began to yield to entrepreneurs' khakis and jeans; the manager gave way to the entrepreneur as symbol and icon, respectively, of a new business age.
The jig was up for the old-time entrepreneur who liked to think of himself as a specialist just because he had a knack. People--academics, consultants, journalists, and entrepreneurs themselves--began to figure out what entrepreneurs did, how they did it, how it could be taught, and even how it could be improved.
The academic establishment, also not blind to opportunity, expanded its offerings to would-be entrepreneurs. As Sahlman points out, Harvard Business School, which used to have three or four faculty members who would teach courses relating to small business, now counts 17 full-time members on its entrepreneurial-studies faculty. Bill Wetzel, a University of New Hampshire professor, observes that whereas 10 years ago standard finance textbooks assumed that students would be employed by businesses that were already well under way, they now routinely include chapters on early-stage companies. Entrepreneurial seminars with daylong or weekend sessions on how to start or grow nearly any kind of business are buzzing. The truth is, there aren't a whole lot of secrets left about the techniques, tools, and processes of entrepreneuring. You want to learn them? You can buy a book, read a magazine, take a course, get an M.B.A.
No honest purveyor of entrepreneurial expertise believes or advertises that tools alone make the entrepreneur. As In Search of Excellence coauthor Tom Peters puts it, "The fact that you can download a spreadsheet for free off the Internet does not make you a better business planner than back in the days when you were doing it with a number-two pencil on the back of an envelope. It looks a lot prettier, but the odds are at least as high as they ever were that the information is total B.S."
That's true, but the fact that bankers, venture capitalists, and angel investors, as well as potential suppliers, alliance partners, and customers, have come to expect well-executed spreadsheets means that not even great ideas will capture their attention these days if they come scrawled on the back of an envelope. Professional entrepreneurs today don't just have great ideas; they have great ideas and know how to plan their execution and know which capital sources to approach. Professional entrepreneurs don't just do, they understand what they're doing.
I guess it's good news that along with sports stars and rap artists Americans have even begun to celebrate business stars. Maybe they're not as famous, but readers of business periodicals and books now recognize right off names like Packard, Grove, McGowan, Iverson, Fields, Kapor, Perot, Kelly, Stemberg, and Dell--entrepreneurs all. Not to mention Gates, of course. And there are scores more who could make the list--Jim Clark at Netscape, and maybe even Bill Gross, who was featured on the cover of Inc. in February.
While the professional entrepreneur raises the general level of professionalism now required of anyone trying to break into the business, it is in many ways easier to be an entrepreneur today than in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. For starters, your character is not immediately suspect. It is more pleasant to be admired than disrespected, or worse, pitied.
But it's not that easy. After a few minutes of conversation, Bill Wetzel allows that the term professional entrepreneur strikes him as oxymoronic. "Starting a business is still a sloppy process," he says, "even if some of the sloppiness has been removed."
To find out what we at Inc. think the professional entrepreneur of today looks like, turn to " The Evolution of the Professional Entrepreneur."
Tom Richman is an editor at large at Inc.
Resources
If you're serious about sharpening your business skills, you could do worse than begin your course of study with Peter F. Drucker's venerable (1954) Practice of Management (HarperCollins, 800-207-7000, 1993, $16). A more recent addition to business libraries, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Strategy (Simon & Schuster, 800-223-2336, 1984, $37.50; a reprint is due out this year), recommends ways to evaluate the strategic viability of individual industries. W. Edwards Deming made a name for himself in the emerging industries of post-war Japan, and the success of his systematic approach to quality improvement eventually registered in the United States. Out of the Crisis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 617-253-6128, 1986, $29.50) is a practical professional-management tool.
Should you care to register for formal instruction, consult Peterson's Guide to M.B.A. Programs (Peterson's Guides, 800-338-3282, 1996, $21.95). Some 900 institutions offer courses of study in business administration; Peterson's gives you the specifics you need to narrow the field to a more manageable selection. And check your local library for Bricker's International Directory, 1997: University-Based Executive Development Programs (Peterson's Guides, 800-338-3282, 1997, $325), arranged by management discipline. Experience always counts, though, so you may want to consult your library's copy of the student assessments that Albert & Co. publishes in its Executive Development Programs Guide (Albert & Co., 561-697-3430, 1997, $450).
PAUL REYNOLDS, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Babson College, Forest St., Wellesley, MA 02157-0310; 617-239-5608; reynoldspd@babson.edu 44
BILL SAHLMAN, Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field Rd., Boston, MA 02163; 617-495-6000 44
HOWARD STEVENSON, Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field Rd., Boston, MA 02163; 617-495-6000 44
BILL WETZEL, Center for Venture Research, Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824; 603-862-3341 44
