Mastering Entrepreneurship for Nation-Building Program

The Master in Entrepreneurship for Nation-Building Program of the Ateneo de Manila Graduate School of Business and the ACE Center for Entrepreneurship and Management Education, Inc. targets real-life entrepreneurs who want to pursue further enterprise growth while improving their individual skills – repeating their successes with greater accuracy and committing less errors. With this end in mind, a program has been developed to consider the various competencies and capabilities that entrepreneurs need to acquire as they go through running their enterprises.

ME for Nation-Building Program Key Innovations

Adaptive to Needs – the ME for Nation-Building Program does not force-fit the entrepreneur to the academic world. The academe adapts itself to the needs of the entrepreneurs.

Seamless Education – The classroom and the workplace of the entrepreneur are one continuous learning environment.

Guru Approach - patterned after the Indian education mentor system and the European guild system, the guru is given the task of mentoring, coaching, and guiding entrepreneurs. There is one Guru for every section. Providing additional insights, inputs, techniques, and support are the Teaching Associates per section. On the other hand, the student-entrepreneurs are the apprentices to be transformed into master entrepreneurs by their Gurus. As part of the process, the program also adopts a highly interactive case method, research/ analysis of all firms and market, e-learning workbook, business plan presentation to gurus and classmates for critiquing.

Non-Traditional Screening Methods – the student-entrepreneur must have obtained a college degree (with exceptions for student-entrepreneurs who were unable to finish college but have obtained at least 120 credited units and exceptional entrepreneurial/ business experience – will be granted the Certified Master Entrepreneur title); must have an operating business for more than one year and is in full control of the enterprise; student-entrepreneurs are required to complete an EQ/Personality Exam and Enneagram for entrepreneurial profiling.

Earning the ME for Nation-Building Degree – There are no exams and quizzes. However, there are learning applications, assignments and exercises which would be submitted regularly during the course.

Actual performance – the student-entrepreneur’s performance is measured using the 5 P’s (Profitability, Productivity, Professionalism, Paradigm Shifting, and People Upliftment); a good business plan which is really based on learnings during the one and a half years plus a five-year forecast of what the entrepreneur intends to happen.

The ME for Nation-Building Program is composed of THREE BUILDING BLOCKS and FIVE LEARNING DOMAINS. Modules 1 to 3 have a duration of approximately six months each with a predominant theme for each module:

Module 1: Preparing the Enterprise and Self-enhancement

This module is the foundation module that provides participants the basics of entrepreneuring, management and strategic planning in tandem with the essential Self-Mastery skills of Learning to Think and Learning to Intuit. The basics of entrepreneuring center on finding opportunities, evaluating these opportunities and actualizing these opportunities into entrepreneurial ventures. This module provides the thinking tools and techniques as well as the intuitive processes of Self-Mastery. At the end of module, the student-entrepreneurs are required to pull their findings, analyses and conclusions together for their study of the external environment in the business plan.

Module 2: Creating and Running the Enterprise and Self-engagement

The foundational topics of Module 1 set the stage for the action-implementation thrust of Module 2, which is Creating and Running the Enterprise and Self-engagement. This refers to the development of the most appropriate and relevant personal skills including Learning to Do, Learning to Feel, and Learning to Communicate. In the same module, the student-entrepreneur is introduced to new product development and evaluating new businesses, which enables the entrepreneur to evaluate start-up businesses as well as ongoing businesses for acquisition, merger, disposal or harvest purposes. Strategy implementation, which refers to the SPATRes (strategies, programs, activities and tasks and resources), has Operationalizing and Organizing for its mantras. The module also concentrates on all basic and advanced management courses such as Marketing, Operations, Human Resource Management and Managing Costs and Profits. At the end of Module 2, the student-entrepreneurs must be ready to consolidate their research, findings, analyses and conclusions for their comprehensive Internal Assessment of their enterprises using the ten levels of IA introduced in Module 1.

Module 3: Growing the Enterprise and Self-enlightenment

Module 3 brings the student-entrepreneurs to the higher plane of entrepreneurship, one that breaks new ground and shifts paradigms, one that masterfully turns around enterprises on the decline, and one that grows businesses by leaps and bounds. The module challenges the entrepreneur to assume the role of an enlightened leader armed with the convergence of the six self-mastery skills of learning to think, intuit, feel, do, communicate and lead, otherwise known as the Learning to Be series. It also integrates the entire strategizing process by completing the research, planning, programming, and implementing sequence. Finally, the student-entrepreneurs are expected to submit their completed five-year Business Plans based on what they have learned and accomplished in the past and during the course and based on their fearless forecasts of what the future will bring.

Entrepreneurs are total managers. They see the big picture without losing the eye for details. They respond spontaneously to the sporadic eruption of opportunities even as they maintain their sense of balance and their natural rhythm.

Entrepreneurs are whole brain managers. They rely on intuition but validate this with logic reasoning. They are creative people who can react positively to adversity and necessity, proact as a visionary and as “diviner of the future” and enact a whole new environment that changes the rules of the game.

Entrepreneurs possess high emotional quotients. They know how to deal with people, whether of high or low status. They can “delay gratification” for a better deal tomorrow. They cope will with setbacks, crises and problematic situations without losing composure. They roll with the punches and keep standing up for the next boxing round. They synchronize and harmonize very well.

Entrepreneurs are good leaders and role models. People look up to and follow them because they show the way. They teach others how to do things well by sharing their mastery. They are effective communicators of ideas and take the time to explain things to people. Entrepreneurs seem to be on perpetual high. They are passionate to the point of obsession. They never say die. They lust for achievement and revel in success. Entrepreneurs are opportunity finders more than problem solvers. They have the knack for serendipitous discovery because they have a very active imagination and an insatiable curiosity.

Entrepreneurs are excellent risk managers. They are not really risk takers as such because the last thing they want to do is gamble. Successful entrepreneurs have become so by mastering a craft, a technology, a profession or a particular field of interest. This high level of proficiency and familiarity with their business essentially eliminates the risk of failure. Thus, they are really managing what they are very good at doing.