920407690EntrepreneurshipDOG01129 April 2008Prof W. ConradieTopic 1: True entrepreneur can oly exist when there is ample proof ofcreativenes and innovativeness. Creativity, however, is totally posiblewithout any evidence of entrepreneurship.
With full explanation of entrepreneurship, What is a entrepreneur. By usingthe six main themes of mindsets a entrepreneur must have.
“Many successful entrepreneurs have emphasised that while successfulentrepreneurs have initiative and take charge, are determined andpersevere, and are resilient to adapt, it is not just a matter of theirpersonalities, it is what they do.”Jeffry A. Timmons – New Venture Creation.
The entrepreneurial mindset can be described as desirable and acquirableattitudes and behaviours for entrepreneurs. By breaking down the six mainthemes of the mindset we can see why a good entrepreneur must possess theseskills in order to succeed.
Commitment and determination are traits that drive an individual towardstheir goal. Without these skills, an individual cannot immerse themselvesfully in their new venture. An entrepreneur has to be willing to undertakegreat personal sacrifice as a good deal of their own time and money isrequired to get a new venture off the ground and keep it flying once its upthere. When faced with a problem, an entrepreneur must have the self-discipline not to be daunted by the prospect of the problem but to overcomeit through persistence and perseverance. To do this, entrepreneurs requireto be familiar with their own strengths and weaknesses and to know if theproblem they are facing deserves their constant bombardment when searchingfor a solution. It is said, “an entrepreneur will give up sooner thanothers if they believe a problem to be unsolvable.” (Timmons pg. 220). Itis this tenacity and decisiveness that will lead to an individual becominga successful entrepreneur. Without commitment and determination, anindividual would not be able to handle the pressures that go hand in andwith starting a new venture and surviving the first tentative years.
It is extremely important for an entrepreneur to be a good leader,especially one who is the lead entrepreneur in a team. As it is theentrepreneur?s goal that the team must strive to achieve, the entrepreneurshould have the ability to motivate and inspire his colleagues. By being a”hero-maker”, the entrepreneur can gain the much-needed loyalty and supportrequired of the people that the venture attracts. The good entrepreneurknows that they cannot go it alone and will need a good team and by sharingthe responsibility and the profit gained from the venture with those whohave contributed, the entrepreneur shows his colleagues that he needs themas much as they need him. Of all the leadership qualities, it is paramountfor the entrepreneur to be able to teach and learn at the same time. Thispoint is well illustrated by the company principals implied by the lateEwing Marion Kaufmann, the entrepreneur who founded Marion, Merrell Dow,Inc, “one of the most extraordinary entrepreneurial success stories of ourtime” (Timmons pg. 215). These principals state “Managers who attempt todevelop a new product and fail are not punished with lateral promotions,nor are they ostracised. Failures are gateways to learning and continualimprovement”, (Timmons pg. 216).
“Successful entrepreneurs are obsessed with opportunity” (Timmons pg. 223).
It is common belief that an entrepreneur is someone who can see anopportunity and go for it. However, this ability is not hereditary but canbe acquired. An entrepreneur can only spot these opportunities when theyhave an intimate knowledge and understanding of their market and industrywhich they can only achieve through the afore mentioned commitment andtotal immersion.
The world of the entrepreneur is a constantly changing one and high levelsof risk, ambiguity and uncertainty are all too common. To be a successfulentrepreneur an individual must be able to tolerate these factors. Unlikemost people?s stereotype of an entrepreneur being a gambler, the goodentrepreneur always looks before they leap. They are always willing to takethe risk but they will calculate it thoroughly to minimise the chances ofthe risk going wrong. Due to the ever-changing environment that theentrepreneur has to work in, they also have to be tolerant of uncertainty.
“Jobs are undefined and changing continually, customers are new, co-workersare new and setbacks and surprises are inevitable.” (Timmons pg. 223). As aresult of this lack of structure, there are constant conflicting factors toface, therefore the successful entrepreneur must call on their abilities tosolve problems and integrate solutions in order to keep their eyes on theprize.
The successful entrepreneur is seen as a highly creative and innovativeindividual who can rely on themselves to think quick and act fast. In orderto have this ability, the entrepreneur can have no fear of failure, “theywillingly put themselves in situations where they are personallyresponsible for the success or failure of the operation” (Timmons pg. 224).
The high level of innovation can be seen in the example of Bill Gates ofMicrosoft. Gates dropped out of Harvard in his mid twenties to writeoperating software for hardware companies. In the late 70?s, he foundedMicrosoft and with a 600% growth rate in the last ten years, Gates hasbecome the world?s richest man. Gates success is largely due to hispersonal characteristics of insight and vision and the ability to realisehis dreams and aspiration from essaybank.co.uk s. Gates also possess theability to use creativity in every decision that is made, for example;recently, Gates changed his title from CEO of Microsoft to Chief SoftwareArchitect and Chairman. It is believed that Gates will still be running thecompany from behind the scenes. The move comes at a time when Microsoftfaces serious difficulties as the government is trying to break the companyup. Gates? decision lends truth to the rumours that Gates has seen theopportunities that the internet offers and has begun work with hisdevelopment teams to design new hardware devices to allow mobile internetaccess. By doing this Microsoft will be able to outflank their competitorsin the rush to release this new technology.
Entrepreneurs possess a strong desire to attain their goals. This need toachieve sees entrepreneurs setting high but realistic goals in order tofocus their energies and be hypercritical when selecting opportunities.
However, in doing this, the entrepreneur is not striving for status orpower, but is really looking to quench their thirst for achievement. It isthe awareness of their personal strengths and weaknesses, and that of theirpartners, that an entrepreneur must possess in order to be successful. Thisquality allows the entrepreneur to make important decisions based on theknowledge of what they can and cannot do, stopping them from wasting timeand money on problems that are either too easily solved or unsolvable,depending on the individual.
These six main characteristics can be acquired by anyone, however,qualities such as a sense of humour, morals, intelligence and energy areall aspects that are common in entrepreneurs but these qualities cannot belearned. Management skills, however, can. To be an entrepreneurial managerit takes all of these skills, but the entrepreneurial manager has a well-developed capacity to exert influence without formal power. These managersare people movers not dictators. The authors of “Influence withoutAuthority”, Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford state that “if you are amanager, you not only need to exercise influence skills with your peers andyour own boss, but also to help the people who work for you learn to beeffective influencers-even of you-since that will free you to spend more ofyour time seeking new opportunities and working the organisation above andaround you”. (Timmons pg. 224). Successful entrepreneurial managers arepeople like Bill Gates of Microsoft and Richard Branson of Virgin. BillGates has managed to take his company through 25 years of fiercecompetition and has only recently taken himself out of the leader role topursue new opportunities. It is said that almost all entrepreneurs will atsome point have to take this course of action, usually after two to sevenyears of start-up or when turnover exceeds around ?20 million. This is themost perilous stage and is largely controlled by the lead entrepreneur andtheir team. It is in this stage that customer confidence and financialresults are built up. The next stage is the high growth stage, this usuallyhappens when the lead entrepreneur?s drive becomes exhausted and they arein danger of stifling the companies? growth and innovation. It is at thispoint the lead entrepreneur without management skills, should step downfrom the lead role, without actually giving up leadership of the company,and let managers take over the decision making. Conventional wisdomsuggests that entrepreneurs do not make good managers as they lack theskills required and managers do not make good entrepreneurs as they lackthe personal characteristics. However, with experience an entrepreneur canlearn these management skills and adapt to become successfulentrepreneurial managers. By looking at Richard Branson, we can see that anentrepreneur can be a successful manager. Richard Branson has built up anempire of over 200 companies to encompass such variants as record stores,planes, trains and even cola. However, as Branson uses the Virgin brand onall his companies, experts warn that he runs the risk of diluting thebrand, something that may be considered as poor business management.
Undoubtedly, with a very strong business team behind him, Branson has beenable learn the required business management skills to remain at the top ofthe management leader board and still be an active entrepreneur.
The growing enterprise requires that the founders and their team developcompetencies as entrepreneurial leaders and managers. To survive as amanager, an entrepreneur must adapt and learn constantly. The turnover ofthe company is the single largest factor that increases the complexity anddifficulty of managing a young company. It is said, “if the firm growsrelatively slowly, and the founder is capable of some adaptation, then thefirm can apparently become quite large.” (Timmons pg. 240)It is therefore apparent that all qualities in the mindset are essentialfor successful entrepreneurship and weaknesses in even one of thesequalities could be fatal. It is thought that these qualities can belearned, in university or through experience. However, business managementskills are not entirely essential to the entrepreneur as this task can bedelegated to a person or team who have the necessary experience andqualifications.
