It is not compulsory yeah but education will pay more for any experienced person to grow better. However it will depends on entrepreneur experience and vision..

Dear Abraham,

It can not be said as precondition. On the other hand MBA, may cast not so necessary boundaries in open mind forcing to think conventionally. 

And in any case if an innovator as well, may not require an MBA degree, on strengths of  a natural thought process beyond such bindings. Risk taking ability may as well not increase with qualification while this is present in an Entrepreneur and encouraged by clarity of vision and determination to succeed.

The initiators of business thought processes were surely not MBA's, so limiting is never the best way.

Once my consultant (who was an IIM,A alumnus and was consulting me on my one business venture) pissed me off by giving too many advices, and I asked him - Why didn't you become entrepreneur (since you know everything so well)?

And his reply was - World over (and more so in India), MBA aspirants are selected based on their aptitude on analysis, and during their MBA, the focus of studies is on Analysis. So MBAs make great analysts and they contribute to an organization a great deal, with their Analytical abilities.

Whereas, business is all about Synthesis. Also, being an entrepreneur means various personality traits which make an individual successful entrepreneur (or not).

This was the most convincing answer of - How being an MBA does not make you a successful entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs doesn't required any strong educational background like MBA. If the person knows the present market condition very well and what he/she can create a innovative concepts to launch in the market with consideration of risk analysis.

If you take a example of Dhirubhai Ambani. He was not a MBA graduates but he started with a vision and strong determination. But yes after getting start you will require MBA gradates for transferring ideas into reality.

i don't think Enterpreneurs need to have an MBA NECESSARILY. The only thing is a person needs to have sufficient practical knowledge about the risks involved and the efforts required. If u hav a good understanding of the needs of the market along with the costs involved, U can start ur business successfully. If required, you can go for additional knowledge and expertise through MBA which imparts a finishing touch to ur skills. It does add a professional touch to the methodolgy followed.

Taking an example of people starting from Miittal of airtel to Bill gates, we see ample example of people being without MBA, But at the growth stage they must have good MBA guys who transform his ideas into reality.

you need not be a mba to be a enterprenuer,but should know management skills and skills t oappoint educated people like ca,cost accountants and mba to run the business.

I believe that the MBA as an education cannot provide the real time practical knowledge. In any cases, you will have to take some actions to get the work done. Knowledge automatically builds that way through expierence.

Moreover, there are plenty of sources to gain the same MBA level knowledge, why to invest money into MBA while you can invest in business to gain real time results.

No one require any degree to be an entrepreneur, but what about knowledge?...... which is very essential.... i only know 2 ways to get knowledge...

1) Join a good School that teaches you pratical knowledge so as to apply the same in your life, now this depends on your financial backbone.......

2) Or if your are broke then learn it the hard way by doing it thousand times and getting sucess may be once.... lol..... 

so why not to learn it from the experts and they will teach you the thousand wrong ways of doing it as well, so that when you make a mistake, at least you know what not to try this time........... but still it all about money even when you are an entrepreneur....... or you what to be one.....  

I think that Mr.Javier has made a very valid point.For a person to become an entrepreneur doesn't mean that he/she needs an MBA degree....there are many successful entrepreneurs today who didn't have high qualification to back them up but they have made it big in their respective careers through sheer dedication,hard work and their will to succeed at any cost....so yes one doesn't need any specific degree to become a successful businessman or entrepreneur.

Though I am in full support of the need of higher level of professional education like MBA, it is worthwhile to have a look the effectiveness of the present MBA courses  in practical terms. Because things do seem to go southwards in the business with more and more young generation MBA graduates entering the arena?.

Especially the MBA courses in HR requires a review.  The HR policy of wholesome replacement of able and experienced with young and inexperienced MBA graduates had mostly proven a wrong business strategy.  It is a fact the inexperienced young MBA employees, especially those who do not take the pains to learn,  feel  uncomfortable in the presence of experienced. The HR department find it easy to remove the experienced and elderly to appease the  youngsters. We see many HR heads boast of having achieved lower and lower average age of the company staff instead of taking a balanced approach.  

 In my opinion, the HR departments have equal share in mismanagement of the business houses which caused this economic fiasco. It is therefore, worth to have a re-look in the HR MBA Curriculums. 

And look at what most of those big MBA guys  did to the Industries and Financial enterprises of late, other than bringing down the economy the world over.

Like every other field, having an MBA may help enterprenours up to certain level. But I don't think it is a must that all enterprenours should have MBA.

Ajay i agree with you.If one have the capability to run a business then it does not matter whether he have an MBA degree or not.Let me give example of DhiruBhai ambani who started his business with only 500Rs. and he does not had MBA degree also but still he succeeded in building the empire what we today known as Reliance empire,and like him there are many successful entrepreneurs who have achieved far greater success than people who holds this degree.So its really the capability and the will to succeed that determines one's altitude rather than a paper saying that you are an MBA graduate.

No, I do not think entrepeneurs should have an MBA, it is definitely not a requirement, the  entrepeneur may profit from having an MBA in the same way that he would benefit from having a degree or a PhD in a subject related to his activity.  A degree does not make the entrepeneur or indeed the artist, it goes beyond their academic skills.

At the risk of being flamed a traitor (I spend 3.5 years for my MBA), my stand is: Business knowledge is important, MBA degree isn't.

An MBA degree is valuable to get a corporate job, it is of no help to an entrepreneur, whose main qualifications should be 'fire-in-the-belly', close connect with customers, logical inquiring mind, dogged persistence and capacity for hard work.

Although it sounds glamorous, but blood, sweat and tears is a very expensive (and lengthy) way to build a business; The investors are unlikely to fund the entrepreneur's learning 'on the job'. nor will the customers wait till you get it right.

Therefore it is imperative to have business and domain knowledge from work experience, but not get bogged down with a formal degree.

If an entrepreneur doesn't believe in himself and his vision, he is doomed to fail and none can save him.

Moreover, the faculty at the Bschools, with all their experience (of teaching) can't teach you to take risks and do your own thing. They might help and guide you, but as they say 'you can take a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink'. Similarly the best faculty can't teach you how to be an entrepreneur.

No entrepreneur don't need MBA, only experience in the relevant field is more than enough to start a start up and MBA as every body say its mandatory to do, thats not the case, there are so many people in the country who even without basic education are making millions....so i don't think MBA is necessary for an entrepreneur.