If you are looking to buy a new car it is only natural to test drive the models you are interested in. Youll quickly get a sense of quality, handling, comfort, and can back up your research with comparable data on cost, mileage, reliability, resale value and much more that is easily available online.

But the decision to go to business school is not so straightforward. You can visit the schools, meet with students and alumni, talk to recruiters, assess costs and check performance on the numerous media MBA rankings. But what about that test drive? How can you compare the classroom experience from one school to another? And for the would-be entrepreneur, how do you decide if business school is a better option than an incubator?

Zak Allal is an Algerian-born entrepreneur and doctor, who completed clinical rotations at Harvard Medical School and Oxford University Medical School. He is also a classically trained musician who includes performances at Carnegie Hall on his resume. This diverse background has contributed to a number of start-ups including 4 Dimension Therapeutics, which repurposes drugs for rare diseases, as well as international concert tours and a teaching fellowship at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley teaching organization founded and funded by the the likes of Google, IDEO, X Prize, Linkedin and the Kauffman Foundation.

Change Lives. Change Organizations. Change the World. But how do you know whether b-school or an incubator is a better fit for you?

To develop his entrepreneurial skills, Allal was faced with the choice of pursuing an MBA or securing a place in an incubator such as the Y Combinator in Mountain View. By way of a test drive he enrolled in Stanford Ignite, a certificate program taught in Palo Alto and locations around the world by prominent Stanford GSB faculty to help innovators to formulate, develop and commercialize their ideas.

What were your reasons to pursue the Stanford Ignite program?

I was frustrated when launching my first business because I didnt understand the subtle mechanics of running a startup. I had innovative ideas, the drive and ambition, the network and the theory of business, but what I lacked was the nuances of business. The Stanford Ignite program was the right place and answer to my needs. It provides the toolbox any non-business person needs to take their venture from an idea stage to a startup stage.

How do you feel the program helped you to crystallize your entrepreneurial ideas? When I applied to the Ignite program, I had already spent one year in Silicon Valley trying to launch a biotechnology startup. I had an abundance of ideas to solve global challenges that can impact a billion people in the next ten years. My issue was how to kick-start those ideas and run them in a sustainable way. The program gave me a good understanding on how a startup works on a practical level: I learned finance and economics, mostly through the Stanford case method, with analysis of cases like Dropbox, a Japanese food delivery chain, or the marketing strategy at Cialis. We had ideation and brainstorming workshops in a design lab, and all the tools to think about our startup ideas from different angles. We also had negotiation and feedback workshops where we learned how to negotiate investments, a salaries, how to give feedback to your employee etc.

The highlight of the program was the check-in sessions we had every week with the Program director: he made sure that we were on track and that we were aligned with reality. During every session he played devils advocate, so we had to be ready. This was the best part of the program for me because we jumped from theory and knowledge to concrete action plans.

Continued here:
Business School Vs. Incubator: An Entrepreneurial Test Drive At Stanford To Find Which Works Best