Did Mark Cuban, the smartest shark, start the late pitch competitions?

In the early years of entrepreneurship education, business schools primarily sponsored business plan competitions. However, these contests had drawbacks. Business plans are long and time consuming to read, analyze and judge - at the end of which no one can accurately predict the success of a business. It's never clear whether the prize should go to the plan with the "best" writing, the most optimistic financial projections, or true proof of potential.

Business schools then turned to pitch competitions. The pitches are short and all the judges have to do is listen to the pitch and choose the winners - deserving or not, although no one can predict the success of a pitch.

And then we had Shark Tank - the TV show that seems to have hypnotized a lot of people into believing that all a successful entrepreneur has to do is:

· "Innovate" an idea based on the assumption that ideas and innovation are the foundation of great business

Develop a pitch that sounds good - you don't know what the criteria for a good pitch are

· Deliver it with enthusiasm to show off your sales skills

· Win prizes because sponsors want to "promote" entrepreneurship as an advertisement for themselves. How many winners and losers actually start the business they present, and how many succeed, is somewhat opaque.

Mark Cuban is a smart guy. He built his company at the start of the internet age and sold it to Yahoo for millions of dollars. With this capital he bought a basketball team and with his charm and intelligence got a seat on Shark Tank - perhaps the most successful of investors.

Fortunately, he now says he's invested around $20 million in 85 projects on Shark Tank, and he's underwater.

Why is this admission important? Because it emphasizes that the Emperor is naked - that no one can predict the potential of a pitch.

We hope this admission will inspire business schools to strengthen entrepreneurial education by shifting their focus from the idea to the entrepreneur. Here's why?

#1. The idea (or "innovation") is not the key. Strategy and skills are. Business schools emphasize innovation as the cornerstone of entrepreneurship. Cuban's admission clearly suggests that the idea is not the key. Among more than 120 unicorn entrepreneurs, only 1% relied on innovation. Most succeeded thanks to the skills and strategy of the entrepreneur:

· Many have launched big box stores. Sam Walton emulated the idea and dominated due to his strategy of focusing on small towns

· Many have gotten into PCs. Bill Gates bought the operating system and managed to make it the standard thanks to his alliance with IBM

· Many have taken to connecting people online. Mark Zuckerberg emulated the idea and beat out Rupert Murdoch because of his strategic focus on college students, starting with Harvard and Stanford.

Predicting which strategy can dominate emerging trends is difficult because it requires the right combination of product, customer segment, and competitive advantage. That's why many unicorn entrepreneurs are pivoting, as Travis Kalanick (Uber) did, from limos to cars. And why it's important to teach entrepreneurs the process to stay flexible and pivot.

#2. Pitch competitions cannot predict success. Shark Tank is built on the ground - if the format and the hype are to be believed. But Cuba's admission shows that even one of the smartest people on the planet can't predict accurately. Should business schools stop promoting pitch competitions?

#3. Business schools can do more to promote entrepreneurial success by teaching smart skills and strategies and promoting skills competitions. Instead of a "fast" pitch competition, business schools should promote a "slow" skills competition. Teach the skills and smart strategies for success, then assess real-world performance - without the guesswork. Offer resources to those who prove their skills.

#4. Venture capital does not buy success. VC, and Idea-Pitch-Incubator/Accelerator-Angels-VC's VC method, works for about 20 out of 100,000 (see