What the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs Could Look Like
Henrietta Onwuegbuzie is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Lagos Business School where she leads classes on entrepreneurship for the MBA and Executive programmes. Onwuegbuzie was one of the first Visiting Faculty Members at Yale School of Management. A certified management consultant, she is also Director of the Entrepreneurship Innovation Centre and Project Director for the Impact Investing initiative at Lagos Business School.
We spoke to her about how perspectives on business are changing in Nigeria and what her hopes are for the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Tell us about your journey to becoming involved in the business world and educating others.
I decided to do an MSc in Economics and Business Administration followed by an MBA because I wanted to educate the next generation of Nigerian business leaders and entrepreneurs on how business can be a tool for social transformation. I realised that whenever African business is discussed, the vocabulary becomes condescending: ‘people’ become ‘locals’. I became determined to change that narrative.
It was clear to me that impacts and profits are compatible. But conventional teaching seemed to reserve impact for nonprofits, charities, philanthropists and government, while framing business as solely for generating profit – rather than seeing profit as a result of providing solutions that could transform lives and society. Impact investing started becoming more mainstream, but it was still viewed as a nice to have. To me, it seemed clear that it could be a competitive advantage.
“I realised that whenever African business is discussed, the vocabulary becomes condescending: ‘people’ become ‘locals’. I became determined to change that narrative.”
How are business schools changing the way they educate?
The curriculum in most mainstream schools has been designed to make people job seekers, rather than job creators. I tell my students to un-programme themselves: the way they’ve always learned to do things is not the only way. It’s a way – not the way.
A programme focused on job creation fosters a solution-driven mindset that leads to problem solving, continuous improvement and societal transformation.
My students have definitely shifted from being solely profit-driven to becoming more purpose-driven. I educate entrepreneurs and executives who are attending business school to learn practical skills that they can go away and implement, but at the core of what I teach is the principle of being impact-driven. At the end of the course, everybody understands that not only is impact compatible with profit, but that the more impact you make the more profitable you become.
I believe that if entrepreneurs with the right outlook are multiplied, the world will become a better place. That’s why I’m passionate about what I do.
Are there increasing numbers of women attending business school?
We have a lot of women in both our faculty and our classrooms – they even outnumber male students and faculty members. When there is a higher level of gender diversity, there are more perspectives, ideas and solutions.
When it comes to discrimination in the business world, in my experience the best way to tackle it is by proving your competence: prepare, equip yourself and focus on solving the problem that you want to address in the world.
What role do values play in business education?
Values play a major role in the business world because they influence the actions and decisions we make. Conventional teachings on entrepreneurship tend to overlook this aspect and focus on issues like operations, marketing finance and so on – forgetting that we can only bring a positive impact to society through business when we are guided by the right values.
“The curriculum in most mainstream schools has been designed to make people job seekers, rather than job creators.”
As a result, my curriculum starts with personal transformation. It dawned on me that one aspect that conventional management books have consistently ignored is the importance of who you are. What are your competencies? What are your values? What perspective do you offer? What is your character like? Who you are determines what you do, how you do it, the impact you make and the amount of profit you achieve.
You mentor a number of aspiring and established entrepreneurs. Tell us a little more about your motivations to do that and the value it brings to them.
I never planned to have mentees – I just aimed to leave individuals better equipped than before they met me and learn from everybody that I meet.
The more you do for other people, the more you learn about the world and yourself. It goes back to doing good, not because I want credit or popularity, but because I want others to thrive and work towards the future that I think is possible – one in which there is shared prosperity because businesses are both profitable and purpose-driven.
This article was first published in Issue 02 of The Beautiful Truth. Order your copy here.
