The spirit of an entrepreneur is not something that is restricted for those who are starting their own companies. It is a mentality that can prove useful in almost any area, even in the educational process. Although doctorate programs are traditionally linked to further research and academic employment, they also contribute significantly to strengthening the development of entrepreneurial skills. This blog focuses on how a doctorate program nurtures entrepreneurial thinking and why it is relevant regardless of the career path pursued.
What is Entrepreneurial Thinking?
The concept of entrepreneurship involves the ability to see opportunities and take actions to create and transform new ideas into innovations with acceptable risks. Consultancy is about using the application of the user centred design approach to develop creative solutions to issues that arise in a startup or a large corporate, or in an academic institution. In my opinion, this kind of mindset can be quite constructive to those who are students pursuing their doctoral degree as it gives them a new angle when approaching their research work and promptly implements what they learn in real life.
1. Problem-Solving Skills
Doctoral programs are meant to stretch the students to their limits and as far as the existing body of knowledge can take them. This means to define areas where no solution exists and try to develop a solution to the problem. In doing so, students learn to form critical problem-solving skills that are in fact an ideal base for entrepreneurial thinking. Often new products, new business models, new technologies – these skills mean that one needs to be able to solve problems.
2. Innovation and Creativity
Doctoral work means that the scholar is working on ideas for which there are no answers yet. This entails great creativity and innovation. Doctoral students are provoked into comparing existing theory with new theory in an effort to develop innovative concepts. This innovative mindset is crucial to the success of an entrepreneurial venture and is reflected in the need to constantly introduce innovations to the market.
3. Resilience and Perseverance
Becoming a doctorate holder is not an easy process, it is full of hurdles and takes a lot of time to complete. It involves a lot of pushing and the capacity to manage adversities. This resilience is more beneficial to the business person because throughout the course of starting a business, the business person is bound to experience some form of weakness or obstacle to overcome. The doctoral experience enables the students to persevere in situations that are unresponsive or complex, a virtue that is all essential to anyone who wishes to begin and expand a business.
4. Networking and Collaboration
Doctoral studies offer a number of forums for the purposes of sharing information and engaging with other practitioners, academics, and researchers. These connections could be very beneficial for any entrapreneurial activities. Developing partnerships can help a business gain entrance to more opportunities beneficial for the sustainability of the business. Moreover, one knows that this is vital for the creation of an enterprise since many entrepreneurs have different characters, but still they create something absolutely new and unique together.
5. Project Management
Doctoral students are in effect running a large-scale, multistage project, their dissertation, or project. This entails defining objectives, strategy formulation, coordination of research activities and deployment of a research agenda, the duration of which could be several years. All these project management skills are immediately applicable to entrepreneurship because time, resources, and people are crucial for an entrepreneurial business success.
6. Critical Thinking and Decision Making
One of the key elements in the doctoral program is critical thinking and decision making based on the results of the investigation. The entrepreneurial decision-making process entails the identification of various problems that require solutions which are usually made by the entrepreneurs with limited information.
7. Communication Skills
The doctoral students need to be able to provide written and/or verbal exposition of their work to professionals in their disciplinary area. These communication skills are in particular crucial for the entrepreneurs who are to convince investors, partners and customers of the feasibility of their business ideas. The opportunity to explain something to people and make others think it is brilliant is one of the essential life skills in the academic and the business worlds.
8. Risk-Taking and Adaptability
Doing research is a risky business in its fundamental sense Because of the uncertainty that is inherent in all studies. Thus, doctoral students should be ready to gamble and experiment and change tactics where necessary. Such an attitude towards work and risk tolerance is characteristic of practical businessmen and immediate business management. Similarly in a doctoral programme the student is in a position to take calculated risks which are very essential in management of businesses.
Real-Life Examples
There are many more similar cases where people have leveraged their doctoral education in preparing for a successful entrepreneurial career. For example, two inventors, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who created Google, did it as a result of their Ph. D. work in Stanford University. In the same way, another co-founder of CRISPR technology, Jennifer Doudna, has created a few companies related to biotechnology with the support of her discoveries.
Conclusion
Although a doctorate is considered as a preparation for teaching and research, it equally prepares the learners with an entrepreneurial skill set. In fact, the competencies that are fostered within doctoral education including; problem solving, innovation, resilience, networking, project management, critical thinking and communication, risk taking, adaptability and management of projects are fundamental to the creation of an enterprise. Regardless of whether a doctoral student ends up working in the university, a corporation, or launching a business of their own, the mindset developed during their doctoral program will benefit them.
