The Strengths and Weaknesses of an Entrepreneurial Strategist - Essay Example

The main strength of most successful entrepreneurs is innovative ideas and solutions they apply to the business environment. Strategic thinking plays an extremely important role in opportunity identification because it enables entrepreneurs to understand the dynamic nature of an evolving opportunity and when it can best be exploited. The importance of strategic thinking leads to strategic planning and is extremely important in the opportunity identification process. Successful entrepreneurs are self-confident and try to meet the heist possible standards.

Most of them are hard-working and energetic, enthusiastic, passionate and self-critical. They get others to do things by giving them little scope to influence decisions. Intuition is one of the most unique qualities possessed by successful entrepreneurs (Burns 2001). They use the intuitive ability to understand the dynamics of market structures, competition, customer needs, timing, synergies, and the like (Clark and Lee 2006). They have great knowledge, expertise and personal charisma. Successful entrepreneurs accept full responsibility for the achievement of the business objective and it is therefore essential for trust and co-operation from both sides to be in evidence all the time.

"They welcome change because it creates opportunities that can be exploited and often create it through innovation" (Burns 2001, p. 5). Most of them have excellent communication skills which help them to find partners and investors. Successful entrepreneurs are open to new ideas and willingly accept risk. The weaknesses of entrepreneurs prevent them to achieve success and build their own business. Most entrepreneurs have a lot of ideas but do not focus on one or two. Some entrepreneurs cannot focus on details and planning process, and for this reason, they successfully start a business but cannot run it.

In contrast, for successful entrepreneurs, strategic thinking is a craft skill that is honed by repeated use and hands-on experimentation. Some people cannot turn adverse situations into positive situations (Nair and Pandey 2006). It has been found that entrepreneurial ventures often have their launch in an adverse situation. Apparently, the resource requirements in a start-up phase can be limited by using external resources in this way. The ability to use external resources also tends to expand the opportunity space by making more opportunities feasible.

Some entrepreneurs are too optimistic about future success paying less attention to routine work and possible problems being financially on the edge (Hung 2005). This weakness leads to financial problems and the inability to create realistic plans for their business. All entrepreneurs have weaknesses and strengths which help them to introduce new ideas and find creative solutions. It is an ability to proceed with tentative, incomplete information, always leaving one's options as open as possible, waiting for the right moment.

Only when an environmental change, entrepreneurship is combined with the presence of profound knowledge, entrepreneurial behavior, and strategic thinking, that opportunities become identified.