SCharacteristic of entrepreneur:

Initiative

An entrepreneur takes actions that go beyond job requirements or the demand of the situation
Opportunity seeking

An entrepreneur is quick to see and seize opportunities. He/she does things before he/she is
asked to work by people or forced by situation.
Persistence

An entrepreneur is not discouraged by difficulties and problems that come up in the business
or his/her personal life. Once she sets a goal she is committed to the goal and will become
completely absorbed in it.
Information seeking

An entrepreneur undertakes personal research on how to satisfy customers and solve

problems. He/she knows that different people have different capabilities that can be of help to
them. He/she seeks relevant information from his/her clients, suppliers, competitors and
others. He/she always wants to learn things which will help the business to grow.
Risk taking

Are you afraid of uncertainties? Then you cannot be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are not
high risk takers. They are also not gamblers; they calculate their risks before taking action.
They place themselves in situations involving moderate risk so they are moderate risk takers.
Goal setting

An entrepreneur sets meaningful and challenging goals for him/herself. An entrepreneur does
not just dream. Him/she thinks and plans what he/she does. He/she is certain or has hope
about the future.
Independence and self confidence

Most entrepreneurs start business because they like to be their own boss. They are
responsible for their own decisions.

Peter drucker defines entrepreneurship as “Entrp is neither a science nor an art but it is a
practice, which has knowledge base.”

Myths about entrepreneurship:

http://books.google.co.in/books?
id=C3hUm9viQoMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=entrepreneurship+development
&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=entrepreneurship
%20development&f=false
need and significance of entrepreneurship development in
global context
Entrepreneurs occupy a central position in a market economy. It’s the entrepreneurs who
serve as the spark plug in the economy's engine, activating and stimulating all economic
activity. The economic success of nations worldwide is the result of encouraging and
rewarding the entrepreneurial instinct.

A society is prosperous only to the degree to which it rewards and encourages

entrepreneurial activity because it is the entrepreneurs and their activities that are the
critical determinant of the level of success, prosperity, growth and opportunity in any
economy. The most dynamic societies in the world are the ones that have the most
entrepreneurs, plus the economic and legal structure to encourage and motivate
entrepreneurs to greater activities.

For years, economists viewed entrepreneurship as a small part of economic activity. But
in the 1800s, the Austrian School of Economics was the first to recognize the
entrepreneur as the person having the central role in all economic activity because it's
entrepreneurial energy, creativity and motivation that trigger the production and sale of
new products and services. It is the entrepreneur who undertakes the risk of the
enterprise in search of profit and who seeks opportunities to profit by satisfying as yet
unsatisfied needs.

Entrepreneurs seek disequilibrium--a gap between the wants and needs of customers
and the products and services that are currently available. The entrepreneur then brings
together the factors of production necessary to produce, offer and sell desired products
and services. They invest and risk their money--and other people's money--to produce a
product or service that can be sold at a profit.

More than any other member of our society, entrepreneurs are unique because they're
capable of bringing together the money, raw materials, manufacturing facilities, skilled
labour and land or buildings required to produce a product or service. And they're
capable of arranging the marketing, sales and distribution of that product or service.

Entrepreneurs are optimistic and future oriented; they believe that success is possible
and are willing to risk their resources in the pursuit of profit. They're fast moving, willing to
try many different strategies to achieve their goals of profits. And they're flexible, willing
to change quickly when they get new information.

Entrepreneurs are skilled at selling against the competition by creating perceptions of

difference and uniqueness in their products and services. They continually seek out
customer needs that the competition is not satisfying and find ways to offer their products
and services in such a way that what they're offering is more attractive than anything else
available.

Entrepreneurs are a national treasure, and should be protected, nourished, encouraged

and rewarded as much as possible. They create all wealth, all jobs, all opportunities, and
all prosperity in the nation. They're the most important people in a market economy--and
there are never enough of them.
QUALITIES OF A SUCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR
(Common entrepreneurial traits)
McClelland points out that successful entrepreneurs are characterized by: a)
an unusual creativeness;
b) a propensity of risk taking;
c) a strong need for achievement.

A distillation from fifty-research study reveals the following entrepreneurial

traits.
i. Total commitment, determination and perseverance
ii. Drive to achieve and grow
iii. Opportunity and goal orientation
iv. Taking initiative and personal responsibility
v. Persistent problem solving
vi. Realism and a sense of humour
vii. Seeking and using feedback
viii. Internal locus of control
ix. Calculated risk taking and risk seeking
x. Low need for status and power
xi. Integrity and reliability

Basically, an entrepreneur should be one who can bear risks, make

innovations, and organize the business.

In the study of entrepreneurship in the Tamilnadu state of India, the

following qualities of a good entrepreneur were stressed
i. He is an enterprising individual, energetic, resourceful, alert to
new opportunities, able to adjust to changing conditions and
wiling to assume risks involved in change.
ii. He is interested in advancing technologically and in improving
the quality of this product.
iii. He is interested in expanding the scale of his operations, and he
reinvests earnings to this end.

.
Professor Tandon has described the following qualities of a true
entrepreneur:
1. Capacity to assume risk: An entrepreneur assumes risk
and, therefore he must have self-confidence. He is both
an investor and a financier and should, therefore, be able
to shift investments in search for larger profits. He has to
tie up capital and wait for good returns. He should be
willing to assume a relatively large degree of risk
because he has to guarantee wages to his employees,
interest to his creditors and rent to his landlord. Risk and
reward are inseparable. Highest order of ability is
required to bear heavy risks and thereby earn high gains.
 A successful entrepreneur should have a keen
observation, ability of discrimination, tact and patience.
He should be mentally alert, practically wise, shrewd and
exceptionally intelligent. He must be a good judge of
human nature and a good leader. He should be alert to
new opportunities and willing to incur the risk of
exploiting them.
2. Technical Knowledge and willingness to change:
Technological change is the prime mover in the process
of economic growth. Inventions and innovations have led
the process of development in the world. In developing
countries the search for and application of new
technology should be the primary goal of good
entrepreneurs. Their success depends largely upon their
ability to adopt new technology. Technical knowledge
applies the ability to devise and use new and better ways
of producing and marketing goods and services. A good
entrepreneur is one who is interested in changing the
pattern of production to suite the available resources,
market conditions and quality of output. He should be
able to take initiative and to adapt to changing
conditions. He should have the capacity to explore new
demand that occurs with the growth of industry and rise
in per capita income. An entrepreneur should have a keen
desire to initiate and accept changes. He is expected to
discover new combinations involving new products, new
methods of production, development of new market, and
a utilization of new source of productive factors and a
new form of organization. In underdeveloped countries
there is dearth of true entrepreneurs. People are not very
enthusiastic due to age long traditions, uneconomic
culture and unhealthy environment. Very few persons
accept change as a way of life. Willingness to accept is a
major quality of successful entrepreneurs.

3. Ability to Marshall resources: A true entrepreneur is

one who has the ability to mobilize the necessary
resources in the best possible manner for achieving the
business objectives. He should be able to minimize the
cost of production without reducing the quality of the
product service. In order to do this an entrepreneur needs
sound judgment, accurate forecasting, vision and
knowledge of the world of business. He should be able to
break up old traditions and develop new ones. He should
have high ambitions, the will to conquer, the impulse to
fight and succeed and the tendency to prove himself
superior to others.
According to Harbison: “a dynamic organization needs
its ideal men, its creative thinkers, its people who can
plan and initiate changes”
4. Ability of organization and administration: The ability
of building a sound organization is the moist critical skill
needed for industrial development. The organization
builder must be able to harness the new ideas of different
innovators to the best in his organization. He must be
able to select, trained & developed Person who can
Properly Manage & control the labor force, he should
have the capacity to pick & choose to right person & to
wisely delegate authority in order to multiply himself.
His task is to stimulate initiative & enthusiasm in the
accomplishment of enterprise objectives. A true
entrepreneur must be able to inspire loyalty and hard
work to raise productivity and efficiency. He requires
high level of education, experience and training among
the members of the managerial team.

Historically, “there is a long list of entrepreneurs who

were instrumental in introducing new methods, products,
new markets and new forms of industrial organization. Such
people were drawn from all strata of society. But they had
common characteristics. They were men who valued
business as a means and design of achievement, they were
people who appreciated the possibility of innovations and
they were people who tried to overcome the resistances and
obstacles standing in the way of doing new things. Their
motive was to increase profit and improve efficiency by
reducing cost.