Entrepreneurial Discussion with the First ITB Professor in the Field of Entrepreneurship and Startup
By Adi Permana
Editor Vera Citra Utami
BANDUNG, itb.ac.id – School of Business and Management (SBM) Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) has its first Entrepreneurship and Startup professor, Prof. Wawan Dhewanto, S.T., M.Sc., Ph.D. He also became the youngest professor among eight other SBM professors.
Prof. Wawan started his career at ITB in 2004 when he joined the SBM ITB Entrepreneurship and Technology Management Research Group. He then became the Head of the Entrepreneurship Study Program in 2013-2017. Currently, he is still actively teaching as well as carrying out the mandate as the Secretary of the ITB Academic Senate.
Prof. Wawan has been putting a lot of his time into the entrepreneurial world for a long time. According to him, entrepreneurship is an important part of a nation because it can develop the nation's economy. In addition to increasing the national income, entrepreneurship is also reducing the unemployment and poverty rate. "Indonesia has a big population. We are becoming a big market for imported goods. Indeed, entrepreneurship is not for everybody, but everybody shouldn't be an employee either. We need entrepreneurs that can provide goods and services for both national and international markets," said Prof. Wawan in our online interview.
Those are the reasons that motivate Prof. Wawan to actively teach entrepreneurship. However, entrepreneurship is a relatively new study program in Indonesia. According to AN-PT, there are only 23 universities that are teaching entrepreneurship study programs. ITB is one of the first universities to open this study program. SBM ITB has the only excellent-rated entrepreneurship study program in Indonesia through 3163/SK/BAN-PT/AK-ISK/S/V/2021. It proves that ITB, especially SBM, is a vital driving engine for the development of entrepreneurship education in Indonesia.
Prof. Wawan said that he is routinely teaching entrepreneurship outside the ITB scope. He likes to participate in various community services programs such as small business-improvement program, boarding school entrepreneurship program, and village entrepreneurship program. Prof. Wawan has also co-authored various entrepreneurial books.
Prof. Wawan hopes that his knowledge can contribute to entrepreneurial education in Indonesia. He wants that the entrepreneurial knowledge can be applied to many fields such as digital startup, corporation entrepreneurship, family-business, rural and town entrepreneurship, tourism entrepreneurship, and creative entrepreneurship.
Reporter: Najin Khoirul Amalin (Management, 2020)
Translator: Favian Aldilla Rachmadi (Civil Engineering, 2019)
