Table of Contents
6. Introduction
7. Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Definition and its Key Role in
Advancement
7.1. Catching Opportunity
7.1.1. Making and reviewing Vision, Mission & Goals
7.1.2. Risk Taker
7.1.3. Encourage Innovation
8. How could the ability of the entrepreneur be captured within an
existing company to provide higher growth potential?
8.1. Inspire
8.2. Create
8.3. Connect
9. How do entrepreneurs operate so that their ventures survive and
prosper?
9.1. Capture of resources that funds and launches new businesses
9.2. Identification of Attractive Industries
9.2. Review of potential growth rate
9.3. Review of past revenues and sales rate
10. Conclusions
Introduction
Innovation and entrepreneurship are some of the most highly valued skills of today. While some may rely on their talents in other fields, entrepreneurship is slowly making its way as a highly valued ability. Entrepreneurship cannot be learned. One is born with the ability of being an entrepreneur. But just what exactly is an entrepreneur? In a definition taken from Wikipedia, an entrepreneur is someone who has an eye for unheard of, new, risky and possibly profitable undertakings. This person capitalizes on these endeavors and seems to be able to profit from it. In another definition, this person seemingly is able to keep a positive outlook, despite fallbacks on chosen businesses. The following excerpt from a reference essay talks about the person behind IBM, Steve Jobs.
From the minimum wage worker playing a costumed character from Alice in Wonderland at a shopping mall, Steve Jobs parlayed his parents’ good humour and a VW microbus into Apple Computer P/L and half a billion dollars in under five years. And less than five years after that he was fired from Apple, by his own Board; In leaving Apple he sold more than six million shares of Apple stock at a ridiculously low price for reasons that made no business sense at all.
In between these high and low points were all the grand product intros, the screaming, the huge houses without furniture, the posing, seducing, and general acting-out that is Steve Jobs, according to some that claim to know him. He used the cover of Time magazine to try for a date with Diane Keaton. Joan Baez used Steve’s ego to extract Mac after Mac after Mac from his Woodside garage, each of which she gave away to some friend. Those were the days of Armani suits and stiff collars, the days when Apple didn’t even have a budget because the company couldn’t imagine how it could ever spend all the money coming in. Those were the days. Steve Jobs was then asked to return to Apple as CEO and in a couple of years Apple was profitable once more after nearly billion in losses.
Some of the history of the between years included the founding of NeXT Inc. First, Steve seduced and abandoned the education market, then the hardware market, then his own employees, and then his investors, causing so much damage that Canon, which lost 0 million in the NeXT debacle, has sworn it will never again build computers. In a time when families are fashionable again, Steve is a family man, doing the dishes some evenings. When greed is no longer good, he has been generous with some of the loyalists from NeXT. When efficiency has become a way to measure business success, he talks about turning Pixar into a machine for making cartoons, rather than the haven for artists he liked to describe a decade ago.
The above excerpt was taken from a reference article about the business entrepreneur, Steve Jobs. But this paper generally focuses on entrepreneurial opportunities, keeping and seemingly nurturing the chosen business’s growth. But for reference and example purposes, I shall choose to retain Steve Jobs as my main reference and example.
7. Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Definition and its Key Role in Advancement
Entrepreneurial knowledge is important, not only academically speaking,
but also economically, since entrepreneurs acts as pivots, pushing our economy forward (Ketchen, 2003; Venkataraman, 1997). Likewise, entrepreneurial knowledge is vital in harboring entrepreneurial opportunities and exploitation. Some researchers even incorporated the definition of entrepreneurial opportunities into research by stating, “… the scholarly examination of how, by whom, and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are discovered and evaluated” (Shane and Venkataraman , 2000, p. 218). But just what are entrepreneurial opportunities? In some definitions, it is described as “… situations in which new goods, services, raw materials, markets and organizing methods can be introduced through the formation of new means, ends, or means-ends relationships” (Eckhardt and Shane, 2003, p. 336). But in another article, it is broadly defined as, “…as being a set of environmental conditions that lead to the introduction of one or more new products or services in the marketplace by an entrepreneur or by an entrepreneurial team through either an existing venture or a newly created one.” (Crussan and Dutta, 2005).
7.1. Catching Opportunity
In the following numbers, there would be a number of discussions on how entrepreneurs capture opportunity.
7.1.1. In accordance with previous reports and essays regarding Innovation and Entrepreneurship, I would once again recommend making and reviewing Vision, Mission and Goals. Vision, Mission and Goals can give one a sense of direction. One can be able to keep track of what he is doing, whether he is moving forward or not. Mission, Vision and Goals can help shape a person’s future, depending on how he perceives it. But having mission and vision statements, as well as goals are not only limited to large organizations. One can also have goals and mission and vision statements. As was mentioned, these things help define one’s personal journey into advancement. Also, by doing such, a person can be able to know what his intended undertakings are. In the context of entrepreneurship, these can help point out profitable and possible good business undertakings. The following tips are taken from the article entitled, “Mission and Vision Statements: Envision your Business, Realize your Goals” by Carly Foster:
Convey your company values;
Inspire and motivate your organization toward objectives that are fundamentally key to the culture that you wish to establish;
Use long-lasting ideals, not fashionable statements based on current business or market trends; and
Keep your statements clear and easy to understand for anyone coming on to your organization.
7.1.2. Risk-Taker. According to the article, 10 Mindset Web Entrepreneurs Must Have to Succeed by Sheri McConnell, one must able to take risks.
“Web entrepreneurs must understand that one of the keys to accomplishing our goals is to be willing to take risks. This “active” mindset means there will definitely be failures. But failures are just indicators of which direction to go next.” (McConnell, 10 Mindset Web Entrepreneurs Must Have to Succeed).
It is definitely a good trait of a good entrepreneur when he is able to take risks. When a potentially profitable endeavor may come into play, it may have with it certain downsides. But a good entrepreneur would be able to identify the shortcomings and if ever, would encounter failure; one can get up easily and would once again take the risk, if opportune moments call for it.
7.1.3. Encourage Innovation. In an article, “Creating an Environment for Innovation”, written by Dana Baldwin, mention was made of nurturing an environment that encouraged innovation. In the following excerpt, specifically the conclusion, mention of the effects of innovation is made.
“Setting an atmosphere in which innovation is encouraged is often highly correlated with the long term success of a company. Each of the elements explained above is critical to the effective innovation process. Challenge yourself and your senior management team to develop the skills and the atmosphere in which effective innovation becomes a part of your ongoing strategic planning. It is highly probable that your long term survival and viability depend on it.” (Baldwin, 2003).
Time Horizon
1-2 years
3-6 years
7-20 years
Type of Innovation
Incremental
Step function
– longer term platform for annual features and options
Breakthrough
Incentive
individual basis
this year’s profits
team basis
medium term options with matched vesting period
personal security, salary, tenure, fame, secure retirement, sabbaticals, long vesting stock
Team Size
small (1-3)
bigger (10-100)
very large
Mgt. Style
fast, decisive, ego driven
team based, consensus
bureaucratic, nurturing
Pricing/Marketing
skim pricing with mark downs
tprice for volume to get down experience curve first, target price
price for long term profits, defensive- keep others out, monopoly prices if protected
(source: Leader-Values.com)
The table above demonstrates the different aspects in innovation. As was explained in the article, Time Horizons differ, depending on the different aspects that make up the innovation process.
Encouraging innovations in the company can well mean that the company is on the verge of a major shift, positively. In the context of entrepreneurship, innovation can help make the entrepreneur get his wanted business opportunities.
8. Utilizing the Entrepreneurs Abilities: Secret to Increasing a Company’s Growth Potential
An entrepreneur’s ability can be harnessed into making a better company by these three aspects: Inspire, Create, Connect. In the following paragraphs,
detailed explanation of these three aspects will be provided
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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