Entrepreneurs are those persons (business owners) who seek to generate value, through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets. (Blundel, et al., 2018, p. 3)
Entrepreneurs are defined by their actions (not the size of organization they work for*). They create and/or exploit change for profit, by innovating, accepting risk and moving resources to areas of higher return. Enterprise is an alternative term for a business or firm, as in the widely used term ‘small and medium sized enterprise’ (SME). They include ‘social enterprises’ which are trading organisations that serve a primary social purpose, and which can take a variety of legal forms…. *An intrapreneur is a salaried employee in a larger company and the profits and risks of their work go to their employer. (Blundel, et al., 2018, p. 4)
Internal | |
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An unexpected happening | |
An incongruous happening | |
A need for improvement in a process | |
Changes in the industry, its structure or the market | |
External | |
Changes in population demographics | |
Changes in society, in perception, mood or meaning | |
New types of knowledge | |
Bright idea |
Observing | actively noticing, watching, listening, perceiving, experiencing something |
Questioning | asking relevant questions |
Curiosity | the behaviour that causes you to ask questions and seek answers to why, how, where, when things happen as they do |
Connectivity | linking objects, people, concepts, data, ideas etc. to see what results - or in the case of computing linking devices to each other and the internet |
Associating | making connections between one thing and another - for example possible alternative solutions to a problem; possible ways to satisfy a need or want |
Incubation | the process of developing ideas or solutions to a point where they have form |
Creativity and innovation | the production of a new idea, solution, product, service or business which may be new to the world, an improvement on something, or provides access to a new market. |
Idea | Suitable | Feasible | Acceptable | Significant criteria | Total |
Structure | How would this work for me? | What wouldn’t work for me |
Sole trader | ||
Partnership | ||
Limited liability partnership | ||
Limited company | ||
Social business | ||
Franchise |
‘A business is a value delivery system.’ (Lanning and Michaels, 1988)
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. Winston Churchill
Input | Transformation process | Output |
Organisational capabilities |
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Process | Organisational structure | Motivation | Organisational alignment |
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Resources | ||
Tangible | Intangible | Human |
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Resource or capability | Valuable | Rare | Inimitable | Exploited by the organisation |
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Valuable | Rare | Inimitable | Exploited by the organisation | Implication |
N | Disadvantage | |||
Y | N | Parity | ||
Y | Y | N | Temporary advantage | |
Y | Y | Y | N | Advantage insufficiently used |
Y | Y | Y | Y | Sustained advantage |
Dimension | Goal | How would I measure success? | Achievement goal |
Yourself | |||
Your family | |||
Enterprise | |||
Community |
Dimension | Goal | How would I measure success? | Achievement goal |
Yourself | Feel in control of my own destiny | My own feelings and opinions | Achieved |
Your family | Good work–life balance | Feedback of my partner and friends | 20 days holiday per year |
Enterprise | |||
Community |