eBay doubles up as B-School

Chandan Singh, 25, in Mumbai, found himself unemployed when the financial institution he was working for closed down three years ago. His efforts at both seeking alternative employment as well as setting up his own business were not successful.

"It was hard," says Singh, "I did not have the financial wherewithal to take out loans, rent a space, hire personnel, or procure stock in bulk in advance." Then, one day, Singh saw an ad in a newspaper. " I read it and decided to go to business school."

So far, so ordinary. But he's not talking about any of the B-schools you know, least of all the hallowed IIMs. Singh's B-school experience constituted a 90-minute seminar at eBay Academy, and he now earns about Rs 8,000 a month through online transactions on eBay, selling electronic items at this website. "I spend just three hours a day at a cybercafe and can make a decent living."

Yes, eBay is a thriving American business, a web-auction enterprise. But Singh is not, as you may suspect, part of any member-get-member network of sud-selling "entrepreneurs" prowling cyberspace as a "web-mob" to enlist people.

Above the melee, eBay merely offers a platform for commercial transactions (which it has enabled between 157 million users to date), though it has an interest in gaining from the "network effect" of expansion; its value as a trading platform rises exponentially as its users increase.

Now, not everyone with a knack of business gets to go to a fancy B-school, or has the financial and time resources to devote to all those books, lectures and assignments. It makes perfect sense, then, for eBay to make the most of this gap in the market for its own eventual benefit. Educate people to run their own businesses with the help of eBay, and they're likely to add force to the brand. That explains eBay Academy.

But does eBay Academy offer business education?

Not in the regular sense of the term, certainly. Hindustan Lever is unlikely to recruit eBay Academy turn-outs in the foreseeable future. But to the extent that it imparts intellectual skills that match market requirements, it qualifies broadly as business education -- though somewhat disruptive, perhaps, in the same manner as an e-business. It uses a somewhat different frame of reference.

"E-commerce is the wave of the future," says Samarjeet Singh, Head, eBay Academy, India, "breeding micro-entrepreneurs." A recent research study by Internet & Online Association of India revealed that the total value of e-commerce activities within India exceeded $136 million in 2004-05, and projected online transactions of $520 million by 2006-07.

The eBay education offers "instructors", "self-help instruction manuals" and "entrepreneurial kits".  Called eBay University in the US, it started in 1996 when Jim Griffith, author of The Official eBay Bible decided to train people to maximize their utility of eBay for profit.

Today, the course material is focused on the web-enabled startup. The message: if you have Internet access and some value to offer the market, you can make money.

Aimed at a vast cross-section of America, the eBay package includes lessons on how to manage the media and legal aspects of setting up a small business, apart from mastery of marketing and payment systems. It is not a generalised MBA by any means, but it is a power pack that serves its specific purpose.

In India, every seminar is an hour and half long and hosts roughly 500 to 800 people. The "curriculum" consists of audio-visual power-point presentations which include such topics as "Selling Basics", designed for wide understanding -- though the language of instruction is English ("the language of the internet screen" in Singh's justification).

Does this method of instruction work? "Well, the audience pays careful attention to the nuts and bolts of the presentation. However, they still hesitate at points, because it's such a new concept," says Singh. Then there are live interactive sessions too, in which successful role model entrepreneurs talk about their experiences.

Says N Sharma, a retired octogenarian who "guest lectures" at these seminars: "People my age are really impressed that I can earn Rs 4,000 a month just through selling extra prints of stamps from my stamp collection. I also tell them that this works well if you're not street smart. An Internet transaction, unlike a face-to-face transaction, gives you space to think carefully before leaping in feet first."

Apart from the network effect, eBay stands to gain in terms of direct revenue as well. Says Singh, "We usually charge a percentage of the amount that an individual makes when he or she sells a product on eBay."

The company has much to gain, but only by empowering large numbers of people. Singh's most recent interaction at a seminar was with a recently widowed young woman who was uncertain about her future. After the seminar, Singh recalls, "She came up to me and thanked us for showing her a way to earn some income".

The academic establishment may not recognize eBay Academy as an educational institution. Nor anyone with a bona fide degree from a regular B-school. But so long as anyone has an interest in exclusivity of the MBA tag, and demand for applied business knowledge skyrockets, the market is likely to throw up bastion-stormers such as eBay.

Such niche educational initiatives should perhaps be seen in this context, and granted private space so long as their educational objectives are wholesomely within the rule-of-law framework.

Electronic item seller Chandan Singh has no doubt that eBay Academy offers a business education. "One learns about setting up a business, marketing and finance all," he says, gratefully, "for absolutely no cost."