The Blank School engages Babson community members and leads research to create entrepreneurial leaders.
Entrepreneurial Leadership Is Needed to Change the World
The complex challenges the world has faced for decades or longer—poverty, hunger, climate action, equality—are no doubt daunting.
But they persist because leadership models to date have failed to address them. To solve these challenges, as well as future ones we can’t even envision yet, we need a new model: entrepreneurial leadership.
A Skillset and a Mindset
Entrepreneurial leadership is both a skillset and a mindset—both of which can be taught. Entrepreneurial leaders stand out because they put people first and manage in a relational way. They inspire an entrepreneurial approach, which has the potential to create strong risk managers, exceptional uncertainty navigators, and highly skilled ambiguity explorers. These three traits work together, enabling entrepreneurial leaders to take action, solve problems, and create value while others are still analyzing the situation.
This goes far beyond business, allowing entrepreneurial leaders to impact organizations, the economy, and society as a whole.
Entrepreneurial leadership is the ability to help people in an influential way to have an increased capacity to recognize and exploit entrepreneurial opportunity.
Scott Taylor
Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at Babson
The Entrepreneurial Leadership Mindset
Entrepreneurial leadership is a mindset that sees opportunities where others see problems. We know this mindset is a muscle you can strengthen with the right practice. See what entrepreneurial leadership means to our president, faculty, and alumni.
Advancing Entrepreneurial Leadership as a Global Force for Good
Babson revolutionized entrepreneurship education nearly 50 years ago and is the longstanding leader in the field. Now, Babson continues to pioneer entrepreneurial leadership research while advancing it as the method by which leaders around the world can create economic and social value.
Babson faculty have decades of research expertise and practical training, and teach entrepreneurial leadership at all levels: undergraduate, graduate, and executive education. They also teach other entrepreneurship educators through Babson Academy.
The Methodology: Entrepreneurial Thought & Action
Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® (ET&A™) is a proven methodology for developing the skill set and mindset needed to not just launch a new business, but also make change in an established company, lead a team, or create social impact. It allows leaders to effectively navigate uncertainty by continuously taking action in order to move forward.
No one is born with an entrepreneurial gene. The skills necessary to become an entrepreneurial leader—risk management, continuous learning, deep collaboration—aren’t reserved for a certain class, race, or gender. It doesn’t require dropping out of school to launch the next unicorn. Anyone can practice and develop entrepreneurial competencies and skills.
You can apply it to innovating within a family business, creating a charity, or solving global social issues. ET&A allows for the establishment of sustainable organizations that can have a positive impact on the economy, but also the environment and society.
With a $50 million donation from Arthur M. Blank ’63, H’98 in 2019, Babson launched The Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership. The school is designed to create opportunities for the entire Babson College community to lead change, solve global problems, and create value across business and society.
Scott Taylor, the Arthur M. Blank Endowed Chair for Values-Based Leadership at Babson, has led extensive research work of his Babson colleagues, creating the first academic model to measure entrepreneurial leadership. This groundbreaking research integrates both entrepreneurship and leadership fields, while also incorporating neuroscience.
Entrepreneurial leadership is integrated into the undergraduate curriculum from Day One. The Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME) course, taken by every first-year Babson student, is a yearlong course exploring entrepreneurial leadership from a startup perspective. Students develop, launch, and manage a new business venture, seeing firsthand the interdependencies of all business functions.
While entrepreneurial leadership principles are incorporated into all graduate programs, it is so crucial to solving the world’s problems that it needed its own degree. In the Master of Science in Management in Entrepreneurial Leadership program, students create a new venture, consult for an organization to solve a business problem, and learn how to navigate geography and cultural boundaries during a course abroad.
Successful organizations and teams have one thing in common: They share an entrepreneurial leadership philosophy. Babson Executive Education offers a range of programs designed to equip teams with the tools and mindset needed to take the smartest actions, even with incomplete information.
A major component to advancing entrepreneurial leadership around the world is ensuring everyone has access to entrepreneurship education. The Babson Academy has worked with more than 8,700 educators, administrators, and students from institutions in more than 80 countries via online and in-person programs.
How to Be an Entrepreneurial Leader
Management Professor Nan Langowitz describes eight qualities of effective entrepreneurial leaders, and offers advice on how your leadership instincts can become more entrepreneurial.
Learn More About Babson
Dive deeper into Babson’s nearly 50-year history of entrepreneurship education, plus see where we’re heading next.