RSM Outlook Summer 2008

What it takes to be an entrepreneur (Stephen Hoare, Rebecca Morris)

Starting your own business is the stuff of capitalist dreams, with multitudes leaving behind the comfort of their salaried positions each year to attempt it. These RSM alumni are lucky enough to be able to call themselves successful entrepreneurs – and to share with our readers the secrets to their success.

The entrepreneur's bookshelf

When we asked each of our alumni entrepreneurs which book every entrepreneur should read, their responses were diverse – as was to be expected. What was unexpected were some of their choices. Veering from the purely practical to the sublimely spiritual, each of the books provided something special – from inspiration to entertainment – to those we interviewed.

Jan Baan: twice the entrepreneur (Ben Schiller)

Whatever view pundits may take of Jan Baan, there is no denying that his career embodies the full scope of the entrepreneurial experience: from glory to bankruptcy (with his first venture, the eponymous Baan Corporation) to spectacular re-emergence (with Cordys, the company he founded five years after Baan Corp. imploded). Writer Ben Schiller visited recently to ask what lessons Jan Baan, 58, has learned from his business (ad)ventures...

Teaching entrepreneurship (Rebecca Morris)

Gone is the popular notion that the university classroom is no place for the entrepreneur. Programmes like RSM’s MScBA Entrepreneurship & New Business Venturing are helping to prove that, when combined with a practical emphasis, education can be a powerful tool for the entrepreneur- in-the-making. So if it can be taught, can anyone do it?