ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

DEFINITION
Entrepreneurship is (generally) the practice of
starting new organisations or reactivating mature
ones
in response to major identified opportunities.
Can range from
solo projects to
major undertakings
leading to creation of many job opportunities and
creation of new products and business

DEFINITION
To engineering graduates, entrepreneurship
(specifically) is
the integration of
business management
with engineering/technical skills
leading to the formation of
engineer-entrepreneurs
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EXPECTATIONS
An entrepreneur should
be willing and able to convert a new idea or invention
into a success innovation,
be able to develop new markets of customers and
buyers,
discover new sources of materials,
mobilize capital resources (land, machines,
buildings, money, humans),
introduce new technologies, products and services.

DUAL ROLE OF AN
ENGINEER-ENTREPRENEUR

technological professional
with entrepreneurial skills
He must be able to integrate
business management skills with
technical skills.
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Japans Statistics
Factories with less than 20 employees account for
up to 87.3% of total number of factories,
20.1% of total workforce, and
12.6% of the total national output.
Indian economy grew because of attention to
engineering entrepreneurship
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ADVANTAGES OF
ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Self-employment, leading to job satisfaction, flexibility in

time and resource management;
Creation of job opportunities, the number depending on
the size of, and available resources to, the entrepreneur;
Healthy competition, leading to higher product quality;
Availability of more goods and services;
Development of more industries, particularly in rural
areas;
Development of entrepreneurial qualities and attitudes.

IMPORTANCE OF
ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Developed

countries are continually

searching for markets for their products
Developing countries are becoming dumping
ground for goods produced in other parts of
the world.

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Personal savings
Loans from friends, relatives, relevant agencies/banks
Gratuity from retirement benefits
Security exchanges (e.g. buying/selling of shares and
bonds)
Profit plough-back
Trade credits
Hire purchase
Mortgages
Sale of securities

QUALITIES OF AN
ENGINEER-ENTREPRENEUR

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Deal with uncertainty and ambiguity (risk taking);

Understand and speak the language of other
professionals, especially accountants, economists and
other social scientists);
Team player;
Convincing speaker and attentive listener;
Creative and inquisitive mind;
Adequate computer skills;
Understand economic and financial aspects of an
engineering effort;
Able to design sound business plan;

QUALITIES OF AN
ENGINEER-ENTREPRENEUR

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Possess analytical and planning skills;

Work well in dynamic and rapidly changing environment;
Work under pressure and in short time frames;
Work effectively across multiple organizations, boards,
companies, and departments;
Work with specialists of different mentalities, origins, and
cultural backgrounds;
Be willing to learn and grasp new things (approaches, ideas);
Good manager of resources (money, materials, machines,
etc.);

QUALITIES OF AN
ENGINEER-ENTREPRENEUR

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Good record keeping (of stocks, sales expenditures)

Understand market dynamics;
Good communication skills, both oral and written;
A psychologist;
People-oriented;
Have inquisitive mind;
Goal-oriented;
Good negotiating skills;
Understand state-of-the-art in related areas.

TRAINING IN
ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Some recommended courses:
Engineering Economics
Design of Business Plan
Leadership
Human Resources Management
Technological Entrepreneurship
Cost Control
Financial Accounting and Reporting

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TRAINING IN
ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Some recommended courses (contd)
Engineering Management
Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship
Financial Management
Production and Inventory Control
Maintenance Engineering
New Product Development
Marketing Management

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WAY FORWARD
Major stakeholders in the development of
entrepreneurship culture are
the various levels of government,
the professional bodies, and
the entrepreneur himself/herself
each with different, but complementing, roles
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WAY FORWARD
Local Government :
should provide the enabling environment that will
make it easy for the entrepreneur to set up and
operate
The entrepreneur should, for example,
have easy and cheap access to land, water,
electricity, etc.
not be stifled with unnecessary taxes and levies.

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WAY FORWARD
State Government:
should encourage local governments to assist
interested entrepreneurs

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WAY FORWARD
Federal Government
should set up a functional regulatory
framework to promote engineering
entrepreneurship
should harmonize all forms of taxes and
levies in order to prevent multiple taxations

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WAY FORWARD
Professional Bodies:

should ensure that

adequate number of techno-entrepreneurship
courses is introduced into the curriculum of
polytechnics and universities;
continuing education courses/workshops are
mounted by the professional bodies at least
twice yearly.
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WAY FORWARD
The Entrepreneur should
ensure that the enterprise is located as close
as possible to the source of local materials;
focus on the needs of the populace for
acceptability and marketability;
operate in such a way as to encourage
others to emulate him.
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