Tracking Digital Transformation
By Robert Strauss
Raffi Amit has
his eye on
the future
of e-business.
Stewart Thornhill thought he was going to have a somewhat relaxing, if outdoorsy, day with
his mentor, Raffi Amit. They were headed for Whistler Mountain, the skiing resort close to the
University of British Columbia, where Thornhill had studied for his PhD with Amit, for some
downhill runs.
"So we go skiing. Raffi really likes to ski," said Thornhill, who is now teaching at the Richard
Ivy School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. "But on the way up on the lift, he
insisted on getting down to business with research we were doing.
"That was an introduction to how Raffi works. He's
the ultimate multitasker," said Thornhill. "He's one of
these people who thrives on not missing anything, on
having 20-hour days. If you are not prepared to work
until 1 a.m. and get up again at 6 a.m., then you won't
be prepared for Raffi."
Raphael "Raffi" Amit is the Robert B. Goergen
Professor of Entrepreneurship and a professor of management
at Wharton. In addition, he is the academic
director of Wharton's Goergen Entrepreneurship
Program and a founding director of the Wharton
e-Business Initiative (WeBI), the School's partnership
of academics and industry in combining e-business
practice with research.
Those two fields are Amit's core of interest. He sees
entrepreneurship and e-business as not only compatible,
but essential in today's business climate.
"E-business is, in fact, business these days," he said.
"There is no business that doesn't concern itself with
one form or another of digital transformation, namely
the leveraging of digital technologies to drive performance
improvements throughout the enterprise."
He added, "Many established businesses today are
going through profound changes led by managers with
an entrepreneurial orientation."
Amit believes that entrepreneurship in both independent
and in corporate settings is, despite what has
happened with the dot-com crash, "alive and well" and
will continue to be a driver of renewal and innovation
in businesses.
He said he has noticed that, "The entrepreneurship
students in our classes today are no longer the 'get-rich-fast
tire kickers' but rather students who want to change
the world, who are passionate about what they are
doing, who are driven by the desire to make a difference.
They will win."
Amit doesn't get his theories from mere ivory-tower
bookishness. He prides himself on being in the field,
going to companies and analyzing them from the
inside, researching at a basic level. The challenge in
entrepreneurship education, he said "is to be able to
link theory with practice." Underscoring this philosophy,
he and his colleague, Ian MacMillan, have
anchored Wharton's entrepreneurship initiatives in a
solid research program, a comprehensive teaching program,
and a broad outreach program.
Some of the entrepreneurship outreach initiatives
include the Venture Initiation Program (VIP), the
government-sponsored Wharton Small Business
Development Center, the Wharton Business Plan
Competition, the Enterprising Families Initiative, and
an Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program. All of these
outreach programs are designed to complement and
enhance the basic mission to create and disseminate
new knowledge about entrepreneurship.
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