Drop innovation in state schools

Business skills in state schools is the subject I want to see. We have plenty of good ideas in Denmark. What I think we lack is more people who can take an idea, get it made, sell it and build a business.

I’m by the hot springs in Hanmer Springs, New Zealand, in February 2012. My family and I are travelling in a motorhome while I interview Danish entrepreneurs who’ve settled abroad. This morning, I’ve spoken to my friend Soulaima about entrepreneurship and politics.

I first recorded a shorter video in the motorhome. The camera was the wrong way round, and I also felt something was missing. So now I’m making a longer version while standing here by the water.

Bureaucracy needs to go, but culture matters too

Soulaima’s point was that there are too many rules and complications for entrepreneurs in Denmark. I agree. Starting and running a business needs to be easier and cheaper.

But after three and a half years in the USA, I can’t see that Americans necessarily have less hassle. I experienced lots of paperwork, cheques, faxes and trips to government offices. At least in Denmark we can do a lot online.

In the video, I describe offices East Germany could have been proud of and long waits with an armed man at the door. Yet the USA has a hell of a lot of entrepreneurs.

So my claim is that government hassle doesn’t explain the whole difference. That isn’t an invitation for politicians to make more rules. We still need to remove the burdens. I just also think we lack a stronger entrepreneurial culture.

We need to educate people who create new opportunities

I know state schools often get the blame. If you’re a teacher and feel targeted, this isn’t an attempt to insult you. But we need to call a spade a spade.

My experience is that school is good at educating people for jobs that already exist. I mention historians, archaeologists, law and economics graduates, and people who become employees in the public or private sector. That’s fine, and we need many of them. But I think we’ve done too little for those who want to create something new.

I’m also harsh in my criticism of the public sector’s size. In the recording, I loosely mention around a million public employees and say there must be too many. That’s my political assessment back then. I also stress that I’m not talking about police officers, nurses, frontline care workers or people administering necessary things well.

What I’m calling for is more entrepreneurs and more people who can bring good ideas to life.

A good trader hasn’t necessarily cheated anyone

I don’t think innovation is primarily what we lack. There are plenty of patents and ideas at universities that never become anything. We can also find someone to manufacture things or get production done elsewhere.

We lack the people who take a chance, organise things and get the product sold. Those who buy something for one krone and sell it for five.

My example is little Brian buying a wrecked moped in Den Blå Avis for DKK 100, fixing it, polishing it and selling it for DKK 1,000. I sense an attitude where someone immediately thinks he’s cheated someone out of DKK 900.

He hasn’t necessarily. He’s added something and been a good trader. We need to nurture that ability. I also refer to Lars Larsen as an example of good business sense and say I understand him to agree that we need more good traders.

Business skills in state schools from the early years

I’d like a subject called business skills from first grade or perhaps kindergarten. Pupils should make products and sell them. They should experience why Danish, maths, English and the other subjects are useful.

You could take a little time from several subjects and bring it together. I mention two, three or perhaps four hours a week and imagine, for example, three consecutive hours on a Wednesday from nine to twelve, when pupils are fresh.

It should be a regular programme throughout schooling, not just one themed week or month. Children love playing shop and making lemonade stands. Why not build on something they already enjoy?

A cake project starts with customers

Take a monthly theme where the class bakes and sells cakes. First, they need to find out which cakes people want. That requires asking understandable questions and communicating clearly.

Each pupil could invent a product and stand in front of the class to sell the idea. Then they need to write a little speech, argue their case and win support. That’s where rhetoric and presenting a message come in.

They also need texts, signs, emails and perhaps a website. Perhaps the site could be in both Danish and English. Then languages and communication become part of concrete work. Geography can also come in when thinking about customers and trade in other countries.

It’s much easier to understand why you need to express yourself clearly when it affects whether someone buys your cakes.

Purchasing, budgets and hygiene are teaching too

Then pupils need to find where ingredients can be bought most cheaply. What do they cost in different shops? What difference does quality, and perhaps organic production, make? It becomes concrete that the same product can have different prices.

They need a budget. Add, subtract, find the cost price, then calculate margins and profit. Maths comes in, including percentages and calculations of what they get for their time.

When baking, they use home economics. They need to learn to make something properly and hygienically. In the video, I suggest perhaps inviting an authority to teach hygiene.

That can lead on to biology and chemistry: Bacteria, storage, the fridge and freezer. I’m outlining teaching where the subjects connect to something pupils are actually doing.

Out to sell, negotiate and count the money

Pupils need to bring customers to a stall or find them through advertising and their website. They need to speak clearly about the product. Perhaps they meet someone trying to push the price down, and then need to learn to negotiate.

At the end, they count the money. How much have we spent? How much have we sold? Is there a profit? What have we earned per working hour?

I also play with the idea of talking to the bank, opening an account and discussing interest. In the video, I joke about the very low rates then, such as 0.1 or 0.01 percent. It can still help explain what an interest rate means for the money in the till.

Next month, a new project begins. The class can see what it’s earned, what it can reuse and what new product to make. The cycle continues, with experience from the first project used in the next.

Not everyone needs to become an entrepreneur

I don’t expect every pupil to become a trader. But knowing something about business won’t hurt a future archaeologist either.

I had to learn about the Iliad and antiquity myself. It wasn’t what helped me most in business, but I’ve benefited from knowing history. I can join the conversation when I meet academics, although I’m not one myself.

In the same way, practical business skills can give more people an understanding of society. You can involve parents in sales, make teaching fun and show children how all the subjects connect.

The first, shorter version in the motorhome

In my first recording, I use a bicycle as an example: Buy it for DKK 100, polish it and sell it for DKK 500. Again, the point is that this can be good business sense rather than antisocial behaviour.

I also mention American entrepreneurs facing complicated company structures and the risk of being sued. That’s part of my comparison of my experiences in the USA and Denmark.

In that version, I say more directly that you could take a little time from maths, Danish, English and geography. In my opinion, religious education could be removed. That’s my view in the recording.

In the middle of it all, my son Mads returns with the washing-up. I ask him to put things beside me while I finish the video. Then I continue with the idea that children can read recipes, write sales copy and calculate cost price, hourly pay and margins in the same project.

Ideas need to reach the market

To me, it’s about producing products and benefits for other people. Then we can create prosperity and perhaps bring in foreign currency so those who can’t or don’t want to be entrepreneurs can have a decent life too.

I’d like to help if anyone in government wants to put such a subject into practice. I’m happy to join a working group, but then it needs to lead to action. There must be energy and enthusiasm behind it. It can’t end as another round of talk.

My closing point is blunt: Children are innovative. They don’t first need to learn to have ideas. They need to learn to bring their ideas to market and sell them. That’s what I want in schools. Also read Iværksætter til jeg dør about my own experiences of turning ideas into businesses.