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How the “Educational LEGO” Model Is Driving a Revolution in Education
Dr OLGA AZAROVA
Founder & CEO | Education Innovator | Entrepreneur | PhD in Economics. Founder and developer of international educational innovations, including MINIBOSS & BIGBOSS BUSINESS SCHOOLS, LEONARDO, EINSTEIN and a broad ecosystem of specialised education franchises.FORTUNE 500 MPW and UN SDGs Awards Laureate.
According to the World Economic Forum, around 40% of workers’ core professional skills are expected to change by 2030. It is often said today that AI will replace the majority of current workers; consequently, training workers for factories and plants—and pouring all our educational resources into schools and universities for this purpose—is a pointless endeavor. Instead, we need to cultivate creators, entrepreneurs, and AI managers capable of driving significant global change, particularly in business processes.
Technology is evolving rapidly, while human capabilities such as creative thinking, resilience, curiosity, communication and leadership are becoming increasingly valuable.
FROM EDUCATION TO CREATION
One of the greatest economic challenges is the shortage of people capable of creating businesses, jobs, technologies and new economic systems.
Entrepreneurs represent only a small proportion of the global population, yet they create companies, employment, products, services, tax revenues and economic growth.
It was this challenge that inspired me and my husband, entrepreneur Andrew Azarov to create MINIBOSS BUSINESS SCHOOL in 1997-1999 as a project and in 2000 as a powerful educational business and global network.
Instead of opening a standard general education school, we focused on developing educational innovations based on a franchise model; this approach—whether by adding to existing schools or opening private educational centres—will enable the rapid expansion of the education market, effectively driving an educational revolution.
That approach eventually transformed our organisation into a research laboratory and incubator for new educational concepts.
THE FIRST INNOVATION: BUSINESS EDUCATION FROM CHILDHOOD
MINIBOSS BUSINESS SCHOOL (MBBS) became a structured eight-year entrepreneurship programme for children and teenagers. Students study economics, business, marketing, idea generation, innovation, technology, invention, communication and career planning. But theory represents only part of the system. Students also participate in business games, masterclasses with entrepreneurs, incubators, Startup Forums, national and international Startup Championships, business camps and other forms of practical entrepreneurial activity.
The traditional educational school cycle is: Lesson → Homework → Test
Our MBBS model became: Knowledge → Idea → Incubator →Team → Project → Market → Presentation → Startup Forum → Championship → Feedback → Result
The difference is fundamental. A student does not merely demonstrate what they know. They create something with that knowledge.
EDUCATIONAL LEGO
The next challenge was scale. Educational systems change slowly. Developing a sophisticated new methodology may require years of research, specialist teams, teacher training, materials, testing and considerable investment. So, we created another model: Do not replace the school. Simply infuse it with innovation through franchises.
Instead of asking every school to invent every innovation independently, we developed specialised education systems that could be connected to an existing school like LEGO bricks. This became our concept of: EDUCATIONAL LEGO
Any scientist understands that creating an innovation requires hundreds of brilliant minds—methodologists and developers—as well as entrepreneurs and years of funding. By using educational franchises to create these innovations, we save schools vast amounts of money and accelerate their development a hundredfold, making them modern, practical, and aligned with today's realities.
A traditional school remains the academic platform. Around it, educational leaders can add specialised modules in entrepreneurship, technology, science, creativity, languages, media and other fields. Today the international franchise network has developed into 73 franchise representations across 35 countries.
Each school can add the following franchises to its curriculum as ready-to-implement educational innovations:
- MiniBoss Business School — entrepreneurship for children and teenagers;
- BigBoss Business School — advanced business education;
- Royal British School — English-language education;
- Leonardo Art School — creativity and visual arts;
- Einstein Science School — science, technology and STEM;
- 100% Film School — acting, media and public speaking, etc.
WHY EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISING MATTERS
Franchising is typically associated with the restaurant, hospitality, and retail sectors. However, it can play a far more significant role in education by facilitating the rapid and professional international exchange of educational technologies.
A teaching methodology can be developed, tested, standardized, and documented just once. Subsequently, systems for teacher training, certification, quality standards, instructional materials, and operational processes enable the innovation to be rolled out across various cities and countries. This is of immense importance, as one of the primary challenges in education is not so much a lack of innovation, but rather the fact that innovations spread too slowly and at too high a cost. Developing innovations independently requires not only decades of time but also millions of dollars in investment.
Franchises, by contrast, cost a fraction of that amount and can be implemented much faster—often requiring just one or two months after the contract is signed to integrate the innovation into the curriculum.
THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE
The twentieth-century school was usually imagined as a self-contained institution: One campus. One programme. One teaching team. One system.
The school of the future may instead become an ecosystem. A strong academic foundation can be connected to specialised programmes, universities, entrepreneurs, scientists, technology companies and education providers from around the world.
The question for education leaders is therefore changing. Instead of asking: “How can we build everything ourselves?”, perhaps, we should ask: “What is currently missing from our students’ education — and what is the best educational innovation we can add next?”
I see the School of the Future Is Educational LEGO. And the most successful education leaders will be those who understand which element needs to be added next — and how quickly.
Everyone interested in educational innovation is warmly invited to connect and discuss these ideas personally. Contact us: ceo@iba-consortium.com