I already have a good knowledge of technology, the IT industry, and IT business models, but I'm considering complementing my knowledge by studying commerce at university.
Is this a wise choice?
A friend told me that the courses tend to be too theoretical and not applicable to real-life business.
Any thoughts?
For a small (depending on your definition of small) IT firm, I would personally consider it a waste of time, although education in general is never a waste of time.
My best information for running a small 5-man IT consulting firm came from a guy, John Gilmour, who used to own a bootery (yes, a shoe shop). He published a periodic article in the finance section of a state-wide newspaper and ended up publishing them all as a book ("Small Business Soldier").
He covered (from memory) such good topics like:
And, in a very humorous, engaging way which kept my interest. Basically, it was all about taking advantage of good times and surviving bad times and this got me further in business than any of the commerce subjects I did at Uni.
Another good book, by the way, were a couple from John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) called something like "So you think you can sell" and "So you think you're in business" - same humorous engaging manner but more closely aligned to sales, management and accounting information.
Yes, taking courses or at least reading some books is a must if you want to be more successful in business. Don't take those theoretical courses though, but MBA courses or similar if available. Anything that explains competitive strategies, marketing strategies etc. would be really beneficial. From my own experience taking some MBA courses was a real eye-opener.
It really depends on what university you are considering. Some Business Schools are more theoretical and abstract and others are much more practical. Ideally you'd want one where the assignments are designed to simulate real business problems and situations as much as possible, and that also involves working with real world companies.
However, even at the most practical university, a multi year commerce degree might be overkill. You really need to understand the basics of management, accounting, marketing, plus knowledge of the relevant laws in your country/area. You could possibly spend a year doing entry level courses, but another option might be short courses or night courses. Many universities offer these and they are often more focused and applied than their regular courses and will probably get you up to speed quicker.
Note: Before I answer this question - I received my education in a different country (not Australia) and my views might be at least partially wrong or not applicable to your situation. Also I appologise for quite a lengthy text.
University degree is supposed to be more on a theoretical side. This is why it is called higher education. The most important subject? Philosophy! Don't laugh ;) I realised that only when I was doing post graduate. My area was applied mathematics (half really tough mathematics/half IT disciplines). And yet it is philisophy. University education has to give you the holistic view on the universe. You need to understand driving principles, fundamental laws... Universities do not focus on teaching you practical things (e.g. "how do I write a web service in C#"). There are plenty of books/courses etc where you can pick this knowledge pretty quickly. Universities tell about programming/design methods, essentially "what is out there", "what the rest of humanity has created so far". This gives you perspective. Having this knowledge you will be able to choose the right method and solve a particular task.
I'd say think of doing a double degree IT/Commerce. And then as suggested MBA (although the value of MBA started to decline recently)
Another risk is that you may not like Commerce (or IT for that matter) after 2-3 years of studies. This happened to someone I know. He started engineering/economics double degree (being a big fan of cars) just to realise after 3 years that he doesn't like engineering at all. Good luck with your choice. Dmitry