Learning Entrepreneurship through Indigenous Knowledge

Citation

Chakarborty, M. (2013), "Learning Entrepreneurship through Indigenous Knowledge", European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 500-502. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591311327312

Book synopsis

The book sets out to address the difficult task of stimulating and inspiring entrepreneurial spirit in young minds. The authors achieve the challenging task of linking folktales with entrepreneurship traits. In spite of plotting stories in an African context, the global appeal of the stories and intrinsic messages are explicit throughout the book. The authors of this book are established professionals, who have backgrounds in management, education, teaching, evaluation, human resource development and entrepreneurship.

The book acknowledges the need to trigger entrepreneurship behavior in young minds. Although fairy tales reminds us of our innocent childhood, the authors state that the book can be beneficial to not only teachers and youth but also to educators, parents, students, workers, policy makers, and business leaders. Therefore, it can be said that this book can be used by people from various spheres since one can be an entrepreneurial educator, trainer, leader, parent, or business owner.

First, this book can be introduced to children at a very early stage to grow interest in entrepreneurship. Second, it can be used in schools for the purpose of teaching entrepreneurial values and traits. Third, the stories can be used in business schools to help students comprehend entrepreneurship behavior in simple terms. Finally, the simple stories can be an educational read for anyone interested in entrepreneurship.

To reach the above‐mentioned diverse audience, the book presents collections of proverbs and simple compelling, and interesting stories, followed by a synopsis of lessons learned and a list of reflective questions. Lesson learned sections sheds light on entrepreneurial characteristics presented in the specific story. The reflective questions remind the readers of the entrepreneurial lessons and also help them reflect on their own experiences. The book embraces a storytelling or narrative technique to convey its intended message to readers. The usefulness of using short stories and storytelling technique in business environment is established by researchers like O'Connor (2000); Phillips (1997); Pentland (1999).

The book consists of eighteen chapters. The 18 chapters are distributed in three sections. Part one is the introduction section that elaborates purpose of the book. The book is based on the concept of social learning. The authors clarify that the stories are not in sequence. The guidelines listed to follow before and after reading the stories help understand underlying assumptions of the stories. Activities like role playing, identifying with the story characters and storytelling are some of the skills that can be practiced to enhance the learning experience.

Part two consists of three chapters that remind us of the importance and significance of entrepreneurial values in our society. Chapter 2 explicates the concept of youth entrepreneurship and establishes the rational of inspiring entrepreneurship values in children at a very early stage (Nafukho, 1997). The chapter also presents stages of entrepreneurship and related key factors that can be practiced to develop the identified stages. Chapters 3 and 4 explicate traits that help create entrepreneurial characteristics. In chapter 3 the authors advocate that young thoughts and ideas should not be ignored. The chapter also presents the foundation of entrepreneurship: trust and maintaining partnership through a beautiful folktale. Chapter 4 discusses entrepreneurial characteristics. Success in entrepreneurship is an exercise of smart financial management, careful strategic planning' etc and not necessarily dependent on how much money one has in the beginning. This simple but powerful message is inspiring to any new talented individual, who is thinking of starting his or her own business or doing things differently from the norm.

Based on the entrepreneurial characteristics and traits identified in the previous chapters, part three collects and portrays folktales and stories to establish entrepreneurial characteristics. Some chapters in this part use multiple stories. Chapter 5 emphasizes on the importance of planning and envisaging. The authors talk about the inspirational story of Evans Wadongo, who designed and invented solar lamps and started a team project called “use solar, save lives” as he attempted to provide alternative ways of providing light for domestic use in rural African villages.

The importance of networking, time management, planning, and being realistic, results‐oriented, efficient, and energetic are discussed in chapters 6 to 12. Chapter 13 emphasizes the importance of perseverance, consistency, and endurance in entrepreneurial success. Chapters 14 to 17 highlight the value of endurance, patience, sense of responsibilities, and self‐confidence in true entrepreneurs. Chapter 18 talks about entrepreneurial lessons taught in the Bible. The parable discussed in this chapter reminds readers of the values of hard work and risk‐taking capabilities based on the talents that they have.

Evaluation

This book is a very useful resource for people who intend to start their own business or who plan to challenge convention and change the world. The content of the book is capable of engaging students, teachers, business persons, researchers, leaders, and people of all age interested in business. The simple yet compelling stories are appealing without even the underlying messages. The proverbs and stories are easier for the readers to remember as the hefty task of delivering entrepreneurial lessons are presented in unique and interesting manner.

Nevertheless, the stories and lessons presented are not capable of solving all the economic and social challenges in the world. The courage, temerity and tenacity needed to be a successful entrepreneur in whatever profession, social or economic activities cannot be hoped to be provided by the stories. However, introducing these stories at early age can provide proper direction and guidance. People, who are thinking of starting new business, can benefit from this book. The entrepreneurial traits presented through the engaging stories can definitely help understand basic traits and behaviors of successful entrepreneurs. This book in a way triggers the need and significance of indigenous knowledge in our societal and economic development activities. It confirms the fact that people all over the world from different cultures should respect the value of knowledge and information provided to its members from elderly people. The learned knowledge can help deal with our present day problems.

In the authors' own words

Finally, in authors' own words, the book “uses folktales to teach entrepreneurship among children and the youths to inculcate the entrepreneurial culture” (p. 4). “The book is meant for a very wide readership for there is no single book of its kind that exists so far” (p. 5). It is hoped that entrepreneurial attitudes “gained through this book will be seedbeds that will help children contribute to families, organizations, communities and ultimately the nation as they learn to turn challenges and opportunities into cultural, social, environmental, or financial wealth” (p. 3).