Prof Mateusz Molasy: Entrepreneurship education and the importance of creating unique value in the world

Prof Mateusz started his lecture by saying that not everyone needs to have as unique idea for the business or product as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

“In most of the cases if something is a little bit better, a little bit higher quality, is delivered in a little bit of a different way, or the service is a little bit different, then it’s already innovative and has a huge chance to be a viable business opportunity. It’s usually easier than most people think it might be. Of course, the biographies of those biggest stars of entrepreneurship give us a lot of directions to follow,” he said.

“Entrepreneurship is extremely important for students and society: it helps address youth unemployment, increases the pace of competition and improvement, and brings unique value to the world.”

So said Professor Mateusz Molasy, assistant Professor at the Mechanical Engineering at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in Poland, while visiting the University of the Western Cape (UWC) for a week to lecture students up to honours level.

Prof Molasy received his PhD in the discipline of management - his research has been focused on the culture of organisation and human resources management, and he teaches the essentials of Management, management in production, knowledge management, entrepreneurship and innovation management. He visited the University on an Erasmus+ grant.

Discussing the importance of entrepreneurship and creating one’s own jobs rather than following the traditional route of working for a boss, Prof Molasy stressed the importance of seeking good entrepreneurial role models, like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

“Take a page out of the books of the founders of  Apple, Intel, Microsoft and FedX,” he said. “They started out in small garages, but built their businesses into multibillion dollar corporations that changed the way we live and work.”

He went on to highlight the growing problem of youth unemployment - and how to combat this by becoming business owners and by creating jobs.

“In Poland, 5% of the youth are self employed, with registered businesses, and the numbers keep growing - just as we are seeing in South Africa,” he said. “At the same time, 24% of our youth in Poland are unemployed, which is very close to South Africa’s unemployment rate of 26,6% for 2016. In Poland more youth are unemployed than adults.”

Of course, becoming a successful business owner is easier said than done - but Prof Molasy noted that students starting businesses can give themselves a greater chance of success by following certain guidelines.

For example:

• Think long term;

• Find your passion;

• Communicate with your circle of influence (parents, friends, contacts);

• Keep learning about businesses;

• And finally, keep moving forward even in the tough times - this is what makes an entrepreneur.

Prof Molasy was hosted by the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Prof Molasy is a member of the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, where his research focuses mostly on knowledge management issues in manufacturing and the automotive industry. He has participated in Governmental and European projects and published several papers in national and international conferences and journals.

For more information about this topic, or about visiting a EU university, please contact Professor Lorna Holtman, Director of the School of Postgraduate Studies, on lholtman@uwc.ac.za.