Now when we know we can, we want more
We want to establish an international business school in enterpreneurship, whose mission will be:
- To create an international intellectual focal point for the underpinning of the enterprise culture
- To provide a mechanism for carrying forward the intellectual property related to best practice in SME development support
- To serve as a means to levate the status of the owner-managed business and independent enterprising organization in society
Why?
There is no independent school of university college status of this nature anywhere in the world. Virtually all of the business schools are built around the corporate paradigm. The few that are not, focus mainly upon a corporate view of entrepreneurship. In general business schools also purvey a culture of working for someone else. Yet the independent owner managed firm is the norm for the organisation of industrial and commercial services throughout the world.
We want to become exactly what does not exsist anywhere else in the world, a university business school in entrepreneurship, focused on SME’s.
Why a school based in Croatia, in a transitional economy?
Problems of croatia as a transitional economy country represent opportunities for educational system:
- Privatisation and restructing processes, by and large, have not been carried out in a way that maximises the opportunity for independent entrepreneurial efforts.
- The enabling environment for enterprise, much of it borrowed from the West remains substantially inappropriate.
- The indigenous entrepreneurial base is still weak, particulary the “middle business” sector.
- There are still more necessity based entrepreneurs than opportunity based entrepreneurs.
- The voice of enterprise in public is weak.
- The business education model, often lifted wholesale from the West in the form of the standard MBA, does not meet the needs for locally owned development and empowerment.
The expirience with Osijek program in etrepreneurship has shown that most of these problems represent a framework in which a successful educational program meeting the needs of entrepreneurs and those who wish to become entrepreneurs could be developed.
Why in Osijek?
Living for years on the edge of chaos, we are very proud of projects developed to fight entropy in our environment and whose synergy is being relases. We know how much is there to be done, but we are not at the beginning anymore:
- We have a strong base of ideas
- We have a unique expirience with five classes of graduate students
- We have a good base of teachers, which is constantly expanded by the inclusion of the best graduates and entrepreneurs
- We have a recognizable program in entrepreneurship outside Osijek (in 2002 we have enroled a whole class of students in Istria, western part of Croatia and the first group of students from The Former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia will enroll in 2003).
- Others such as Kathryne and David Moore from New York, ho have donated 25,000 USD for experimental students loans fund (first loans availabe at the beginning of year 2003) have also shown interest inour project of graduate program in entrepreneurship.
