Entrepreneurship Notes

Stakeholders are people (individuals or group) who have an interest in a company’s or organization’s affairs. These are people who can affect or are affected by the achievement of the organizational objectives. E.g. customers, suppliers, investors etc. Involvement of stakeholders can reduce uncertainty and improve decision making by understanding their experiences, desires, constraints etc. When there is higher uncertainty, there is increased value of involving stakeholders in decision making. Select stakeholders: That are representative Have more power With legitimacy With urgency Methods to hear the voice of stakeholders: Interview: experts in the field, prospective customers, prospective investors Discussion with focused groups Surveys This blog post is based on my learnings from the course on ‘entrepreneurship’ offered by Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, University of Maryland through Coursera (2014).

Strategic entrepreneurial decisions are inherently risky as entrepreneurs rarely know all possible outcomes. If information on the consequences of decisions is incomplete, uncertainty involves risk. Perception of risk may differ. Risk is conceptualized based on individual entrepreneur’s assessment of risk and uncertainty in a decision. Perceived uncertainty and perceived risk along with industry dynamism drives the entrepreneurial decision making process. Why do entrepreneurs engage in risk? Because of lack of necessary information in a decision situation Entrepreneurs develop an inside view of the decisions they face Ignore elements of past situations Favour positive possible outcomes Entrepreneurs differ from corporate managers based on decision making factors like: Intuition Individualistic view High tolerance for ambiguity Confidence in skills, knowledge and expertise To assess real risk and improve decision making: Apply multiple perspectives to a decision situation Integrate per...

Entrepreneurs cause entrepreneurship: market opportunities, technology changes and other factors influence entrepreneurship – but, the entrepreneur is at the heart of the matter. Understanding entrepreneurs: who are they, what they think, how do they think and what influences their decision. Entrepreneurial Behaviour: 1. Confidence: It is important for entrepreneurs to believe in themselves and their abilities and may require going against the norm. Self-doubt can result in doubts from your team, partners, investors, customers etc. 2. Interpersonal relationship skills: These are driven by your likability and communication skills. It influences your ability to connect with individuals and connect with their connections. These skills may be natural skills for you or require a level effort and/or personal study and development. 3. Social capital: Refers to the resources available in and through personal and professional networks: who you know and who they know. Richness depends on the si...

1. Overconfidence: - Results in being overly optimistic of the future - Helps entrepreneurs face multiple hurdles of starting and managing - Valuable in persuading others - Explains why most new ventures fail 2. Representativeness: - The tendency of judging the probability of an event based on how representative that event is for a class or category of events - Willingness to generalize based on small sample of events - Results in inaccurate perception of reality 3. Counterfactual thinking: - The tendency to think about “what might have been if” - Often negative in nature and with a sense of regret or disappointment due to missed opportunities - Can result in pursing mediocre opportunities for new ventures because of fear of missing out on success This blog post is based on my learnings from the course on ‘entrepreneurship’ offered by Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, University of Maryland through Coursera (2014).

Entrepreneurs cause entrepreneurship: market opportunities, technology changes and other factors influence entrepreneurship – but, the entrepreneur is at the heart of the matter. Understanding entrepreneurs: who are they, what they think, how do they think and what influences their decision. Entrepreneurial Motivation: 1. Self-efficacy: It is related to control and confidence and is defined as your belief in your ability to accomplish a specific task. It is top indicator of individual performance in a wide variety of tasks. Improving self-efficacy: a. Mastery: Start small: learn by small things and move on to big tasks. Experience incremental success. b. Role modelling: Observe success of others that are similar. c. Social persuasion: Verbal encouragement from trusted sources. d. Psychological cues: Exhibit a positive mood and high energy. 2. Cognitive motivation: Cognition is the process of thought. Individuals high in need for cognition (thinking) tend to seek, acquire, think and...

Entrepreneurs cause entrepreneurship: market opportunities, technology changes and other factors influence entrepreneurship – but, the entrepreneur is at the heart of the matter. Understanding entrepreneurs: who are they, what they think, how do they think and what influences their decision. Entrepreneurial Mindset 1. Achievement: Entrepreneurs have personal drive and preference for challenge. 2. Individualism: Entrepreneurs are willing to go against the norm and seek individual initiative and achievement. 3. Control: It is about belief that a person can (internal) or cannot (external) control their own destiny and influence outcomes. What do you attribute outcomes to? Yourself or others (markets, luck etc.). Internals are more alert and discover more opportunities than externals. 4. Focus: It is about attention and commitment. Entrepreneurs are able to focus attention on single task and have ability to process information even in the changing environmental conditions. 5. Optimism: Th...

  The Opportunity Analysis Canvas - Source: opportunityanalysiscanvas.com The Opportunity Analysis Canvas distills vast amounts of research in psychology, sociology, and business into a practical how-to guide for aspiring and active entrepreneurs. Opportunity analysis canvas is segmented into three categories: Thinking entrepreneurially: Entrepreneurial mindset Entrepreneurial motivation Entrepreneurial behaviors Seeing entrepreneurially: Macroeconomic changes Industry condition Industry Status Competition Acting entrepreneurially: Value Curve Opportunity identification This blog post is based on my learnings from the course on ‘entrepreneurship’ offered by Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, University of Maryland through Coursera (2014).

Cognition involves individual decision making involving the selection of specific course of action that is supposed to bring a certain result. Decision making implies choice. Environment of entrepreneurs is uniquely challenging and strategic decision includes complexity, uncertainty, rationality and control. Strategic decisions typically share the same process: 1. Recognizing a problem situation: know problem very well, understand it 2. Generating alternatives, different solutions to problem situation 3. Evaluating the various alternatives 4. Selecting the alternative that best satisfies our evaluating criteria Decisions of entrepreneurs differ from company managers as entrepreneurs: 1. Operate with limited information 2. Must be action oriented and decisive 3. Accept risk (don’t wait too long to take action, you don’t have infinite time for analysis) 4. Involve major consequences: be ready to face the consequences – be it bad or good This blog post is based on my learnings from the co...

What is entrepreneurship? 1. Undertaking the creation of an enterprise or business that has the chance of profit or success. 2. Creation of organization: it may be for profit or not for profit. What motivates one to be an entrepreneur? Money, freedom, independence, joy of creating products or services, relationships & jobs and to help society. What discourages one to not choose entrepreneurship? Risk involved (money and time), fear of failure (80 to 90% startups fail), peer pressure or family pressure and opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is low at young age and fairly high as one gets older. Type of entrepreneurs: 1. Life style vs fast growth: single restraunteur vs online food retailer 2. Local goal vs global goal: one homeless shelter vs global reduction program on ways to reduce homelessness 3. Low tech vs high tech: chocolate shop vs chocolate fountain manufacturer 4. Serial vs multiple: startups in series vs startups in parallel 5. Startup: inherit or purchase 6. Franchisees...