Advanced Entrepreneurship Notes Fems 2023
Advanced Entrepreneurship Notes Fems 2023
Advanced Entrepreneurship Notes Fems 2023
Lecturers:
CHAPTER ONE:
CONCEPT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Entrepreneurship is the ability and readiness to develop, organize and run a business
enterprise, along with any of its uncertainties in order to make a profit. The most prominent
example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses.
In economics, entrepreneurship connected with land, labour, natural resources and capital can
generate a profit. The entrepreneurial vision is defined by discovery and risk-taking and is an
indispensable part of a nation‟s capacity to succeed in an ever-changing and more
competitive global marketplace.
Meaning of Entrepreneur
The entrepreneur is defined as someone who has the ability and desire to establish, administer
and succeed in a startup venture along with risk entitled to it, to make profits. The best
example of entrepreneurship is the starting of a new business venture. The entrepreneurs are
often known as a source of new ideas or innovators, and bring new ideas in the market by
replacing old with a new invention. Generally, and entrepreneur is someone who owns and
manage a business, someone who takes the risk of profit and loss.
It can be classified into small or home business to multinational companies. In economics, the
profits that an entrepreneur makes is with a combination of land, natural resources, labour
and capital. In a nutshell, anyone who has the will and determination to start a new company
and deals with all the risks that go with it can become an Entrepreneur.
This comes from the word to invent, to found or to construct. It first of all indicates the non
existence of the institution, different from discovery which is to uncover an existing
something
Example 1: God created the heavens and the earth which implies that heaven and earth did
not exist.
Example 2: Christopher Columbus discovered America which means America was existing.
Also, vasco da gama discovered the sea route to India
An enterprise:
This is the putting together of the various factors of production for the attainment of a
particular objective. It is acquiring resources and efficiently allocating the resources to attain
a stated goal or objective. In the case of Cameroon, we distinguish different types of
enterprises including:
Sole proprietorship
Partnerships
Limited liability companies
The classification can also be done in terms of very small businesses, small, medium, large
and very large enterprises
Historically, the act of creation or the spirit of invention was seen as unique to the European
community. That is the white man was seen as the owner of the creative spirit to undertake
and implement creative imaginations. They are many reasons presented in support of this:
Toybee created the concept of the first factory which led to the industrial revolution in
England. This means toybee created a factory which did not exist before and which
led to mass production in the world.
The evolution of writing which was materialize by the invention of a printer which led
to the exportation of languages to foreign countries the case of English and French
which today are among the most popular languages
The invention of the computer and internet more than five centuries after the printer
facilitated the work of man since the computer is more efficient and faster.
We also have the case of popular inventors and travelers such as Vasco Da Gama,
Mangela, Colombus, among others who had to recount their many experiences to their
European counterparts.
The irony behind all of this is that even before the Europeans started coming to
Africa, Africans have always being creative even without the knowledge of creativity
being recognized. Examples include:
The pyramids of Egypt which existed far before the invention of the printer or
industrial revolution.
The African empires which proved a lot about the economy and the social wellbeing
of societies
These examples and many other realizations proved that Africans have always being
creative no matter where they find themselves or their level of education. So the spirit of
creativity is not limited to Europe or America alone or to the whites. This is simply to say
that the spirit of creativity is found in all human beings.
Types of Entrepreneurship
These businesses are a hairdresser, grocery store, travel agent, consultant, carpenter, plumber,
electrician, etc. These people run or own their own business and hire family members or local
employee. For them, the profit would be able to feed their family and not making 100 million
business or taking over an industry. They fund their business by taking small business loans
or loans from friends and family.
This start-up entrepreneur starts a business knowing that their vision can change the world.
They attract investors who think and encourage people who think out of the box. The
research focuses on a scalable business and experimental models, so, they hire the best and
the brightest employees. They require more venture capital to fuel and back their project or
business.
These huge companies have defined life-cycle. Most of these companies grow and sustain by
offering new and innovative products that revolve around their main products. The change in
technology, customer preferences, new competition, etc., build pressure for large companies
to create an innovative product and sell it to the new set of customers in the new market. To
cope with the rapid technological changes, the existing organisations either buy innovation
enterprises or attempt to construct the product internally.
4. Social Entrepreneurship-
This type of entrepreneurship focuses on producing product and services that resolve social
needs and problems. Their only motto and goal is to work for society and not make any
profits.
Characteristics of Entrepreneurship
Not all entrepreneurs are successful; there are definite characteristics that make
entrepreneurship successful. A few of them are mentioned below:
Ability to take a risk- Starting any new venture involves a considerable amount of
failure risk. Therefore, an entrepreneur needs to be courageous and able to evaluate
and take risks, which is an essential part of being an entrepreneur.
Know your Product-A company owner should know the product offerings and also
be aware of the latest trend in the market. It is essential to know if the available
product or service meets the demands of the current market, or whether it is time to
tweak it a little. Being able to be accountable and then alter as needed is a vital part of
entrepreneurship.
Importance of Entrepreneurship
Innovation- It is the hub of innovation that provides new product ventures, market,
technology and quality of goods, etc., and increase the standard of living of people.
Types of entrepreneurs
CHAPTER TWO
b) Entrepreneur as an organizer
According to J Baptist Say “an entrepreneur is one who combines the land of one, the
labour of another and capital of yet another, and thus produces a product. By selling the
product in the market, he pays interest on capital, rent on land and wages to labourers and
what remains is his/her profit”. Say made distinction between the role of capitalist as a
financer and the entrepreneur as an organizer. This concept of entrepreneur is associated with
the functions of coordination, organisation and supervision.
c) Entrepreneur as an innovator
Schum Peter also made distinction between inventor and innovator. An inventor is
one who discovers new methods and new materials. An innovator utilizes inventions and
discovers in order to make new combinations.
Hence the concept of entrepreneur is associated with three elements risk bearing,
organizing and innovating. Hence an entrepreneur can be defined as a person who tries to
create something new, organizes production and undertakes risks and handles economic
uncertainty involved in enterprise.
e) CHARACTERISTIC OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
1. Creativity: it is the spark that drives the development of new products or services or
ways to do business. It is the push for innovation and improvement. It is continuous
learning, questioning, and thinking outside of prescribed formulas.
2. Confident: Confidence is a hallmark of the entrepreneur. Not all of us are born with
confidence, but that does not mean we are not capable of it. Many confident women
and men gain their sense of self esteem and faith in their ability to greet challenges by
acting, even when they lack the confidence, and then gaining strength and belief in
themselves by seeing the results and gaining the praise and respect of others.
3. Feels a sense of ownership: Taking responsibility for getting things done, and doing
them with care and attention, means to act like an owner. Rather than viewing a
problem as someone else‟s, the entrepreneur sees it as his or her own and takes pride
in finding a solution, leaving things in better shape than they were before
encountering them, and improving upon situations rather than leaving them
unattended.
4. Dedication: Dedication is what motivates the entrepreneur to work hard, 12 hours a
day or more, even seven days a week, especially in the beginning, to get the
endeavour off the ground. Planning and ideas must be joined by hard work to succeed.
Entrepreneurs not only lead themselves through self-motivation as self starters who
jump into tasks with enthusiasm, but they are also skilled at leading others. They know the
importance of teamwork, and they understand the need to appreciate others, support them,
and reward them accordingly. True leaders do not become indispensable, otherwise things
fall apart in their absence and they can never rise to the highest level of entrepreneurial
freedom and prosperity. Neither do they squander the potential of those working under their
guidance. A renowned business consultant and retired United States Air Force Major General
Perry M. Smith once wrote, “Leaders who share their power and their time can accomplish
extraordinary things. Te best leaders understand that leadership is the liberation of talent;
hence they gain power not only by constantly giving it away, but also by not grabbing it
back.”
8. Passion: it is what gets entrepreneurs started and keeps them there. It gives
entrepreneurs the ability to convince others to believe in their vision. It can‟t
substitute for planning, but it will help them to stay focused and to get others to look
at their plans.
9. Passionate about Learning: Entrepreneurs are often “autodidactic” learners, which
means that much of what they know they learned not in a formal classroom setting but
instead on their own by seeking out information, asking questions, and doing personal
reading and research. They also are quick to learn from their own mistakes, which
mean they are less prone to keep repeating them due to arrogance, ego, or blindness to
one‟s own faults, shortcomings, or errors in judgement. To teach is to learn. And to
lead, train, and impart experience to others the entrepreneur is constantly striving to
learn more and get better educated. Because of the passion for education, true
entrepreneurs surround themselves with people who either know more than they do or
know things that are different from what they know. They entertain the views of
others and perspectives that may be unlike their own, for instance, in order to be
better students of human nature. In this way they continue to enrich themselves with
knowledge while also making a concerted effort to grow that knowledge by sharing it
with others who are also front row students of life‟s valuable and unlimited lessons.
10. Able to Communicate: Entrepreneurs recognize that the most important part of any
business is the human element. Human resources, whether in the form of clients,
employees, or strategic partners, are what makes or breaks a business, and
communication is the key to successful relationships with people. Te entrepreneur
works to hone communication skills, whether those are written, spoken, or non-verbal
messages conveyed through body language. And to support communication, he or she
will take advantage of all available tools and resources. Those might include foreign
language or public speaking classes, computer and telecom technology, search engine
optimization or linguistic programming as it relates to sales and marketing, or
specialized writing such as that needed for grants, business proposals, mission
statements, or policy manuals. Above all, the entrepreneur develops a keen ability to
listen and hear what others are trying to say, because the best communicators got that
way by first being the best listeners.
Every entrepreneur has these qualities in different degrees. But what if a person lacks
one or more? Many skills can be learned. Or, someone can be hired who has strengths that
the entrepreneur lacks. The most important strategy is to be aware of strengths and to build
on them.
Often the two terms namely entrepreneur and manager are considered as synonym. To
succeed as an entrepreneur, one is required to possess great managerial skills and more.
Therefore, there are a lot of commonalities between the two in terms of planning, organising,
directing and controlling abilities which are essential qualities of a manager. However, there
are great deals of differences as well. The major points of distinction between the two are
presented in table 2.
CHAPTER THREE
With respect to common initiative groups and nonprofit making organizations, we should
recall that they don‟t pay taxes or patente but comply with all the other registration
formalities. However, if it is established that the activities of these organizations generates
sufficient revenue or are oriented towards the general public, then the taxation officers will
have to impose a tax on their activities.
When we observe the world around us, we can find a multitude of ideas that can lead to an
enterprise being created. This is to say all enterprises are created to meet one or more needs
of an existing society. Actually, an idea without a market (potential individuals who will be
interested in the goods and services to be supplied by the enterprise) will present no interest
to an entrepreneur.
For example, we assume the creation of a small enterprise specialized in poultry farming. The
realization of such a project will necessitate first of all, an effective study of the market which
consist of segmenting the target population either according to age groups, gender, revenue
etc. we can thus lunch a new project only when we are sure of having a ready market for the
consumption of our goods or services.
Most often, creators or founders always think it suffices for you to come up with a new idea
or product for the consumers to consume or for the bank to be happy and finance the project.
In reality, no enterprise will ever succeed if they don‟t provide (supply) their products and
services to customers who will find them useful or who cannot sell his products or services at
a price acceptable to the customers and profitable to the company.
The idea of market studies in an enterprise comes back to asking the following questions:
Many small businesses have failed because their promoters did not answer these questions
from the beginning. They just need to take time off and reason. Experience has shown that
having a brilliant idea or creating an efficient and smooth functioning enterprise dose not
suffice for the enterprise to survive. Many brilliant ideas may come up but without sufficient
market studies, they are bound to fail. Actually, market studies will include:
A study of the customers according to their segments to identify their income levels,
gender, economic situation, age group etc.
A study of competition in the market which consist of identifying in the market, other
enterprises providing the same goods or services or others which goes to satisfy the
same needs
A study of the existing distribution channels
SWOT analysis
PESTL analysis
Starting a new business is a very difficult thing to many because it involves high risk even
though this high risk always goes with high results. About 80% of all new businesses fail
with the first five years of existence. Waiting to be your own boss is not enough to make you
successful. Before you start a new business, you need to think hard about whether you have
the right leadership skill, support system and dedication to be an entrepreneur. Evaluate your
strength and weaknesses by honestly answering the following questions:
1. HONESTY. Be honest in all communications and actions. Ethical executives are, above
all, worthy of trust and honesty is the cornerstone of trust. They are not only truthful, they
are candid and forthright. Ethical executives do not deliberately mislead or deceive others by
misrepresentations, overstatements, partial truths, selective omissions, or any other means
and when trust requires it they supply relevant information and correct misapprehensions of
fact.
2. INTEGRITY. Maintain personal integrity. Ethical executives earn the trust of others
through personal integrity. Integrity refers to a wholeness of character demonstrated by
consistency between thoughts, words and actions. Maintaining integrity often requires moral
courage, the inner strength to do the right thing even when it may cost more than they want
to pay. The live by ethical principles despite great pressure to do otherwise. Ethical
executives are principled, honorable, upright and scrupulous. They fight for their beliefs and
do not sacrifice principle for expediency.
4. LOYALTY. Be loyal within the framework of other ethical principles. Ethical executives
justify trust by being loyal to their organization and the people they work with. Ethical
executives place a high value on protecting and advancing the lawful and legitimate interests
of their companies and their colleagues. They do not, however, put their loyalty above other
ethical principles or use loyalty to others as an excuse for unprincipled conduct. Ethical
executives demonstrate loyalty by safeguarding their ability to make independent
professional judgments. They avoid conflicts of interest and they do not use or disclose
information learned in confidence for personal advantage. If they decide to accept other
employment, ethical executives provide reasonable notice, respect the proprietary
information of their former employer, and refuse to engage in any activities that take undue
advantage of their previous positions.
5. FAIRNESS. Strive to be fair and just in all dealings. Ethical executives are
fundamentally committed to fairness. They do not exercise power arbitrarily nor do they use
overreaching or indecent means to gain or maintain any advantage nor take undue advantage
of another‟s mistakes or difficulties. Ethical executives manifest a commitment to justice, the
equal treatment of individuals, tolerance for and acceptance of diversity. They are open-
minded; willing to admit they are wrong and, where appropriate, they change their positions
and beliefs.
7. RESPECT FOR OTHERS. Treat everyone with respect. Ethical executives demonstrate
respect for the human dignity, autonomy, privacy, rights, and interests of all those who have a
stake in their decisions; they are courteous and treat all people with equal respect and dignity
regardless of sex, race or national origin. Ethical executives adhere to the Golden Rule,
striving to treat others the way they would like to be treated.
8. LAW ABIDING. Obey the law. Ethical executives abide by laws, rules and regulations
relating to their business activities.
10. LEADERSHIP. Exemplify honor and ethics. Ethical executives are conscious of the
responsibilities and opportunities of their position of leadership and seek to be positive
ethical role models by their own conduct and by helping to create an environment in which
principled reasoning and ethical decision making are highly prized.
11. REPUTATION AND MORALE. Build and protect and build the company’s good
reputation and the morale of it’s employees. Ethical executives understand the importance of
their own and their company‟s reputation as well as the importance of the pride and good
morale of employees. Thus, they avoid words or actions that that might undermine respect
and they take affirmative steps to correct or prevent inappropriate conduct of others.
CHAPTER FOUR
At this stage, we are called up to present the mission statement of the project will include an
executive summary of the project involving its vision, mission, objectives, goals, products
and/or services, the key success factors among others
This stage will take into consideration the presentation of the following information among
others:
This is in terms of analyzing the local environment of the future company (accessibility,
electricity etc) and giving justifications on why that environment was chosen
This will include determining the value added at each stage of production, other charges such
as taxes, cash flow, depreciation etc
This will involve explaining how you intern to repay the loan (the reimbursement plan) and a
general conclusion
CHAPTER FIVE
4.1 Generalities
The motive for entrepreneurship lies in the urge to identify sources of existing and emerging
customer dissatisfaction and developing solutions to eliminate them (Ramachandran, 2003).
There are three main phases in the entrepreneurial process: the perception and commitment to
opportunity, the pursuit of opportunity, and de-commitment (Burgelman and Sayles 1989).
However, entrepreneurship is understood to be the starting, owning, managing and sustaining
a business. Managing and sustaining a business calls to question the examination of
corporate entrepreneurship.
From the foregoing, Sharma and Chrisman (1999), defines corporate entrepreneurship as
the process whereby an in dividual or a group of individuals, in association with an
existing organisation, create a new organisation or instigate renewal or innovation within
that organisation. Here, the concept of corporate entrepreneurship is broadly understood
as institutional or organizational entrepreneurship. Corporate entrepreneurship is
entrepreneurship through organizations as oppose to entrepreneurship by individuals
alone.
The creation of new businesses by firms through this process has been called internal
corporate venturing (Zajac, Golden and Shortell, 1991), intrapreneurship (Pinchot, 1985)
etc. The process of transformation of corporations through a renewal of their key ideas
has been called strategic renewal (Guth and Ginsberg, 1990), strategic change, revival
and transformation (Schendel, 1990), organisation renewal (Stopfordand BadenFuller,
1994) etc.
development partners. Such business activities exist as external entities that operate
beyond the organizational boundaries of the founding partners.
Internal Corporate Venturing is when the new businesses created are owned by the
corporation. The business activities usually remain with in the corporate structure but
occasionally locate outside the firm.
Strategic Renewal refers to the corporate entrepreneurial efforts that result in significant
changes in an organization‟s business or corporate level strategy or structure. These
changes alter pre-existing relationships within the organization or between the
organization and its external environment and in most cases will involve some sort of
innovation. Renewal activities reside within an existing organization and are not treated
as new businesses by the organization.
Sustained regeneration
Domain redefinition
Organizational rejuvenation
There have been many studies to substantiate the above claims. CE can improve a
company‟s growth and profitability (Kanter, 1985; Brazeal, 1993; Zahra, 1991). The
empirical evidence that CE improves performance by increasing the company‟s
proactivenessand willingness to take risks by pioneering the development of new
products, processes, and services as presented in Kuratko, Montagno, and Hornsby
(1990), and Lumpkin and Dess (1996),. In recent years, academic and practioner interest
has shifted more to the process of nurturing CE, since the debate has moved from whether
or not CE benefits to the ways and means of maximising benefits. Also, it is a waste to
test the level of entrepreneurship in people using psychometric tests; instead,
organisations should spend their energies in encouraging people who have shown sparks
of entrepreneurial qualities in corporate or other contexts. Summarily CE ensures the
following:
• An exodus of some of the best and brightest people from corporations to become
small business entrepreneurs,
• International competition,
willingness to accept entrepreneurial change (Floyd and Woldridge, 1999) and as Barney
(1986, 1991) emphasisesorganisational culture can be a source of sustained competitive
advantage. This is precisely the challenge. In essence, organisations must learn to think and
act in a dynamic equilibrium. This is not easy, but organisations have a range of options to
choose from depending on the size, competition and industry structure to achieve
entrepreneurial excellence. At one end of this option spectrum lies focused initiatives
covering specific parts of the organisation and at the other, initiatives that attempt to breathe
entrepreneurship across the organisation. The former is called „Surface Entrepreneurship‟ and
the latter „Deep Entrepreneurship‟ (Sathe, 1988).
CHAPTER SIX
LEADERSHIP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
General Introduction
The concept of entrepreneurial leadership was introduced in 2000 by McGrath and
MacMillan who suggested that in dynamic markets where there is increased uncertainty and
competitive pressure a new type of leader is required. They described this as the
“entrepreneurial leader”. These fast changing markets or situations give those with an
“entrepreneurial” approach the ability to exploit opportunities to gain advantage for their
organization faster than others.
Professor Chris Roebuck notes that in recent examples of applying entrepreneurial leadership
to organizations, the link to employee engagement has increasingly become as a key success
factor. This has also allowed development of the concept of entrepreneurial support
functions, such as Entrepreneurial Human Resource (HR) and Entrepreneurial Information
|Technology (IT), to support the customer or client facing parts of organizations.
Throughout history it has been argued that the difference between success and failure,
whether in war, business, protest movements or football, can largely be attributed to
leadership. Leadership is a process by which individuals are influenced so that they will be
prepared to participate in the achievement of organizational or group goals. It is the role of
the leader to obtain the commitment of individuals to achieving these goals. But isn't this
more or less a definition of management? Well, not quite. Leadership and management are
not synonymous. The key phrase in the above definition is "individuals are influenced".
Leader Managers
Innovate Administer
Develop Maintain
Inspire Control
Originates Initiates
Source: Robert Kreitner and Angelo Kinicki (1998) organisationa behaviou, Boston, Irwin and
Mcgraw Hill p.495
Sources of power
power depending upon how they position their relationship with others. They are reward
power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power and expert power
Legitimate Power: It is held because the organization has given power and authority to the
position held by the leader. This stems from the belief that the superior has the right to
command the subordinate and expect that his or her orders will be obeyed. The employees
accept the rights of persons holding higher offices to command because of the legitimate
authority bestowed on the individual by the organization.
Reward Power: It is held because the leader has the opportunity through the control of
resources, either to give or withhold things wanted by others. A leader can use reward power
well to reinforce effective behavior or badly to manipulate the behavior of others. The greater
the rewards that the leader is perceived as having within his or her control to dispense to
others, the greater will be the individual‟s ability to influence others through reward power.
Coercive Power: It can be described as power which is exercised to manipulate the behavior
of another by threatening to withhold desired rewards or punish the individual if the latter
fails to comply with the wishes of the leader. In order to avoid the negative consequences, the
individual will unwillingly obey the orders of the superior and perhaps develop a hostile
attitude towards their leader. The strong presence of unions in organizations will restrict or
weaken this power base.
Referent Power: Its base is identification with a person who has desirable resources or
personal traits. If a person has admirable, charismatic, attractive, and extraordinary
characteristics, he can exercise power over others to get things done. The followers identify
with the leader and more attracted towards his or personal charisma and they are pleased to
act in ways desired by their leader.
Expert Power: It is held because of the leader‟s knowledge, aptitude and ability. It comes
from an individual‟s ability to direct another‟s behavior because of special knowledge or
expertise that one person may be perceived to possess which others need and look for. An
experienced software engineer will be able to influence his colleagues to think in a particular
way because the staff members will look up to this software engineer as someone who
possesses the knowledge, experience and judgment that the staff member lacks.
LEADERSHIP STYLES
1. Autocratic or Dictatorial Leadership: In this leadership style the leader assumes full
responsibility for all actions. Mainly he relies on implicit obedience from the group in
following his orders. He determines plans and policies and makes the decision-making a one
man show. He maintains very critical and negative relations with his subordinates. He freely
uses threats of punishment and penalty for any lack of obedience.
2. Democratic Leadership: In this case, the leader draws ideas and suggestions from his
group by discussion, consultation and participation. He secures consensus or unanimity in
decision-making. Subordinates are duly encouraged to make any suggestion as a matter of
their contribution in decision-making and to enhance their creativity. This kind of leadership
style is liked in most civilized organization and has very long life.
3. Laissez-faire, Free Rein Leadership: Quite contrary to autocratic leadership style, in this
leadership style the leader depends entirely on his subordinates to establish their own goals
and to make their own decisions. He let them plan, organize and proceed. He takes minimum
initiative in administration or information. He is there to guide the subordinates if they are in
a problem. This kind of leadership is desirable in mainly professional organization and where
the employees are self-motivated. Leader works here just as a member of the team. We shall
now discuss the roots of such leadership styles i.e. we shall try to understand as to how these
different leadership styles have been evolved by the management scholars.
Entrepreneurial leadership is effectively using the skills associated with successful individual
entrepreneurs and applying those within the environment of the larger organization. This
especially means within an organization where those skills have been lost and replaced with a
"corporate" mindset that focuses on process, systems and risk minimization rather than
entrepreneurial behavior.
The best leaders empower their employees to act on their vision for the organization. The
entrepreneurial leader executes through inspiration and aligns relationships to achieve
common goals.
organizational agenda and creating new things, while translating symbols into tangible
organizational initiatives, action plans and performance.
In this study we will generally draw on current theories of leadership labeled by Bryman
(1996) as the „„new leadership‟‟ theories (including charismatic leadership, visionary
leadership and transformational leadership), and more specifically we will focus on
transformational leadership theory. Theory and research on transformational leadership
distinguishes between three leadership styles: (1) transformational, (2) transactional or
monitoring, and (3) laissez- faire or passive-avoidant (Avolio, Bass, & Jung, 1999; Bass &
Avolio, 1994).
Numerous claims have been raised in the theoretical literature regarding the relation between
transformational leadership, entrepreneurship and the innovation process (e.g., Bass, 1985;
Bass & Avolio, 1994; Howell & Avolio, 1993; Howell & Higgins, 1990; Oberg, 1972;
Spreitzer et al., 1999).
1.5 Leadership in Entrepreneurship
Leadership in Entrepreneurship can be defined as "a process of social influence in which one
person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task[...]"
in "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform
innovations into economic goods". This refers to not only the act of entrepreneurship as
managing or starting a business, but how one manages to do so by these social processes, or
leadership skills. Entrepreneurship in itself can be defined as "the process by which
individuals, teams, or organizations identify and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities without
being immediately constrained by the resources they currently control. An entrepreneur
typically has a mindset that seeks out potential opportunities during uncertain times. This
leads us to see that an entrepreneur must have leadership skills or qualities in order to see
potential opportunities and act upon them. An entrepreneur at the core is a decision maker.
Such decisions often have an impact on an organization as a whole, which is representative of
their leadership amongst the organization.
According to Fisher (1970), there are four phases of decision making: orientation, conflict,
emergence, and reinforcement. As a communicative approach, the orientation stage is where
the members involved are becoming aquatinted both with themselves as well as the problem
at hand. The conflict stage is where the problem is analyzed with several possibilities
presented to resolve the problem. Upon discussing these possibilities, the emergence phase
becomes known when a decision is made about which solution is to be used. The
reinforcement stage is the supportive of the decision. These phases are not without objection
from many theorists in the field. Morley and Stephenson (1977) claim that such a staged
model of decision making is not so rigid between phases and varies depending upon the types
of decisions made.
With the growing global market and increasing technologies throughout all industries, the
core of entrepreneurship, the decision making, has become an ongoing process rather than
isolated incidents This becomes knowledge management which is "identifying and
harnessing intellectual assets" for organizations to "build on past experiences and create new
mechanisms for exchanging and creating knowledge" This belief draws upon a leaders past
experiences that may prove useful. It is a common mantra for one to learn from their past
mistakes, so leaders should take advantage of their failures for their benefit. This is how one
may take their experiences as a leader for the use in the core of entrepreneurship- decision
making.
CHAPTER SEVEN
If recent history teaches us anything is that ethics and character count, especially in business.
Huge organizations like Enron, Arthur Andersen and Health South have been destroyed and
others were seriously damaged (AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) by executives with massive
ambition and intelligence but no moral compass. In today‟s ultra competitive, high tech,
interdependent business world, charisma without conscience and cleverness without character
are a recipe for economic and personal failure of epic proportions. Competitiveness,
ambition and innovation will always be important to success but they must be regulated by
core ethical principles like the ones described in chapter three above.
Let‟s start with a basic definition: ethical principles are universal standards of right and
wrong prescribing the kind of behavior an ethical company or person should and should not
engage in. These principles provide a guide to making decisions but they also establish the
criteria by which your decisions will be judged by others.
In business, how people judge your character is critical to sustainable success because it is the
basis of trust and credibility. Both of these essential assets can be destroyed by actions which
are, or are perceived to be unethical. Thus, successful executives must be concerned with
both their character and their reputation.
Abraham Lincoln described character as the tree and reputation as the shadow. Your
character is what you really are; your reputation is what people think of you. Thus, your
reputation is purely a function of perceptions (i.e., do people think your intentions and actions
are honorable and ethical) .while your character is determined and defined by your actions
(i.e., whether your actions are honorable and ethical according to the 12 ethical principles:
Moral codes are complex. An individual might have some principles which they are never
prepared to violate such as not condoning the use of violence but the same individual may
support other behavior because “the ends justify the means” – the famous example of Robin
Hood stealing from the rich to feed the poor. So opinion may be divided over the morality of
a German surgeon recently accused of manipulating his patient‟s records to make them
appear sicker than they actually were, in order to get them to the top of a liver transplant list.
Ethics are about the social system in which morals are applied. The beliefs and value systems
of a particular culture or society will govern the standards of behavior and principles of right
and wrong that are socially acceptable within a particular group. The recent case of the
Chinese badminton players expelled from the Olympics because they openly tried to lose a
qualifying match to ensure an all Chinese ladies final, highlighted the pressure to win medals
and differing views about the acceptable methods of doing so.
EXPOSE