How does the Muslim community face the threat of inflationary pressure as majority of Muslims are either illiterate or unemployed? Entrepreneurship could be the answer. The community has thousands of struggling entrepreneurs who have no support whatsoever from the community.
Many Muslim entrepreneurs do not have the space or desire to start a business out of their home, yet they find that renting space and setting up essential support functions is burdensome financially.
Business incubators are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial start-up through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts.
Business incubators attached to Muslim educational institutes and campus will motivate, guide and provide an environment to Muslim students to think innovatively and come up with ideas to launch their own venture.
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Incubators vary in the way they deliver their services, in their organisational structure, and in the types of clients they serve. Successful completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a start-up company will stay in business for a long term. According to a study conducted by the University of Michigan , 87% of incubator graduates stay in business.
Worldwide, there are around 4,000 operational incubators. While the US has over 1,000 incubators, Europe has around 1,000 of them including 300 from Germany. Among the developing countries, China has set up around 400 incubators. Other countries catching up with the concept include Korea , Japan and Malaysia .
In 2005 alone, North American incubation programs assisted more than 27,000 start-ups that provided employment for more than 100,000 workers and generated annual revenues of $17 billion.
In India, the concept is yet to catch up. In 2000, the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board of the Department of Science and Technology, initiated a TBI scheme to promote start-up companies.
Fortunately today the Muslim community has an excellent network of educational institutes managed by educational public Trusts. These Muslim educational Trusts and organisation can play a vital role in encouraging entrepreneurship by establishing business incubation centers.
Muslim managed educational institutes are the perfect venue for business incubation projects as these institutes could foster business incubation by clustering students together in collaborative environments. Especially in the case of Management institutes, students are actively encouraged to spend study time pondering issues and ways to solve them.
Successful business incubation can result in products ranging from pins to computers. Once an idea has been incubated, it needs to be developed, prototyped, and commercially presented. The business incubation centers attached to Muslim education institutes can help convert these ideas into commercially viable ventures by appointing a team leader and encourage this process through their existing infrastructure and network.
These campus based business incubators can also provide Micro-Entrepreneurship training to young members of marginalized sections of the Muslim society. Basically, these business incubation centers can fulfill the start-up requirements of basic infrastructure support and references.
These business incubators attached to Muslim educational institutes and campus will motivate, guide and provide an environment to Muslim students to think innovatively and come up with ideas to launch their own venture. Once an idea is conceived, the incubation center will support Muslim students during the initial phase when they are most vulnerable, as they transform into real companies.
These business incubators will achieve a variety of economic and socio-economic policy needs, which may include
* Creating jobs and wealth Fostering a community’s entrepreneurial climate
* Business creation and retention
* Encouraging women or minority entrepreneurship
* Identifying potential spin-in or spin-out business opportunities
* Community revitalization
Launching a successful small business is no easy feat—according to the National Business Incubation Assoc-iation, about 80% of them fail in the first five years. So to promote and inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst Muslim students, campus based business incubation centers are need of the hour.
No huge investment is needed nor elaborate infrast-ructure. All that is required is the willingness on the part of the Trustees of these Muslim educational institutes.
(The writer can be reached at mhl@rediffmail.com)