Challenging us to “re-think” everything, Norris Krueger spent time with us on Thursday afternoon instead of his usual time spent generating the next best entrepreneurial theory. Sitting in the “hot seat,” Krueger is considered the Nikola Tesla of entrepreneurship research today. His presentation demanded that we re-think our mindsets, ecosystems, and methods, in addition to re-thinking why we are necessitating this re-think.
Our solutions will arrive not only when we attempt to imagine a different perspective for our entrepreneurial research, energy, and outcomes, but when we also find the conviction that these changes are essential and necessary for our continued evolution.
The Great Re-think
Dictated as the “Great Re-think,” we understand that this is a critical time to concurrently assess the intersections of the macro and micro in the way they align with “entrepreneurial potential and potential entrepreneurs” and reshape our understanding of the notion of “entrepreneur” as a verb in its true action-oriented state.
* Re-thinking mindset: Moving toward participatory opportunities for theories within the entrepreneurial setting.
* Re-thinking ecosystems: Balancing top-down and bottom-up thinking to bridge the gap between academia and reality.
* Re-thinking models: Using appropriate models that allow us to reframe our theories and practice appropriately.
The Evolution of the Professor
This “Great Re-think” leads us to move beyond thinking to entirely reimagine and recreate universities. There is an evolution of the professor occurring—a transition that can create new, accessible, and inclusive programs, bridging the exclusivity gaps resulting from institutional competition and prestige.
We could demonstrate that the professor holds the potential to behold a following comparable to that of a well-known celebrity. This celebrity status is not meant to generate attention for attention’s sake, but to create the necessary conditions so that, similar to famous athletes and movie stars, the impact of a professor’s ideas, ideologies, and teachings could impact more students and greater networks.
A New Knowledge Revolution
This new professor will no longer belong to a school, but rather to themselves and their followers. If we can detach the professor from their established university, we can create a “sharing” program, which seeks to captivate students from multiple schools, programs, and institutions to work together to fund a course.
The focus of this type of program is twofold:
- It would increase visibility around the higher mandate that professors feel, while moving away from the prestige, power, and rigor of an institution.
- Within entrepreneurship and learning centers, it could make available the essential understanding and empathy, which is often quite removed from traditional seminar settings.
In building a network through action and engagement rather than publication, we might genuinely be able to generate and produce something valuable from our “Great Re-think.”