The Importance of the Strategic Abilities of Entrepreneur - Essay Example

?An Entrepreneurial Viewpoint Risk and uncertainty form the basis of the definition of an entrepreneur. Risk is actually viewed in the sense of recurring events whose relative frequency is not known from past experience, whilst uncertainty is linked to the unique events whose probability can only be subjectively determined. Therefore, entrepreneurs have the ability to make According to Burns (2013:12) some of the characteristics and attributes with regard to my characteristics as an entrepreneurial person in accordance with my experience of working in teams included: proactive and decisiveness, ability to take risks, capability to live with uncertainty, internal locus of control, self-confident, innovative, self-motivated, intuitive, positive attitude, strength of character, integrity, ability to engender trust, visionary, self-confident, dedicated, and proactive. Since I am a normal human I used intuition to execute decisions daily, however, as noted Flora (2007:68) this can lead to risk blindness and complacency. Besides, I came to learn that I could clearly utilize rule based reasoning which is characterized to being logical, deliberate, and being used to justify to other persons what needs to be done. Since I was a risk taker I did not experience problems with lateral thinking. This is because I had the capability to solve problems by means of indirect and creative approach, by making use of reasoning that is not directly obvious and incorporating ideas that may not be obtainable when using only traditional step-by-step logic. Flora (2007) asserts that a view shared by de Bono asserts that lateral thinking on purposefully distances itself from standard perceptions of creativity as either vertical logic or horizontal imagination. What I have learnt about myself is that since I exhibit appropriate entrepreneurial attributes. I am better suited to working in a conventionally structured organization, with conventional management approaches or an entrepreneurial organization and as an entrepreneurial manager since a portrayed the following traits. First is the ability to deal with risk. Morris, Kuraki and Covin (2011:34-54) assert that as an entrepreneur you need to effectively operate in an environment that is filled with risk. You need to ensure that the hired employee show the capability to deal with risk and uncertainty. I was also able to make the group progress towards the goal and also made decisions when lacked one or more critical resources. By being risk taker, you should shoulder the burden of responsibility of absorbing of any uncertain outcome of a new project. Secondly, I am result oriented. This means that you take ownership of the tasks to be done. A ‘can do’ individual as noted by (Hadzima, 2013) should exhibit common sense in their decisions and actions and also show the ability to resolve the problems that can divert others. Moreover, their business judgment needs to become stronger with each experience, recommendation, or decision. Thirdly, I have high enthusiasm and energy and enthusiasm levels. This means that I can generate output that is higher than what is generally expected. This shows commitment to the organization’s aims and overall success. This makes one to desire to make contributions to results. Fourthly, I show potential for growth. This is because while at the group I was willing to accept much higher levels of responsibility. Fifthly, I am a team player. Having the ability to recognize how your role contributes to the overall effort and success of the firm is very crucial if you are to become a team player. George and Bock (2012:45) note that you need to accept responsibility and ownership in the area of responsibility and also expect the other members of the team to do the same. A team player also recognizes the roles and contributions of others and applauds them. The next that I possess which can enable me to be better suited to working in a conventionally structured organization, with conventional management approaches or an entrepreneurial organization and as an entrepreneurial manager is flexibility. This is the ability to adjust to new duties, responsibilities, and assignments. This means that I can perform more than one role until the incremental duties and functions assumed can be assigned to the other employees in the newly defined roles. According Burns ( 2013:67) asserts that one is able to dig in and perform grunt tasks which will eventually be carried out by lower level employees. Lastly, I have a knack for innovation and creativity. Such entrepreneurs are identified by their ambition to innovate. This comprises of developing new ideas, processes, services, methods, and products, as well as new solutions to meet the new requirements and offering more value to the stakeholders.a larger portion of being succeful in business depends on the improvement and positive change, and therefore all good entreprenuers typically have a vision to be innovative and creative so as to bring about this type of change and improvement. What I came to learn about my fellow colleagues that most of them portrayed characteristics that are useful for team work. Those members who were enterprising showed high levels of decisiveness, ability to take risks. They were risk takers because they initiated projects whose relative frequency was actually unknown from the past experience. Some of them who were not very enterprising showed intuitive reasoning which is usually associative, spontaneous and immediate. This kind of reasoning can not make you a good entrepreneur as it considered emotional, irrational, and subjective. This makes to draw conclusions not basing on facts but on mere beliefs and feelings or emotions (Flora, 2007:68). What I learnt about reactive development is that you solve matters as they arise. This sparks creativity and enables you to focus on the product rather than optimizing for millions of users. Other the other hand, proactive development enables you to solve matters before they regenerate into an issue. Generally, you spend more times on the optimizations. Proactive development makes development more stable, although can anticipate the wrong future. Some of the effort that contributed to the team effort that I considered as being enterprising to the group include: is was able to determine potentially valuable opportunities; I obtained and coordinated the resources that were necessary to pursue an opportunity and made my group an entrepreneurial organization; effectively managed the group’s operations; ensured the group grew into a sustainable enterprise, created and harvested value for the projects initiated with the group (McGrath & Macmillan, 2000). Given time I would become more focused, goal oriented, well-organized, disciplined, and meticulous. Moreover, with time I would proactively search for opportunities. In this case I would find potential problems and opportunities, and offering real and tangible solutions to these problems. Next, I would create an environment suitable for the entrepreneurial transformation, and negotiating support from major stakeholders both inside and outside the organization. Breaking down team members' self-imposed perceptual barriers and stereotypes about what can and can not be done, so as to produce decisive and integrative and actions (Burns, 2008). What I learnt about the major factors that are associated with creation of management of an entrepreneurial organization is that you need to be ambitious and exhibit entrepreneurial traits including self-confidence, innovativeness and creativity, self-motivation, intuitive thinking, having a positive attitude, strength of character, integrity, ability to engender trust, dedication, proactive, ability to undertake inherent risks, and visionary I also learnt that to create a successful entrepreneurial organization you need the following: good leadership, the capability to negotiate and maintain a major set of relationships for enterprise’s benefit, accessibility to marketing and planning skills, community engagement, and demonstrate planning for mitigating externalities and risks. What I experienced with the task of coming up with strategies that would make the organization more entrepreneurial is that it requires a broad knowledge base in critical areas, to be open mined and listen the views an opinions of others, the capability to create strategic alliances when formulating strategies, consistency of thought, and lastly strong negotiating skills which will lead to win/win results. My group was successful since there was a lot of lateral thinking from the members, presence of team work in everything the group undertook, group cohesion, and strong leadership and management skills. With regard strategies of real entrepreneurial organizations, an entrepreneurial organization emphasizes the importance of the strategic abilities entrepreneur. Some of the strategies were: continuing to reinvent the organization by determining the overlooked market opportunities, identifying the weakness of the competitor and utilize it as your strength, determining any new trend in the market and pounce on it, and finally, establishing a brand that is different from the rest (Renee & Martin, 2013). Reference List Burns, P. (2008). Corporate entreprenurship:building the entrepreneurial organisation . New York: Sage Publications. Flora, C. (2007). Gut Almighty. Psychology Today , 40 (3), 68-75. George, G., & Bock, A. J. (2012).Models of opportunity: how entrepreneurs design firms to achieve the unexpected. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Hadzima, J. (2013, February). Retrieved December 4, 2013, from Practical Advice from Entreprenuers: http://web.mit.edu/e-club/hadzima/seven-characteristics-of-highly-effective-entrepreneurial-employees.html Jackson, E. (2013, March 17). Retrieved December 4, 2013, from 10 Qualities of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs: http://smartbusinesstrends.com/10-qualities-of-highly-successful-entrepreneurs/ McGrath, R. G., & Macmillan, I. C. (2000).The entrepreneurial mindset: strategies for continuously creating opportunity in an age of uncertainty. Boston, Mass, Harvard Business School. Morris, H., Kuraki, D. F., & Covin, J., G. (2011).Corporate entrepreneurship and innovation: entrepreneurial development within organizations. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Renee, & Martin, D. (2013). Retrieved December 5, 2013, from Ten Entrepreneurial Strategies for Success : http://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/entrepreneursuccess.htm. Read More