Real-life enterprise provides a starting point for business students

In the return series of Business 2000, John Downes hopes this column will supplement your course work and provide a useful insight into the world of business and its players.

Have you ever bought a novel and gone to the last page to find out what happens?

Go on, admit it. Most of us have done it at some stage.

Doing so is only human - you want to know what happens and the answer is right there in front of you.

Given this, anyone can be forgiven for skipping to the last page to see who the murderer is, or whether the heroine will get the hero.

But in a strange way, the above example explains exactly what this year's Irish Times Business 2000 column will be all about.

Confused? Well, let me explain.

We at The Irish Times have absolutely nothing against school books.

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that they have played a considerable role in most of our lives.

Having said that, school books are not without some limitations.

Of course, they are pretty essential if you want to cover your course in time for your exams.

By guiding you step-by-step through the various aspects of the curriculum, they gradually build up your knowledge on a wide variety of topics.

They can challenge, provoke, and stimulate you to learn things which you otherwise might not have understood, or even cared much about.

But for all their uses, books contain a finite amount of information - and a finite number of perspectives.

As a result, they can sometimes be a bit predictable. And this is where initiatives such as the Business 2000 series come in.

Each week, the aim of Business 2000 - and this column in particular will be to serve as a starting point for the discussion of different themes to do with business studies.

One of the main ways of doing this will be through real-life examples of individual businesses and the situations they find themselves in on a day to day level.

Questions such as: "what does it take to start your own business?" "who should you turn to for advice?" And: "How can you ensure you make the most of your opportunities?" will all feature in this year's column.

By talking to people from all walks of business life, we will be aiming to gain an insight into how they got to where they are today.

Another key theme we will be examining this year is the personal qualities necessary to take a good business idea through to fruition.

Much of the current conversation about the Irish economy centres around the need to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of people just like you.

But what does this mean?

By listening to the experiences (and the advice) of people who have been there already - or who are in the process of getting there - the hope is that students such as yourselves will be able to find out.

This is something which will, in turn, be reinforced by the in-depth case studies provided by the Business 2000 resource pack and website.

Last year a number of key points emerged from this approach.

Perhaps one of the most obvious is the need for any young entrepreneur to plan ahead in order to succeed.

So we will be looking this year at the importance of market research and a well-developed business plan. Similarly, the need to plan ahead and allow for all eventualities will be underlined.

Clearly, the personal qualities of the promoters of any idea also play a big role in all this.

Through interviews with several successful entrepreneurs, in a wide variety of industries, we will focus on what exactly these qualities are.

How important is individual drive, a belief in what you are doing, and the ability to see the "bigger picture"?

This column is by no means going to provide you with all the answers you need. That is the job of your teachers, your schoolbooks and you.

But it is hoped that it will provide you with at least some of the tools you need to further your studies.

Every week, we hope you will turn to the Business This Week supplement to see what we will be writing about. Listen to your teachers and they will show you how to get the most out of the column.

And this year for the first time, teachers and students alike can contact the column directly at business2000@irish-times.ie with any thoughts they might have on articles they would like to see appear here.

In this way, the column will be able to respond to what its readers feel is worthwhile examining.

In publishing the Business 2000 series, we believe we can enhance and develop your knowledge of business studies.

When combined with the input of your teachers, and your schoolbooks, this makes a powerful learning tool. The rest, of course, is up to you.