Nice to have met you too, Mr. Semple

Posted on June 23, 2006. Filed under: entrepreneurship, Technopreneurship & Innovation Program (TIP) |

Yesterday I attended the ix2006 Academic Forum organized by SMU. Overall, it was a slight disappointment for me, as I was expecting more dynamic and interesting contents from the speakers, especially when the topic was supposed to be about disruptive technologies like wikis, blogs and Instant Messaging (IM).

Most of the content was a pretty straightforward explanation of the technologies and the technically inclined amongst us were quite distracted. However, I did have the chance to bump into Justin and Bjorn, who happened to have already known Todd in California. (small world indeed!)

Mr. Euan Semple, a speaker at the conference, who has 21 years of valuable experience and was was most recently BBC’s Director for Knowledge Management, shares a similar view of things. I was not able to talk much with Euan. But I am wondering what Euan, being an entrepreneur himself, thinks of an education in technopreneurship (the 4-month course that I am taking).

Most people would be skeptical of such an idea (how on Earth can entrepreneurship be taught?) . I was quite skeptical myself before I signed up for this course. But at the end of the day, I decided to take the plunge as I see a course like this as a way of learning from the collective wisdom and experiences of others.

So far 1 month into this course, I have learnt quite a bit from our lecturers, as well as the differing experiences from our classmates (including Todd, who's from America and some others who are practising entrepreneurs). It has helped taught me how to look at things not just from an technical standpoint, but from a strategic view of the industry and a marketing standpoint. It is my belief that this knowledge will short-circuit the business learning curve and help to increase my chances of succeeding as an entrepreneur.

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5 Responses to “Nice to have met you too, Mr. Semple”

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well the forum had to be toned down for the younger people i guess.. but no worries about it.. i’m sure we all had fun or learnt something..

yes i believe u can learn entrepreneurship.

because i find that the more i read about it.. the better i think i can handle it.

it’s the way HBS teaches: case drilling.

the more u are drilled, the better u can handle tough situations.

also cases/stories can really help inspire us

Justin Lee
June 23, 2006

Teaching this stuff is problematic – especially if by teaching you mean traditional methods. Mentoring and coaching are much more appropriate methods.

Euan
June 23, 2006