HBR Salon: Economists and Entrepreneurs Complement Each Other

Jul 13-2023   

Economists and entrepreneurs are complementary in that they can gain by learning from each other, said Prof. Yao Yang, Dean of both the NSD and BiMBA Business School, in a recent salon on business insights by Harvard Business Review’s Chinese edition.

Prof. Yao pointed out that generations of entrepreneurs have been powering the economy forward and entrepreneurial spirits remain constant despite the emergence of new technologies. He admired the charisma of entrepreneurs, characterized by their optimism, positiveness, and perseverance. Through exchanges with them, he also acquires understandings of China’s reality and knowledge from the forefront of business. On the other hand, entrepreneurs can gain by having the thoughts of economists on economic trends, political and economic changes, as well as backgrounds to policy enactment.

Entrepreneurs are born and not made, said Prof. Yao. Being an entrepreneur requires the inborn nature for betting. What business schools can cultivate is management talents, with which entrepreneurship must be paired to run a business well. He said that the business education program at the NSD adjusts its curricular structure every three to five years to keep up with the pace of the time. For example, the next step is to stay abreast of the digital economy.

Prof. Yao also answered questions about his new book Common Sense of Economy. He said that economics is a science for explaining the world and not for predicting. It is of value to all companies, SMES in particular, not least because of their need to understand the cycles of Chinese and global economies.