Professional Documents
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Who is an entrepreneur
One who creates a new business in the
face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them.
CONCEPT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Like other economic concepts,
entrepreneurship has been a subject of much debate and discussions, it is an elusive concept. Hence different authors define it differently. While some call entrepreneurship as 'risk-bearing; others view it as 'innovating' and yet others consider it thrill-seeking'.
INNOVATION
Innovation, i.e., doing something new or something
different is a necessary condition to be called a person as an entrepreneur.
Let some facts speak. In order to satisfy the changing preference of customers, now-a-days fruit
juice is sold in small cartons (Mango Fruity) instead of bottles so that customers can carry it and throw away the container after drinking the juice.
Let us take another example. Lipton offers its tea in small packs known as
'PUDIYAS' to meet the requirements of its rural customers.
You may have heard of Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor
Company in the United States. Remember, Henry Ford himself did not invent the automobile. Foreseeing the people's desire to have passenger cars at somewhat lower rates, he applied new methods of mass production to offer passenger cars to the customers at affordable price.
Risk BEARING
Starting a new enterprise always involves risk and trying
for doing something new and different is also risky. The reason is not difficult to seek. The enterprise may earn profits or incur losses because of various factors like increasing competition, changes in customer preferences, and shortage of raw material and so on. An entrepreneur, therefore, needs to be bold enough to assume the risk involved in the enterprise. In fact he needs to be a risk-taker, not risk avoider. His risk-bearing ability enables him even if he fails in onetime or one venture to persist on and on which ultimately helps him succeed.
Therefore, an increasingly important role has been assigned to the identification and promotion of Entrepreneurs for the small-scale sectors.
a higher rate of economic growth, dispersal of economic activities, development of backward and tribal areas, creation of employment opportunities improvement in the standard of living of the society and involvement of all the sections of the society in the
process of growth.
Thus entrepreneurs play a significant role to speed up the economic development of the country.
The basic values of management, how it views its customers, the competition it faces, government regulations, how it deals with its employees, suppliers and others, determine the character and image of a small-scale industrial project. To the extent possible the philosophy or management ought to be stated explicitly and incorporated in the internal planning literature at this point.
A capsule statement of existing corporate strategies for each of the major businesses should be prepared for the guidance of executive management. It is important that members of the management agree on major thrusts of policy. For example, if executive management has not agreed on a location strategy, every proposal for a new location must be examined and evaluated as an entirely new decision.
An examination of its strengths and weaknesses, its opportunities and the threats it faces would probably uncover some core problems which need to be attacked by the management-for example, the need to establish a consistent pricing policy for all the customers or the means of payment for services rendered.
Characteristics of Entrepreneurs
Desire for responsibility Preference for moderate risk Confidence in their ability to succeed Desire for immediate feedback High level of energy Future orientation Skilled at organizing Value achievement over money
The ages include Early childhood exposure Trouble in school. Problems with work. Desire to risk. Bliss in business independence. A classic example is that of Mr. Dhirubai Ambani. because he had all the dynamic qualities of a successful Entrepreneur, as a result of which today, he was the owner of the largest private company in India. All decisions, which he had taken to grow, were instinct and no one had taught him to take decisions.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The characteristics or the personal qualities that
contributes to the success of an Entrepreneur are as follows: 1. Risk Taking Entrepreneurs are moderate risk takers. They enjoy the excitement of a challenge, but they do not gamble. Entrepreneurs avoid low-risk situations because there is a lack of challenge. They avoid highrisk situations because they want to succeed. They like achievable challenges.
A risk situation occurs when an entrepreneur is required to make a choice between two or more alternatives whose potential outcomes are not known and must be evaluated in advance, with limited information. size of the business expands the problems and opportunities become more numerous and complex.
2. Self-Confidence
A man with self-confidence has clear thoughts and welldefined goals to achieve in his life. An entrepreneur gets into business or industry with a high level of selfconfidence.
3. Optimist
An entrepreneur is able to visualize the hidden
opportunities in the environment and translate them into business realities. An entrepreneur exhibits a positive and optimistic attitude towards such opportunities. The entrepreneur approaches his task with the hope of success and not with a fear of failure.
These entrepreneurs do not like to be controlled by others. They do not wait for direction from others and choose their own
course of action.
They set their own challenging goals and put efforts to achieve
these goals.
6. Creativity
Entrepreneurs are highly creative people. They
always try to develop new products, processes or markets. They are innovative, flexible and are willing to adopt changes. They are not satisfied with conventional and routine way of doing things. They involve themselves in finding new ways of doing the things for the better.
7. Imaginative
Successful entrepreneurs possess a high
degree of imagination and foresightedness. Entrepreneurs have a great vision. Knowing the present and the past the entrepreneur is able to predict the future events about the business more accurately than others. It is because of their visionary nature and power of imagination that helps them in anticipating problems and evolving actions strategies for such problems.
8. Administrative Ability
A successful Entrepreneur is always a good
administrator. He knows the art of getting things done by other people without hurting their feelings or self-respect.
9. Communication Ability.
Communication ability is the ability to communicate
effectively.
13. Open-mindedness
Open-mindedness means a free and frank
approach in accepting one's own errors and change for the better. An entrepreneur must be willing to learn from his past experience, mistakes and moulds himself for better.
15. Patience
Patience means ability to wait. Patience also
means doing the work and then waiting for the result.