Entrepreneurs without borders (POK)

Offered by Politecnico di Milano,
Entrepreneurs without borders (POK)

Introduction to new business development for young people from all over the world. Have you ever thought of starting your own business? Being a job creator instead of a job seeker? Would you like to gather the right people for improving life in your community? For developing and selling a new product or service? This course is addressed to people from anywhere in the world, particularly to students and young graduates who want to learn about new business development and to see if this is something for them. We welcome people from “developing countries”, as well as from industrialized economies.

The course gathers 8 leading experts from Polimi and UNCTAD to let the participants:

  • Learn why and how new business enterprises are the motor of innovation and development
    • Understand how to behave as an entrepreneur
    • Understand why and how living in a country with limited resources, or being a young person or a woman is not at odds with new business development
    • Learn how new enterprises can grow by entering international markets and joining global value chains
    • Learn about new business models that deal with emerging societal challenges
    • Understand the way forward, getting acknowledgeable about next steps to make entrepreneurship a profession, including the enrollment in more advanced entrepreneurship and social business curricula (e.g. PoliMi ones) or in business incubators

Each week of this course:

  • opens by asking thought provoking questions on entrepreneurship and business development in developing countries
  • addresses the issue offering keywords, plain definitions, a few conceptual arguments supported by figures and graphs, successful examples of entrepreneurial activities in harsh contexts
  • concludes by summarizing main lessons learnt and bridging the student toward quizzes, the discussion forum, and materials and videos that help attendants getting familiar with the building blocks of business development and great entrepreneurial experiences
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