WHO IS THE ENTREPRENEUR? - SESSION 1

www.solvayentrepreneurs.be

WHO IS THE ENTREPRENEUR? SESSION 1 (out of 10)

THE ENTREPRENEUR

This session is part of a 10-weeks course given to master students of the SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT by professor Olivier WITMEUR.

Entrepreneurship Course – Session 1 - 2014 © Olivier WITMEUR

•  Introduce the course

•  Who is who

•  What is entrepreneurship and what are the key constructs

•  Who is the entrepreneur

QUESTIONS AGENDA RESOURCES •  Introduction

•  Course design

•  About entrepreneurs

•  « Definitions »

•  The Entrepreneurial Process (in W. Bygrave & A. Zacharakis, Entrepreneurship, 2011)

Desired Outcomes of the Session

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INTRODUCTION

#1

3


What have these companies in common?

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Delhaize , Colruyt, Leclerc, Sears & Roebuck

Solvay, Pfizer, Yves Rocher

Citroen, Renault, Ferrari

McKinsey, Deloitte & Touche, JP Morgan

McDonald, Neuhaus

Dell, Hewlett-Packard

Siemens, Dyson


Examples of very successful entrepreneurs

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Richard Branson, Virgin (1989)

Larry Page & Sergey Brin,

Google (1998)

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (2004)

Steve Job, Apple (1976)

Howard Schultz, Starbucks (1971)

Anita Roddick, The Body Shop (1976)

Jeff Bezos, Amazon (1994)

Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA (1943) Hasso Plattner,

SAP (1972)

Amancio Ortega, ZARA (1974)


•  No gender

•  No education

•  No background / experience

•  No age

•  No family

•  …

•  No superman/woman

•  Can entrepreneurship be taught?

•  Science vs. Art?

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… but everybody can be an entrepreneur.


Entrepreneurship is … (2 minutes)


Questions •  How many entrepreneurs do you identify in this film?

•  What are the questions and topics that are typically ‘entrepreneurial’?

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LA LAITERIE DU BERGER - DANONE LATTITUDES

h"p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7HwwR-‐VcuA (6:35)


The Entrepreneurial Framework

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ENTREPRENEUR

OPPORTUNITY

RESOURCES

Conviction

Creativity

Communication

CONTEXT

Adaptation

Fits & Gaps

* Adapted from J. Timmons & A. Bidé


Entrepreneurship as a Process

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•  Individual variables: skills, profiles, motivations…

•  Group-level variables: reactions from customers, investors, potential employees…

•  Societal-level variables: governmental policies, economic conditions…

Idea / Opportunity recognition

Decision to proceed

Analysing the project

Assembling resources: team, € …

LAUNCH / START

Build / Grow

Harvest


COURSE DESIGN

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#2


Understand why entrepreneurship matters

Introduce key-concepts and best practices in various entrepreneurial settings

Challenge your entrepreneurial mindset

At the end of course participants must be able to:

–  Master new tools and techniques that are part of the ‘entrepreneurial toolbox’

–  Imagine, assess and design an entrepreneurial projects

–  Identify the main issues associated with such projects and be able to deal with them

End-up with more open questions than definitive answers

Work hard

Have fun!

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Desired outcomes of the course


•  Who is the entrepreneur?

•  To what extent are entrepreneurs different from managers?

•  What makes a good idea?

•  How to start when you don’t have the resources needed?

•  What does it take to make decision when you don’t know what comes next?

•  What are the typical strategies for starting-up and growing a new venture?

•  How entrepreneurship can contribute to a better world?

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Central questions

Entrepreneurship Course – Session 1 - 2014 © Olivier WITMEUR 14

Fail Early, Fast and Cheap to Succeed Sooner.

(The course and its main assignment are mainly about mindset, tools and methods)


ABOUT ENTREPRENEURS

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#3


The typical answers cover •  Feeling of freedom

•  Ability to innovate

•  Personal fulfillment linked to the management of a business

•  Rejection of the employee status

•  Rejection of big institutions

•  Money … in case of success

•  Social recognition

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Motivations of Entrepreneurs


About Entrepreneurs (a personal view)

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Network & Social Capital

Knowledge & Expertise Tolerance for Ambiguity

Commitment & Courage

Passion & Values


•  Initiative, adventure

•  Strong persuasive powers

•  Moderate rather than high risk-taking ability

•  Flexibility

•  Creativity

•  Problem-solving ability

•  Need for achievement

•  Self confidence

•  Imagination

•  Locus of control

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The entrepreneurial mindset and attributes

•  Leadership

•  Hard work

•  Self efficacy

•  Resilience

•  Optimism

•  Commitment


Traits approach: Classical variables

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Need for achievement (N-Ach) refers to an individual's desire for significant accomplishment, mastering of skills, control, or high standards.

Locus of control refers to how much individuals believe they can control events that affect them.

Need for achievement

Locus of control

Ambiguity tolerance is the ability to perceive ambiguity in information and behaviour in a neutral and open way

Tolerance for ambiguity

Self-efficacy is the extent or strength of one's belief in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach goals Self efficacy


No pain. No gain.


Ø  As a revolutionary à ‘Entrepreneurial leadership’

Ø  As a manager à ‘Entrepreneurial management’

Ø  As a salesman

Ø  As a team player à Entrepreneurial team

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Different views on the entrepreneur


•  Anticipate change and deal with uncertainty

•  Willing to take considered risk and trying to reduce it.

•  Start without having all resources available

•  Mobilize all resources available / Use of inter-personal network

–  Financial commitment!

•  Ready to get hands dirty

•  Blurred frontiers between business and private life

•  Not afraid to be alone and to be criticized even by family and friends

Leadership skills:

o  Decision taking / Use of personal power

o  Communication

o  Team motivation

o  Delegation

o  Negotiation

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The Entrepreneur as a Revolutionary


About Social Entrepreneurs

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Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation

and transformation in various fields including

education, health, environment and enterprise

development. They pursue poverty alleviation

goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business

methods and the courage to innovate and

overcome traditional practices. A social

en t rep reneu r, s im i l a r to a bus ines s

entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable

organizations, which are either set up as not-

for-profits or companies.

Social entrepreneurs are individuals with

innovative solutions to society’s most pressing

social problems. They are ambitious and

persistent, tackling major social issues and

offering new ideas for wide-scale change.

Rather than leaving societal needs to the

government or business sectors, social

entrepreneurs find what is not working and

solve the problem by changing the system,

spreading the solution, and persuading entire

societies to move in different directions.


The Entrepreneur as a Manager

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Work hard

Ø  Time commitment!

Specific skills gained from experience

Realism, pragmatism, flexibility

Accept failure

Share success

General management skills

Ø  Strategy

Ø  Sales & Marketing

Ø  Project management and planning

Ø  Time management

Ø  Finances


Sales is absolutely essential

•  To customers

•  To the first employee

•  To the business partners

•  To the financial partners

Customer-centricity is a key success factor

•  Start with customer’s needs

Ø  Their needs, their vision, their situation, their constraints, their processes, their goals, …

•  Match product/service and internal sales process to those needs

•  Create close relationship (intimacy!) with customers

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The Entrepreneur as a Salesman


No sales, No business.


Complementarities and balance

Ø  The dream team = CEO + CTO + CFO

Expected qualities of a team •  Relevant experience and track record

•  Commitment, determination

•  Clear job distribution and collaboration processes

•  Creativity

•  Adaptability

•  Team focus

•  Shared vision

•  Performance driven, fault-tolerant

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The Entrepreneur as a Team Player


Obsession of control

Suspicion, paranoia…

Oversized need for recognition

Not always calm especially when things go wrong

Genius or fool? They act the same!

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The Dark Side of Entrepreneurs

* Adapted from M. Kets de Vries (HBR, 1985)


To be continued…

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Who is the entrepreneur is the wrong question!

How do entrepreneurs think and act?


WHAT IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

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#4


Definition 1: The HBS working definition

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The pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control.

H. Stevenson, USA


We define the field of entrepreneurship as the scholarly examination of how, by

whom and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are

discovered, evaluated and exploited.

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Definition 2: The classical academic definition

S. Shane S. Venkataraman

* Academy of Management Review, 2000, vol. 25, n°1, 217-226


Definition 3: Degree of entrepreneurship?

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New to founders

Franchisee Shops

Take-over Buy Out

Innovation

Lawyers, Doctors,

….

Cha

nge

New to market

High tech & Social start-ups

Ch. Bruyat

* Adapted from C. Bruyat (1993) & A. Fayolle

A. Fayolle

Corporate Spin-offs


Definition 4: A classical definition

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A way of thinking and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach & leadership balanced for the purpose of value creation.

J. Timmons, USA

Thinking and acting = There is a “method”

Central role of the opportunity (but found or made?)

Take all aspects into consideration

Need to be managed There are best practices

Value for the stakeholders, i.e. founders, team, investors, customers, society…


NEVER STOP WONDERING

& ASKING!


A real passion for entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurs.

•  Student entrepreneurs: 2x

•  Full time entrepreneur: once, in a team of 5

•  Coach: 500+ projects over the last 20 years

•  (Advisory) Board member in multiple new ventures

•  Policy making: 2x

•  Director of Solvay Entrepreneurs

•  PhD in entrepreneurship in 2008

•  … never as an investor

My wife (as Colombo), no kids, one dog (Vicky).

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Olivier Witmeur (Belgian, 46)


Solvay entrepreneurs is the entrepreneurship center of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. We support entrepreneurs through the development of their venture, from an idea to a successful and sustainable business.

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Solvay Entrepreneurs


Let’s keep in touch!

38 2014%©%Olivier%Witmeur

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Date post:	13-Sep-2014
Category:	Business
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WHO IS THE ENTREPRENEUR? - SESSION 1

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