Entrepreneurial Skills and proper management

Introduction

Entrepreneurs are those personalities who have the skill and the vision to turn their idea into a successful business venture.  They are different in their approach,thinking, motivation and vision. If we look into Steve Jobs famous quote on Apple’s product placement, he said ‘I will create something which will bring anew line of buyers’.  After this Apple truly created their separate customer base who would go for anything Apple produces. It is the character and thinking which separates the entrepreneurs from ordinary businessmen.  The entrepreneurs do not limit themselves to mere ideas turning into product or service. They have the passion for turning the idea into a business and markets it successfully (Brandstätter, 2011).

This report is based on untying the knots of characteristic traits, skills and mindset of successful entrepreneurs. It will reflect what special idea works behind Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, and their success stories. Just as a leader is madeof his/her characteristics, traits, develop his/her place as a leader, and hence same does happen in thecase of entrepreneurs.

Task 1

1.1. Characteristic traits and skills of successful entrepreneurs

Most of the entrepreneurs have some skills and traits in common. Hence these traits have become instrumental in establishing the business and bring about long-term success.  Most entrepreneurs follow their passion, and of course the forte. This automatically helps to move ahead faster as they like their work.Besides, the entrepreneurs are excellent planners and works in a disciplined way.It helps them to assess the situation and also plan accordingly to gain the favour of the situation.The entrepreneurs are also excellent money managers.  Their capacity of money management puts them ahead of many business institutions (Arthur and Hisrich, 2011).

However, as far as the business managers are concerned, they work for a pre-established setup. Hence, their motivation remains to complete the given projects and plans which are created by someone else.Besides, they have all their focus on proper management and execution. Besides, these managers are not affected by the company and its performance. They can easily find a job elsewhere if one fails to stand.

Hence the main difference between an entrepreneur and business manager is their concern. The entrepreneur carries the gun of own business on the shoulders. A manager has to just manage his department and its performance for the benefit of enterprise (Makhbul and Hasun, 2011).

1.2. Reflection of entrepreneurial motivation and mindset on the entrepreneurial personality

Ideas say that if themind can make it thepossible body is sure to follow. In a case of anentrepreneur, the mindset and focus of entrepreneursare the biggest weapons in the arsenal.Their mindset and passion develops their entrepreneurial mindset and self-motivation. Being an entrepreneur is one of the most uncertain professions. Ideas can fail, and thewhole set-up might come down. The product may be superb, but the business might not work. One thing which drives an entrepreneur through the toughest situation is the mindset and the eagerness to make the difference.Let’s not forget Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and Steve Job was sued by his company (Drucker, 2014).

However, ultimately he made his dream come true, and Apple became a legacy.It is their mindset which develops the character and practice of an entrepreneur. For example, since the risk level is high an entrepreneur has to become self-sufficient to the extent possible. Money management, business planning, product placement,etc. are all done by most entrepreneurs. Moreover, as a start-up, it is not possible to spend money on hiring employees. In order keep things in hand an entrepreneur becomes multi-tasking. Hence he or she has to develop the skills by need and efficiency rather than choice.

1.3.  Exploration and Examination of different lines of argument relating to entrepreneurial characteristics

Though an entrepreneur can become self-sufficient, there still arise various lines of arguments. It is obvious that a person cannot single-handed become an expert in all the aspects starting from developing of product to business management.  The main argument arises when an entrepreneur manages the business all by own. As seen in various aspects, many entrepreneurial businesses fail. Perhaps there are many failures besides few success stories (Elkington and Hartigan, 2013). It is obvious that it is tough for a person to manage all the responsibilities all by themselves. Hence, that who fails to manage disappears from the business scenario.

Even Steve Jobs had his fellow programmer and designer to help develop his ideas into reality. In fact today most entrepreneurs come in a group of 2 or 3. In this way, the areas which require the most skills are managed by the other person in the group. For example, if one comes up with the idea of the product, the other person manages the technical side. The further argument remains behind the conversion of the product into the effective business medium.  In this case, if the business planning fails the product might not make it up to the market.  The best example is when the sale of Apple Macintosh had dropped radically, and the company was forced to stop the production (Kuratko, 2016).

1.4 Characteristic traits, skills and motivational drivers of successful entrepreneurs

The best example of the frame would be of Steve Jobs during the drought period in Apple Macintosh. After he had been reappointed, he had a mountain to climb. A huge sum of money had to be retrieved within avery short period to save the company from bankruptcy.  He managed a tie-up with Windows after a chat with Bill Gates. Macintosh survived the hard phase with aids from Windows.Steve then took Apple to the top position in the market.  Even Bill Gates considered Apple as a competitor in the market (Jennings et al., 2013).

Here we see Steve’s presence of mind. His dream to bring the revolutionary gadgets to the world was opened once again. Bill Gates showed the character of a businessman. He saved Apple to frame as a competitor since Windows were facing lawsuits due to the absence of any radical competitor. In this case both the entrepreneur managed to turn things in their favor. Steve had to shake hands with the rivals and Bill had to save a dying company to grow up as a competitor (Åstebro and Thompson, 2011).

Task 2

2.1. Analysis of hindrance or fostering of background and experience in entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur in simple term means one who sets up his or her enterprise. However, today the word carries more weight than mere business setup. Most of the world-renowned entrepreneurs have given the world the revolution it needed. They taught the market to dream big and beyond the limits. These people are known to break stereotypes, limitations and boundaries (Makhbul and Hasun, 2011). It is with their ideas, ventures and enterprises the world is moving towards advanced age. Whether it is Jeff Bezos and Amazon, Larry Page and Google, they have offered us something larger than life. Whether entrepreneurship is a processor an adventure that partially depends on the area of a particular country the entrepreneurs background, nature of product, service or trading, the background of the family of the entrepreneurship is not a process and arduous exercise of creativity and innovation as well as very long chain of activities depending on the organising ability of the entrepreneur. For example, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com shows how to turn dreams into reality (Miller, 2015). He has motivation, creativity, dedication, determination, flexibility, leadership, passion, self-confidence, and smartness. He can manage all of his resources in a systematic manner. He truly believes in what he is doing. His creative innovation results the great success. His dedication towards his work makes him successful. He is always prepared to take criticism as a challenge and turns it into success. His educational background helped him to foster entrepreneurship. He completed his graduation in electrical engineering and computer science. Proper knowledge of technology helped him to be such successful entrepreneur by introducing the largest e-commerce business, Amazon.com. Before starting his on enterprise, he worked in computer science field and then he worked on building anetwork for international trade. His previous working experience helped him to understand the market situation and provided hands-on experience (Bridge and O'Neill, 2012).

2.2. Link between entrepreneurial characteristics and the influence of personal background and experience to successful entrepreneurs

There is a clear link between entrepreneurial characteristics and the influence of personal background and experience to specific successful entrepreneurs (Ernst, 2012). The entrepreneurial characteristics include the followings:

·         Strong desire to a reward- People with entrepreneurial qualities has a strong desire to achieve ahigher goal and make their dreams come true.

·         Commitment- Entrepreneurs are always committed to achieving their goals.

·         Risk-taking capacity- Entrepreneurs always take moderate risks instead of taking high risks. They do so because they are aware that moderate situation under risk has afair chance of winning.

·         Identification of opportunities- Entrepreneurs are quick to see and grab opportunities. They show an innovative turn of mind and convert difficulties into possible opportunities.

·         Situation analysis- Entrepreneurs can analyze the situation quickly and make the management run smoothly.

·         Powers of observation- Entrepreneurs have astrong power of observation. They can predict the future market situation easily.

·         Accepting ups and downs- The entrepreneur should be able to cope up with problems.

·         Self-confidence- The entrepreneur should know about his/her strengths and weaknesses.

·         Innovation-The entrepreneur must innovate something unique for his/her enterprise.

·         Leadership- Every entrepreneur is a leader as he/she leads the team of his enterprise.

From the above entrepreneurial characteristics, it is clear that these characteristics have an astrong link with the influence of personal background and experience to specific successful entrepreneurs. The reason behind this statement is that all the characteristics are incepted if the entrepreneur has a strong background or proper experience on a particular field (Eddleston and Powell, 2012).

2.3. Critical evaluation of positive and negative background and experience influencing entrepreneurs

For the evaluation of the above statement, it is needed to give examples of positive and negative influences. For positive aspect, the background and experience play ahuge role in influencing entrepreneurs. For example, Bill Gates showcases how background and experience helped him to be such a successful entrepreneur. He is one of the most prominent entrepreneurs who were responsible for Microsoft Corporation. In Bill Gates’ case, his early family life or background, the competitive nature around his family environment, joining a private school where he embraced early computer technology and finally meeting with Paul Allen at Seattle School were his integral motivation which let him pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Beside that Gates’ long hour of dedication helped him also (Schaper et al., 2014). He spent long hours in the computer lab and learned about computer codes. Gates’ parents instilled a love of learning. This intrinsic motivation drove Bill Gates to achieve his goals. His background and experience highly influenced him to achieve his goal.

Conversely, the background of entrepreneur and experience negatively influence an entrepreneur. A true incident of thenegative influence of experience is given hereto explain this statement. Robin Chase, the co-founder of Zipcar had failed in her second entrepreneurship. She had alack of experience in customer handling, and she did not know how to promote business. She built the website, GoLoco first and then informed the customers about it. This example showcases the power of experience in entrepreneurship. The background and experience can negatively influence an entrepreneur (Neck and Greene, 2011).

Conclusion

Successful entrepreneurs make success looks easy. However, most of the people are unaware of the hours spent ondevelopment and the path to success. Many a time’s works or the goal seems hard to achieve. Ideas may fail; even the opportunities may become slender. However, what makes them different is the burning desire to succeed. Successful entrepreneurs have their code of discipline. Though these may not match with that of ordinary people, they are disciplined in their ways. The capacity to dream big and have the strength to fulfil the dream is quite a task on its own (Brandstätter, 2011). It is recommended to start with one step at a timeto be a successful entrepreneur. It might require knowledge of business or initial collaboration. However, starting at a steady pace is the key to success. One must make sure the pace does not fall. Background and experience influences entrepreneurs, both positively and negatively. There is a clear link between entrepreneurial characteristics and the influence of personal background and experience to specific successful entrepreneurs.

 References

Arthur, S.J. and Hisrich, R.D. (2011) 'Entrepreneurship through the ages: Lessons learned', Journal of Enterprising Culture, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 1-40.

Åstebro, T. and Thompson, P. (2011) ' Entrepreneurs, Jacks of all trades or Hobos?', Research policy, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 637-649.

Brandstätter, H. (2011) 'Personality aspects of entrepreneurship: A look at five meta-analyses', Personality and individual differences, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 222-230.

Bridge, S. and O'Neill, K. (2012) Understanding enterprise: entrepreneurship and small business, Palgrave Macmillan.

Drucker, P. (2014) Innovation and entrepreneurship, Routledge.

Eddleston, K.A. and Powell, G.N. (2012) 'Nurturing entrepreneurs' work–family balance: A gendered perspective.', Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 513-541.

Elkington, J. and Hartigan, P. (2013) The power of unreasonable people: How social entrepreneurs create markets that change the world, Harvard Business Press.

Ernst, K. (2012) 'Social entrepreneurs and their personality', In Social entrepreneurship and social business, pp. 51-64.

Jennings, P.D., Greenwood, R., Lounsbury, M.D. and Suddaby, R. (2013) 'Institutions, entrepreneurs, and communities: A special issue on entrepreneurship', Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 1-9.

Kuratko, D.F. (2016) Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice, Cengage Learning.

Makhbul, Z.M. and Hasun, F.M. (2011) 'Entrepreneurial success: an exploratory study among entrepreneurs', International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 116.

Miller, D. (2015) 'A downside to the entrepreneurial personality?', Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 1-8.

Neck, H.M. and Greene, P.G. (2011) 'Entrepreneurship education: known worlds and new frontiers', Journal of Small Business Management, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 55-70.

Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. and Gibson, B. (2014) Entrepreneurship and small business.

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