Entrepreneurship is the heart of capitalism and in this sense entrepreneurs can be defined as economic agents who care about their interests. The majority of them can be classified under “greedy business men who have bright ideas for economic activity”.
In 1979 Iranian revolution fruited in an Islamic republic which apart from everything else had many strong beliefs about economy. In Islamic view of economy greed and looking for ones own interests are not acceptable. “Unfair Transactions” are forbidden in various parts of Quran and “those who charge high prices” are presented on par with murderers and deniers of Allah.
As a result in the 80s many Entrepreneurs were expelled from the country. Their Factories closed and their bank acounts and their bank acounts and wealth seized by the order of law. Iran as a country run under the rule of Islam has a centrally planned economy. Many prices are fixed by law and the one who increases the price faces a severe penalty.
Having said all that, one might think life is very hard for Iranian Entrepreneurs. But he/she will probably be surprised at how Iranian Entrepreneurs actually changed the meaning of Entrepreneur and Capitalists into a mild and lovable archetype.
If you want to know more about this you can read this article (The Rise and Newfound Legitimacy of Iran’s Industrial Bourgeoisie) by Kjetil Selvik. The picture that Kjetil illustrates of Iranian business environment is very close to reality. His paper is without a doubt one of the best papers and certainly an essential reading on Iranian Economy.
Categories: Economics · Entrepreneurship · Iran
There is something fundamentally wrong with academic education. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s there. Some thing doesn’t feel right with all of these classes and home works and exams. Maybe I should change that to “There is some thing really really wrong with business schools.”. Yeah, that makes more sense and it makes painful amounts of sense in a flawed and troubled society like Iran. Let me explain.
The business is changing everyday. Professors on the other hand do not! and that’s why in developed economies business school courses are (hopefully) taught by business man or management consultants who may or may not hold a PhD. It was like this in the 1950s when business schools were first established and academic persons tried ,although fruitlessly, to raise business men.
In Iran the situation is even more caricaturized. In our school for example (University of Tehran School of Entrepreneurship) Professors are half business men and half academic. The first group suffers the problem their American counterparts had fifty years ago. the business men (Consultant type) professors have another problem peculiar to Iran. The Iranian business environment does not corroborate with what they have to teach. The maturity of organizations are at extremely low levels here and they have to teach contemporary business text books ( even the old ones don’t teach much on birbary which is a very common thing if you want to engage in a business relationship with the government. So, In short, What you learn is of really no busines value inside Iran. That’s not the whole story. What you learn does not come handy anywhere else in the world (the developed world) since you where not familiarized with the world business environment.
That was why a business degree issued from an Iranian university is actually useless. of course this was only my Idea and might be very very wrong. what do you think? I think this was a really boring post… very very boring.
Categories: Education · Entrepreneurship
