The Workforce Is Changing. Entrepreneurship Is the Answer.

President Stephen Spinelli at USASBE Conference 2020
Listen

Disruption. It’s more than just a buzzword for Babson College President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD. It’s reality.

“The pace of change in the world and in the workplace is creating disruption in almost every industry,” says Spinelli.

Nearly 40% of U.S. jobs currently sit in occupations that are likely to shrink by 2030, according to one McKinsey study. Advances in fields like artificial intelligence and robotic process automation mean that half the millennial workforce is expected to find work in jobs that have yet to be created, as KPMG wrote in Forbes.

Why does this matter? Now more than ever, Spinelli says, students need to be prepared for the future of work, and with it, all of its uncertainty. This “creates an essential and growing need for learning across a lifetime,” he adds.

Spinelli shared his thoughts on the future of work and the importance of entrepreneurship, across all sectors of education, at this year’s United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) conference. There, he also received the John E. Hughes Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement.

Entrepreneurship as a Differentiator

“I’ve read thousands of articles about the future of education and the future of business,” Spinelli said. “I think (the education industry) is what the newspaper industry was in 1990 when someone invented the internet.”

In this time of disruption and change, when the world is more connected and complicated than ever, the need for lifelong education has never been greater, he says. It also is time for entrepreneurship education to take center stage, as a discipline that “has based its existence on motivating people to look at what market demand is and to really create value.”

A lifelong learner himself, Spinelli co-founded Jiffy Lube at the same time he started his MBA program at Babson.

“It was the first time I really began to understand the combination of thought and action,” he shared.

For Spinelli, the mindset is what distinguishes those who have participated in entrepreneurship education from those who have not. “Entrepreneurs aren’t people that jump out of airplanes without a parachute,” he said. “We may jump out of an airplane, but chances are, we’re well prepared to land where we want to land and to do something important when we get there.”

This mindset creates entrepreneurial leaders, no matter the industry, career, or job title—people who are able to turn problems into opportunities that create social and economic value.

“I believe we can have such a dramatic effect on education, not just business.”

President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD

Addressing the audience at USASBE, Spinelli asked: Will there be a need for more accelerated knowledge in the next 10 years? And, who has spent the last 30 years, including millions of hours, dedicated to figuring out what the entrepreneurial process is and should be?

The answers? Yes, and, of course, Babson.

“I believe we can have such a dramatic effect on education, not just business,” he said. “We’re the experts in understanding market demand, delivering value, and solving the problem. We should be leading this revolution.”

Read more from Heather McGowan MBA’01 on the future of work, from her session at Babson Connect: Worldwide during Babson’s Centennial Celebration.

Posted in Entrepreneurial Leadership

More from Entrepreneurial Leadership »

Latest Stories

Luciana Gomez ’27 sitting on a bench shaped like donuts
Pitching, Problem Solving, and Professional Growth: Babson Students Share Summer Internship Success By the time they graduate, most Babson students will have completed at least one internship. Off the clock for the summer, undergraduate students reflect on their summer internships.
By
Melissa Savignano
Writer
Melissa Savignano
Melissa Savignano, a content marketing manager at Babson College, has worked in higher education for almost a decade, where she tells authentic, compelling campus and community stories. Before Babson, she managed communications for Boston University’s largest college, the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. She previously worked in client relations, helping brands of various sizes launch content marketing strategies and storytelling initiatives. When not at work, you will find her in the city of Boston, probably at the movie theater.
September 8, 2025

Posted in Outcomes

Farrah Narkiewicz and Rob Major sit and talk at Trim Dining Hall
The Regular Crowd Shuffles In: Lunchtime at Trim  Trim Dining Hall may be a key part of everyday life for many Babson students, but a slew of faculty and staff members also make it part of their daily routine. At lunchtime, they file into the dining hall, seeking food and camaraderie.
By
John Crawford
Senior Journalist
John Crawford
A writer for Babson Thought & Action and the Babson Magazine, John Crawford has been telling the College’s entrepreneurial story for more than 15 years. Assignments for Babson have taken him from Rwanda to El Salvador, from the sweet-smelling factory of a Pennsylvania candy maker, to the stately Atlanta headquarters of an NFL owner, to the bustling office of a New York City fashion designer. Beyond his work for Babson, he has written articles and essays for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Notre Dame Magazine, The Good Men Project, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter, @crawfordwriter, where he tweets about climate change.
September 4, 2025

Posted in Community

Babson Study Reveals the Power of Customer Kindness New Babson-funded research shows that customer kindness can boost employee satisfaction, reduce turnover, and spark a cycle of positivity in service industries.
By
Hillary Chabot
Writer
Hillary Chabot
Hillary Chabot is a writer for Babson Thought & Action and Babson Magazine. An award-winning journalist, she is known for her insightful reporting and dedication to detailed storytelling. With a career spanning over two decades, she has covered a wide range of topics, from presidential campaigns and government policy to neighborhood issues and investigative series. As a reporter for The Boston Herald, Hillary earned a reputation for tenacity and integrity. Her work at Babson College fuels her passions—to learn something new every day and conduct thoughtful, empathic interviews. She’s thrilled to be at Babson College, where students, faculty, staff members and classes provide compelling copy daily.
September 3, 2025

Posted in Community, Insights