Op/ed Fridays: 11 Reasons Why School Business Plan Competitions Should Die
My Inc.com article today, “11 Reasons Why School Business Plan Competitions Should Die” begins
11 Reasons Why School Business Plan Competitions Should Die
Who benefits when venture capitalists ‘give’ money away? Who loses?
If the customer is valuable, who is the customer when a business plan competition sponsor pays its award? Whom did the contestant focus on–the long-term customer or the venture capitalist sponsor?
Schools once didn’t teach entrepreneurship. Then in the 1980s, two University of Texas MBA students wanted an equivalent of law schools’ moot court, the business plan competition was born, and they grew fast.
Competitions began as new and innovative. They woke people to new possibilities. Few people conceived of students creating business plans and starting companies from school.
Those days are gone. Students commonly start businesses before college. Almost nobody in universities is blind to the possibility.
So if business plan competitions aren’t teaching new business concepts, what are they doing? Who benefits from them? Who loses?
Read the rest at 11 Reasons Why School Business Plan Competitions Should Die
Read my weekly newsletter
On initiative, leadership, the environment, and burpees