A Paradigm of Entrepreneurship - Book Report/Review Example

 A Paradigm of Entrepreneurship Background of the Entrepreneur An entrepreneur can be inspired by so many factors from childhood to their current position which shape the way they conduct their business and the rate of their success amidst stiff completion in the industry and in the market. In this paper, an interview was conducted with one of the most successful entrepreneur- Mark Gordon who is the founder of Apex Company. He shares his childhood inspiration, motivators, triggers and influencers and how he started his business to grow into a flourishing business through subsequent management and development of the new venture. The background of this entrepreneur played an important role in shaping his development as an innovative entrepreneur characterized by revitalized ideas which has made him stand out from the rest in the industry (Armitage & Conner 2001). At the start of the interview, he was keen to point out that his childhood experience has been his greatest trigger in starting his company. He is a second generation entrepreneur as his family owns a very successful business and he has been involved in the business from when he was young. He was very interested in helping out in the family business. Having his parents as entrepreneurs increased his interest and attractiveness of the self-employment venture. One thing that interested him about his family business is that it kept his family together most of the time and it was very successful. When asked what his motivation would be between feasibility and attractiveness of entrepreneurship, he points out that both were equally important to him as he not only wanted to own a business, but also make it one of the best in the market. In respect to his background, we can conclude that his family background, coupled with the fact that he was exposed to a successful business only made him see the positive view of entrepreneurship and therefore, he was not exposed to negative energy around him that could make him give up or get disappointed even before starting (Armitage & Conner 2001). The interview revealed that, Mark not only had a good environment to nurture his future dream, but also had the talent and temperament for it too. When asked whether he noted some characteristics during his childhood that he capitalized during his practice as an entrepreneur. He points out to instances which made people, his parents and even teachers commended him for being responsible, independent, a good leader, conflict resolver, and a great time manager and most importantly, a risk taker. Mark narrates one experience that changed him as a young man and opened him to a world of independence and responsibility. At the age of ten years, his parents would give him some pocket money for him and for his siblings. Since his parents were very busy, he was in charge of budgeting what was important and what was urgent. By the time he was 12 years old, he would carry out an intellectual conversation with his parents, and although it was basic, it shaped his fundamental understanding. This experience was a trigger event which strengthened his independence and self-confidence to face difficulties with courage. Although at the time, it was half-baked, he came to realize that as he grew up, and he would draw his support from the experience when he would be faced with major decisions and threats to handle. As such, we can conclude that a good entrepreneur is shaped by basic talent and temperaments from since he was young that come to full realization later in life (Alarape 2007). The significance of education cannot be overstated in the development of a good entrepreneur. Education is key to catalyzing economic development and social progress through entrepreneurship. Mark reports to be an educated person in business management and therefore, he is highly skilled and business knowledge –driven. He is keen to point out that his educational background and the skills of his human resource has been very instrumental in shaping the future of his new venture. His college life shaped his practical part of entrepreneurship. Most of the business schools learn by talk and chalk only and nothing practical to shape students when they go to practically apply what they have learned. When he was in college, he engaged in shared activities outside the classroom with his peers which helped develop teambuilding skills and leadership skills. Business-related activities were encouraged. That gave Mark and his peers a fertile ground to grow. The college was faculty supported but filled with student-led activities which were meant to prepare the students with the necessary mindset and awareness about entrepreneurship. Having the right educational background enables the entrepreneur to take advantage of new opportunities as and when they emerge (DeTienne & Chandler 2004). As such, it directly determines the growth of the business from a local, to a regional and eventually an international business. Mark notes that the global and future of entrepreneurship requires much more skills through advanced education. As such, as an entrepreneur, he continually updates his skills and knowledge to keep updated with technology and new ways of doing business (DeTienne & Chandler 2004). Decision to Start-Up the Business Entrepreneurship can be inspired by various factors depending on the entrepreneur. Sources of business ideas can be gathered from magazines, televisions, hobbies, market niche, shows and exhibition or experience and vocational training (Paul 2011). The background of can be described as the major source of inspiration towards the foundation of Apex Company. His degree in business management and his experience working for as an intern was the source of his business idea. When asked how he came up with the business idea about his new venture, he reports that since he wanted to be an entrepreneur from his earlier years, a challenge was the greatest motivational driver which triggered him to find a niche for his entrepreneurial manifestation. When he identified the niche for his new venture, his knowledge of business management helped him explore the preliminaries of starting a business in order to increase the potential of business survival. With respect to starting a business, he notes that he had to gain access to concrete information by performing market research, competitor analysis and access reliable information on legal issues such as registration process, taxation, statutory compliances and regulatory issues. It is also imperative to assess accessibility of business infrastructure and sources of business finance (DeTienne & Chandler 2004). We can, therefore, conclude that having the right education and information prior to starting a business is very important as it prevents an entrepreneur from incurring additional expenses, business failure or losses (Alarape 2007). Capital is a critical factor when starting business. It shapes the favorability of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. During the interview, Mark reports that seed capital, which is early stage finance is a major problem for most of the entrepreneurs in the industry today. While he had considered to take a bank loan to finance his business, he did not have any collateral and therefore, he considered other ways of financing his business. He already had some savings from his job and borrowed the rest from his family. He notes that his family support was instrumental as a source of capital for his new venture. It is therefore imperative to note that strong social cultural support systems are important in starting a business as they offer unlimited support emotionally, physiologically and also financially (Armitage & Conner 2001). His humble start is a reflection of other entrepreneurs who have great confidence in their own abilities by daring to start a business from savings and family support. The interview sought to find out how the initial days after starting the business were and Mark says that it was the hardest part of his business so far. He had already conducted a market research and therefore, he was sure he would not face major difficulties when it comes to communicating his ideas to the customers. However, he faced serious challenges which were more practical than what he had earlier anticipated. This helped him learn not only how to take risks, but how to manage the risks he would be exposed to going forward. As such, he recommends that new venture should have mentors who will guide the business through the intimal days especially when they face serious problems which can make the business to collapse. As a new entrepreneur, he had difficulties marketing his business as a marketable proposition. This opened him to the need for corporate structuring, investing in team work, professionalization of the business and scaling up the business. This is because working with a team and an ideal corporate structure helped him get varying ideas, capabilities and skills which pushed his business forward (Paul 2011). Management and Development of the New Venture Mark has set out strategies which are applied in his company to achieve the business goals. When asked about where he would like to see himself in five years from now, it was noted that he envisions that future of his business in terms of the quality of work he would offer and the nature of his work. He is keen to point out that increasing the quality of his work and nature of his services would automatically lead to high growth rates and turnover. He seeks to be the leading market share by getting more clients and growing his venture into a regional and international business. He also has a mission about his venture becoming a world-class venture someday as he diversifies into new geographical areas. To achieve this vision and develop his new venture to be the leading one in the market, he has set out strategies and behavior traits which are employed in his company (DeTienne & Chandler 2004). He employs the following entrepreneurial behaviors. Mark views entrepreneurship as an opportunity-based management behavior. He employs strategic orientation as an entrepreneurial management behavior in order to realize the vision of the venture. He has strategized the business to use the available and recyclable resources in the venture. Expansion is also a management behavior that is associated with the company’s entrepreneurship since from the time of inception the business, it had a vision to expand and extend to greater boundaries and venture into many countries around the globe. Leaderships is a key management behavior, Mark had all the required leadership skills. There was a time he was offered directorship, however he refused the offer to pursue his own business. Leadership has enabled Mark to control and make sure that the company sticks to the ideologies that it believes in with regard to the corporate mission statement (Stevenson and Jarillo 1990). The interview also presents Mark as an entrepreneurs with a very positive attitude who does not give up trying no matter how challenging the venture gets. He keeps the goal first and work hard to overcome all odds. As such, it is imperative to note that there are instances where he demonstrates the classic ‘DNA’ of an entrepreneur. One of the ‘DNA’ of an entrepreneurship that he had has is tenacity, this is because they never gave up from the time he incepted the business idea. He also had the ability to pivot as another aspect, he is very social with customers and takes his time to understand what the customers want. Resilience is very evident as Mark refused to “die” literary, even in the hardest of time especially during the start of the new venture. Integrity is an integral part of achieving the company’s vision, the business believes in honesty as a marketing tool. Mark also lets us in on his secret traits as a successful entrepreneur. During the interview, major traits he fancies the most are noted to be neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. According to Zhao and Siebert, (2006), these are some of the traits of successful managers but very prominent in great entrepreneurs. Neuroticism is a trait that can describe emotional stability, a successful entrepreneur should be capable to stabilize and control his emotions. Neuroticism is characterized by people who don’t have a high score in anxiety, insecure, worried and emotional (Barrick and Mount 1991). This trait is all about handling risk, Mark took the risk to start the new venture with being risk averse. A person who is anxious or insecure is not capable of starting a business since he can’t manage stress when things turn sore. Openness to experience is another personality trait than culminates a person to be a successful entrepreneur. Openness to experience describes a person who is open to innovative experiences, imaginative, original and reflective (McCrae 1987; Costa and McCrae 1992). This trait is well manifested in Mark as he has revitalized his venture to offer unique and quality service to his customers. It can also be said that this is the personal trait that enabled Mark to organize his business and develop the venture on the right path (Zhao and seibert 2006). Extraversion is a personality attribute that is deliberated by sociability, assertiveness, talkativeness and ambition (Barrick and mount 1991). This is a very important personal trait since the entrepreneur will spend most of his time with customers. This personality trait can be traced to Mark, as he has signs of being a very social person and also full of ambition. Aspect of ambition can be attributed to when mark left his job to start his own business. He was also a social person, the manner in which he socialized with his team and based the venture on team work can attest to that. His score in regard to extraversion can be said to be very high, thus ensuring he became an entrepreneur (Shane 2003). Conscientiousness is a trait that is mostly associated with hard work, perseverance and dependability (Barrick and mount 1991). Conscientiousness is also a trait that is closely related to heritability of entrepreneurship (Paul 2011). The current development of the new venture has been attributed to hard work and consistency. Mark has been very hardworking and he has the zeal to achieve his the business’s goal. Agreeable describes someone who is trusting, forgiving, cooperative, tolerant, soft-hearted and courteous (Barrick and Mount 1991). If a person is less agreeable he is likely to be more skeptical (Costa and McCrae 1992) which makes them to be critical about any business information (Shane 2003). Mark can be described as an agreeable person who is able to work with people of diverse culture, affiliations and orientation. This traits has been very instrumental in enhanced teamwork and cooperation of ideas and tasks. From the interview with Mark, we can conclude that an entrepreneur is shaped by childhood background through trigger, influencers, family and educational background. For development of a successful venture, an entrepreneur need to adopt traits and strategies to be applied in the venture. References Alarape, A., A. (2007). Entrepreneurship programs, operational efficiency and growth of small businesses. Journal of Enterprising Communities, 1(3): 222-239. Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A meta-analytic review. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40: 471-499. Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26. Costa, P. T., Jr., McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five Factor Inventory NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: PAR. DeTienne, D. R., & Chandler, G. N. (2004). Opportunity Identification and Its Role in the Entrepreneurial Classroom: A Pedagogical Approach and Empirical Test. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3(3): 242-257. Paul B. (2011). Entrepreneurship and Small Business: Start-up, Growth and Maturity, (3rd ed.) rave Macmillan. Shane, S. (2003). A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus, Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Stevenson, H.H. and J. C. Jarillo (1990). "A Paradigm of Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Management." Strategic Management Journal 11:17‐27 Zhao, H.,Seibert, S. (2006). The big five personality dimensions and entrepreneurial status: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2): 259-271. Read More