How can business be taught by someone who has never run one?

There is a mismatch between the skills required of management students and what they are being taught by B-schools across the country, says Devdutt Pattanaik, a leadership consultant and an author of books on mythology and management. He believes that students at most management schools are instructed in business principles by teachers who have never run a business themselves.

“Business cannot be taught by people who themselves do not run a business. It is like learning medicine from a person who is not a doctor himself,” he said. He was in the city to deliver a speech on Myth or Mithya – on mythology and the influence of epics on modern Indian life – at the International Kolkata Book Fair 2014 on Thursday.

The country needs to produce an atmosphere that encourages entrepreneurs. This would in turn help create more jobs, which is the need of the hour, he said.

The Government has not taken any measure to encourage entrepreneurs. Even a majority of students getting into B-schools are merely looking for jobs and not at creating jobs.

“In India, traditionally, we do not like business and we look forward to subsidies. We do not believe in wealth creation but in wealth distribution, and that is a lethal combination,” he said.

A number of B-schools seem to have woken up to this need for wealth creation. A majority of the Indian Institutes of Management and several top B-schools have set up entrepreneurship cells to encourage people to start their own ventures.

These cells help students develop business ideas who wish to have their own start-ups but are unsure about the way forward. They also help budding entrepreneurs with activity ideas, practical guidance, bank linkages, research and in identifying opportunities and pursuing them.

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