Chapter 2

Attributes of Entrepreneurs

"Aside from assuming risks and initiating innovation, taking control such as assuming ownership
of the business is a primary concern of the entrepreneur."

-Dr. N. A. Orcullo, Jr.

2.1 Who is an entrepreneur?

An instantaneous or spontaneous response when one is asked abcut who is an entrepreneur, is

that, the term refer to an individual who owns and manages his own business. Truly, an entrepreneur is
a person who owns and manages his own business, however, simply owning and managing one's
business is not all but just one of the tenets of entrepreneurship as previously discussed. Contemporary
researchers and scholars on entrepreneurship believed that being an entrepreneur is much more than
owning and managing a small business. They come in various forms and in various settings including
situations within an existing business organization, hence the variants on entrepreneurship as discussed
in the ensuing topics

Karl Vesper has classified the entrepreneurs in various forms as follows:

a) Solo self-employed individual - This group of entrepreneurs include such group as

tradespeople, sales agents, repairmen, and brokers as well as highly paid professionals,
accountants, physicians who operate alone or with only a few employees and perform work
personally. This group also includes practitioners in the fields of expertise/experience who
provide management or technical advisory services on a fixed-term or long-term basis.

b) Deal-to-dealers - This group includes highly knowledgeable businessmen engaged in various

forms of trades frequently in directly or indirectly related lines of work. Their engagement in
other forms of business directly or indirectly related to their existing or main line of business
comes in specific transaction and may just be one-shot deal.

c) Team builders - They refer to those who go on to build larger companies using hiring and
delegation can be regarded as another category. An example of this include a skilled machinist
who, after his apprenticeship, opens his own small shop and then gradually expands his work
force as sales rise.

d) Independent innovators - They include such persons who hit upon ideas for better products or
services and then create companies to develop, produce and sell them.

e) Pattern multiplier-These are entrepreneurs who spot an effective business pattern, quite
possibly originated by someone else, and multiply it to realize profits. An example of this is the
McDonald's" drive thru restaurant and fast food chain which later went into franchise expansion.
 f) Economy-of-scale exploiters The fact that unit costs tend to shrink as volume expands has
been exploited particularly by entrepreneurs in the discount merchandising business. By locating
the business in lower rent and tax areas, and by reducing services, they are able to reduce prices,
which has given them sales volume enabling them to reduce prices further and make it difficult
for competitors to enter or compete.

g) Capital aggregators They include smart entrepreneurs who use their experience and expertise
in pooling or syndicating a group of financiers to put together a business endeavor. By pulling
together a substantial financial stakes, either from one well-endowed source or several sources
combined, it is possible to initiate such venttures as banks, savings and loan associations,
insurance companies and mutual funds which cannot be started without large front-end capital.

h) Acquirers Among others, there are two ways to enter independent business-start a new one
or acquire a going concern. Those who acquire have a variety of styles. Some are regarded as
turnaround artist because they have taken over troubled firms and straightened them out. Buy-
sell artist seck their profit through selling off their acquisitions, sometimes after dressing them up
to increase their value.

i) Independent inventors They include pure inventors who really developed their own product or
invention and take care of marketing them.

j) Buy-sell artist They include wise guys referred to as corporate raiders and brokers who turn
around, sell and liquidate.

k) Apparent value manipulators-They refer to those who acquire assets at a discount,

representing them for a new use or market, and who restructure balance sheet to improve ratio..

2.2 Advantages of becoming entrepreneur

Individuals who had been hooked into idea of employmentship may have failed to notice the
advantages of being an entrepreneur, underestimated their potentials or that they have been exploited
by their employers knowingly or unknowingly. Being an entrepreneur has the following inherent
advantages:

a) Opportunity to gain control over one's own destiny Managing the business you own provides
independence and opportunity to achieve one's personal goals. The business, as an extension of
the owner, is often a means by which one can accomplish what is most important.

b) Opportunity to reach one's full potential-Many individuals get bored after years of reporting
daily on an 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. routine and complained about being exploited and still not
reaching his or her full potentials. In managing a business you own, all of one's skills are likely to
be challenged as never before and the limits of creativity as well as physical endurance are put
on the block. Managing one's own business strengthens character and challenges one's abilities.
 c) Opportunity to benefit financially The entrepreneurial landscape has tens of thousand of
success stories in money terms (as failures as well). In many cases, rags-to-riches examples
reflect the founder's creativity, ingenuity, hard work, and dedication to business. In most cases,
the financial rewards are a result of a lifetime of smart business practices and risk taking.

d) Opportunity to contribute to society and be recognized for one's efforts As with financial
rewards, recognition for honest dealing as well as service to customers and community is a major
encouragement and inspiration among entrepreneurs. Being part of the business system and
knowing that one's work has a direct bearing on long-term success of the economy is yet another
reward for the entrepreneur.

2.3 Drawbacks of being an entrepreneur

While there are advantages of becoming an entrepreneur, there are drawbacks that hound
entrepreneurs and also scares up many. Some of the drawbacks or disadvantages of entrepreneurs are:

a) Uncertainty of income Putting up and running a business provides no guarantee that any
entrepreneur will earn enough money to survive. Some small businesses rarely earn enough at
carly stages to provide the entrepreneur with an adequate income - or even loss all the hard-
earned money.

b) Risk of losing the entire invested capital Putting a new business exposes the entrepreneur to
all forms of risk including losing all the amounts you have worked for in life. This sad reality
which many entrepreneurs have experienced may have scared prospective entrepreneurs.

c) Long hours and hard work-Establishing and managing a self- owned business entails
tremendous investments in energy and time to get the business off the ground. In start up phase
in particular, the entrepreneur frequently does everything alone from raising the funds,
producing the goods, and marketing the finished product.

d) Lower quality of life until the business gets established - The long hours and hard work needed
to launch a company can take the toll on one's family and social life. Business owners find that
their role as spouse or parent takes a back seat to their role as entrepreneurs.

e) Complete responsibility It's to be the big boss, but many entrepreneurs find that they must
make decisions in issues about which they are not really knowledgeable. Where there is no one
to ask, the pressure can build up quickly. Their decision can lead to success or failure of the
business and have devastating effect. Entrepreneurs quickly realize that they are the business.

2.4 Variations in entrepreneurship

 Entrepreneurship is not really all about having a business owned and managed by an individual or
a group nor it refers to a specific sector of the economy. Entrepreneurial traits do exist in a corporate
organization or even in the government bureaucracy. This view is shared by management guru Peter
Drucker who described entrepreneurship in a broader perspective giving no distinction as to whether
the entrepreneur is a corporate organization or a creator/founder of the business by himself. Built into
the corporate structure, Peter Drucker theorised that the existence of an entrepreneurial culture in
effect gives rise to a discipline known as entrepreneurial management.

Peter Drucker described that the underlying theme of entrepreneurial management evolved
around entrepreneurship that is based upon the same principles, whether the entrepreneur is an
existing large institution or an individual starting his or her new venture singlehanded. It makes little or
no difference whether the entrepreneur is a business or a non-business public service organization, not
even whether the enterprise is a governmental or non- governmental organization. According to Peter
Drucker, the rules are pretty much the same, the things that work and those that don't are pretty much
the same, and so are the kinds of innovation and where to look for them. Peter Drucker points out that
in every case, there is a discipline we called entrepreneurial management.

The view on entrepreneurship as a culture that exists practically everywhere led to such variations
like intrapreneurship, ultrapreneurship, and multipreneurship. These variations appeared to have
intruded the government bureaucracy with the resurgence of what could be referred to as
"entrepreneurial governance".

2.4.1 The intrapreneur

Being in the shadow of an entrepreneurship culture earlier described, the term intrapreneurship has
become popular in the business community in the recent times. However, it appears evident that few
corporate executives thoroughly understand the concept. Gifford Pinchot expounded on the idea of
intrapreneurship in his book entitled Intrapreneuring (Harper & Row). Gifford Pinchot defined an
intrapreneur as" any of the dreamers who do ....". However, Gifford Pinchot goes on to qualify
intrapreneur as "those who take hands-on responsibility for creating innovation within any kind of an
organization". In other words, the intrapreneur is an entrepreneur within an existing organization. Being
existing or being a part of the corporate structure, an intrapreneur is also referred to as corporate
entrepreneur. Pinchot further elaborated that the intrapreneur may be a creator or the inventor but is
always the dreamer who figures out how to turn an idea into a profitable reality. In this definition, there
are definite similarities to entrepreneurship except that intrapreneurship takes places within an
organization. The major thrust of intrapreneuring, then, is to create or develop the entrepreneurial spirit
within the corporate boundaries, thereby allowing an atmosphere of innovation to prosper.

Camposano has described the intrapreneur as a tinkerer. He takes things apart and tries to put them
back together in such a way as make them work better than they did before. Camposano further points
out that the most important of all, the intrapreneur is a salesman. He cited the fact that innovation in
the workplace is no good if it stays on paper or on a floppy disk or in a blue print. Camposano
emphasizes that the intrapreneur determines the need, confirms its existence with higher authorities in
the company and demonstrates effectively - by creating a prototype, by giving a new system in a trial
run, by doing a market research on what qualities customers want and need from the type of products
the company manufactures that his innovation can meet or satisfy that need. True enough, the author
believes that the intrapreneur MUST BE a salesman, and initially, his primary job is to sell his innovation
proposal to his superiors and peers then make it happen or make sense in his workplace.

Other than being a salesman within his workplace, the author believes and supports Camposano's view
that an intrapreneur must be a team man. Being an innovator within an existing organization, the
intrapreneur has to be a team player. Anchored on solid grounds and based on hard facts, he attempts
to introduce innovation without necessarily rocking the boat. By nature, humans are resistant to change,
however, given convincing evidence towards a brighter future, there is no reason to resist anybody's
innovative efforts. As a team player, the intrapreneur must be willing to network with salespersons,
factory workers, department heads, engineers, research staff as well as finance people. His networking
or touching base efforts would enable him to solicit inputs and opinions as well as gain valuable insights
as to how he would make innovations to happen. Of utmost importance in networking and touching
base with the people and systems already in place, the intrapreneur would not fall through the traps or
unconsciously ran over sensitive areas and turf's that would make his efforts in vain. In this manner, the
intrapreneur would have substantial leverage and selling point that he would not much counter-
pressure should his innovations gets implemented.

For purposes of comparisons, Gifford Pinchot has differentiated intrapreneur from a traditional manager
and the entrepreneur as shown on Table 2.1. Pinchot has made a categorical comparison from the level
of primary motives, time orientation, tendency to action, skills, attitude towards courage and destiny,
focus of attention, attitude toward risk, use of market research as well as all the other aspects that
makes an intrapreneur different from a traditional manager. To encourage an environment for
intrapreneurism in the organization, a sort of intrapreneurship development program may have to be
instituted. Thus even without the existence of entrepreneurial spirit in the organization, a culture of
intrapreneurism can be developed. To let this possibly happen, R. M. Kanter recommends an objective
and programs designed for intrapreneurial strategies as shown on Table 2.2.
The onset of intrapreneurship has created a culture of entrepreneurship in corporate organizations that
is now referred to as entrepreneurial management. Zimmerer and Scarborough described
entrepreneurial management as referring to the overall force within a new venture that assures that
there is a business" wherein people know what they are doing, where they are going, and what results
are expected of the enterprise. It is the "glue" that holds the entire enterprise together. It is the force
that makes sure that the new venture develops into a managed business. Zimmerer and Scarborough
further postulated that entrepreneurial managers must generally possess four competencies if the new
entrepreneurial venture is to succeed:

a) Focus on the market, not on the technology.

b) Financial foresight to avoid understanding of the venture.

c) Building a top management team, not a "one person" show.

 d) Determining a specific role for the founding entrepreneur, and sticking to what that
person does best.

2.4.2 The ultrapreneur

Just like the intrapreneur, the ultrapreneur also epitomises the character of an entrepreneur. In a
way, an intrapreneuristic or entrepreneurial fellow can be also referred to as an ultrapreneur. While
entrepreneurial spirit is generic to an intrapreneur and ultrapreneur, the latter is characterized by an
attitude that somehow goes beyond internal, corporate or organizational innovations. An ultrapreneur is
similarly situated with an intrapreneur in that they are part of an existing organization large or small.
The ultrapreneur is an enterprising or entrepreneurial fellow but his innovation commences within the
organization itself and whose impacts may extend beyond the organization to which he or she is directly
a part. For instance, an intrapreneur may go for an innovation in corporate systems and procedures
purely to improve the performance of the organization itself. In another instance, finding new market or
profit opportunities, an intrapreneur may recommend for creating another unit, division or group (i. e.,
within the same organization) to handle new product lines or services. The ultrapreneur goes beyond
that. Instead of corporate restructuring or realignment, he may opt to go for creating another unit or
organization as a distinct and separate legal personality. This means that realizing the new opportunities
and knowing the substantial retums his actions may bring, a subsidiary organization may have to be
formed to handle the new product or services that directly supports its current business. The
ultrapreneur may also go for strategic partnership, alliance and consortia arrangement by way of
investing in other organizations whose products and services may or may not be related to its existing
line of business. Hence in this particular case, there would appear an expansion of operations in the
form of joint ventures and partnerships with other organizations instead of putting up a new business
organization like a subsidiary organization which by its nature would be more expensive or counter
productive.

2.4.3 Multipreneuring/Multipreneurship

The evolution of entrepreneurship and constantly changing world of doing business as well as the high
and low points in career life had made entrepreneurship a challenging career as well. From a business
initiator and innovator to intrapreneurship as well as ultrapreneurship, the term has now transcended
into "multipreneuring as coined by Tom Gorman. As Tom Gorman puts it, multipreneuring is the hottest
career strategy for success in 1990s and beyond. It could be so because multipreneuring uses a variety
of skills and series of careers to succeed.
As described by Tom Gorman, multipreneuring is derived from two words namely: "multi", a Latin word
which means many or more than one", and entrepreneur from the French word entreprendre meaning
"to undertake". Thus, multipreneuring literally means "more than one undertaking". Tom Gorman
postulated that multipreneuring entails actually having a multiple skills so that one can develop multiple
sources of income and multiple careers, either simultaneously or serially. Multipreneuring is a career
strategy that provides the techniques for managing a more flexible chameleon career, ensuring
prosperity and fulfilment independent of the ebbs and flows of the economy. Multipreneuring explores
why multiple careers are essential in today's and tomorrow's marketplace and show how creating a
multipreneurial career can change one's life.

The term multipreneuring is essentially a hybrid of entrepreneuring with the characteristics and traits of
an entrepreneur as earlier described. As postulated by Tom Gorman, however, multipreneuring is more
than just being entrepreneurial. Unlike intrapreneurship and ultrapreneurship, multipreneuring appears
to be more of a personal career path that would tend to benefit more the multipreneur than the
organization where the multipreneur may have an affiliation within whatever capacity.

2.4.4 Social entrepreneurship

In the 1970s, the so-called technocracy was being introduced in the main stream of the Philippine
government bureaucracy. Among others, the so- called technocratic approach was characterized by a
number of technology-based livelihood projects in many parts of the country from a micro type projects
at the barangay (village) level up to a medium-size business projects in areas where they are deemed
practicable. The Technology Resource Center (now theTechnology and Livelihood Resource Center) and
the then Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS) has initiated a number of integrated developments
projects (i. e., BLISS projects) which come in three levels.

The efforts of TLRC and MHS used an innovative approach in the sense that the strategy is anchored on
a certain technology as a core activity along with skills training on the technology itself and skills
required to effectively manage project. At the higher levels, these efforts has led to the establishment of
a number of subsidiary corporations for the MHS and its other satellite organizations. Though it did not
prosper as it had been envisioned, this scenario could be cited as the dawning of social
entrepreneurship in the Philippines. In a social entrepreneurship, the idea is not only promoting the
purely business (profit motive) side of the venture but it also focused on providing a venue for
employment generation at the resource location mostly in the countryside. The effort was essentially a
departure from the usual doleout mentality of the government in addressing development concerns. It
was an articulation of a Chinese proverb that instead of giving them fish, teach them instead how to fish.

The effort at enhancing entrepreneurism in the countryside initiated during the Marcos regime was
interrupted by the people power revolution in 1986. The Aquino government abolished the Ministry of
Human Settlements (MHS) as it was perceived as a potent source of corruption activities of some public
officials. Nevertheless, the said undertakings had left behind a visible marked in innovative approaches
to development as the idea of social entrepreneurism has caught the attention of the academe and the
non-government organizations(NGOS) as well. Promoters of social entrepreneurship are now with the
Asian Institute of Management (AIM) which pursued the idea of offering graduate courses in
development management and masteral degree course in entrepreneurship.

2.5 Entrepreneurial governance

According to Professor Jose Faustino of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), the concept of a
Mayor applying marketing concepts to promote the local government to both foreign and local
investors, and meet the needs of constituents, falls under the purview of building and entrepreneurial
government. Professor Faustino opined that that this term is essentially based on the term referred to
by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler in Reinventing the Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is
Transforming the Public Sector. This view means a government focuses on results, reduces bureaucracy,
and promotes competition both inside and outside government. The government clients both target
local and foreign investors and the constituents are redefined as customers (of the government
bureaucracy) whose needs and wants are need to be met and satisfied.

In a conference on "Building Competitive Cities for the 21st Century", Professor Jose Faustino cited that
it is not enough that mayors should make rousing speeches or say weekly novenas. Professor Faustino
said that mayors should develop a good marketing strategy and implement it like a professional, The
typical investor is smart, and can quickly distinguish the professional from the amateur. Professor
Faustino cited that city marketing is about meeting and satisfying the needs and giving solutions to the
problems of participating group of customers, known as the target customers. He further elaborated
that city marketing is associated with a more "corporitized "approach to local governance, where
constituents are viewed as customers who need constant care and attention. Applying the concept of
city marketing approach to the Philippines means local government units should capitalize on the
greater economic opportunities and autonomy following the passage of the Local Government Code
(R.A. 7160) Professor Faustino stressed that Mayors should "segment their market". The mayor can start
by completing a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the city. Based on
this analysis, the Mayor can then decide on the Potential Target Market (PTM) by comparing the needs
of the target investors, wealth creators and developers.

Entrepreneurship is not solely a domain of the corporate or business world and its principles and tenets
has now invaded the government bureaucracy. The author has written at length on the idea of having an
entrepreneurial management perspective in a paper entitled "Intrapreneurial Governance: A Must for
the Philippines Towards Global Competitiveness". For years, governments in developing countries like
the Philippines has adopted a so-called bureaucratic system of governance which is associated with a
system of administratorship that is inefficient, corrupt and/or inept. Towards the seventies and the
1980s, the so-called technocratic approach was the name of the game. In the late 1990s, the idea of
"entrepreneurial governance" emerged as an approach for improving the bureaucracy. While there
were no concrete plans and programs to embrace the idea of entrepreneurial governance, at least top
executives and legislators talked about it. A manifestation of an entrepreneurial governance is the
adoption by the government bureaucracy of management systems and principles traditionally practised
in the corporate world. This development has led to the establishment of a number of government-
owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) which are capitalized by the government and in many ways
covered by the rules of the civil service system are run or managed in fashion similar to the corporate
world. The GOCCs are managed by professionals with a view of delivering services to the public but
whose performance are expected to be at par with the privately-owned organizations. The other
indicator that is deemed within the purview of an entrepreneurial system of governance is the
involvement of private sector in the delivery of public services particularly in the infrastructure sector.
This development is typified by the enhanced policy on privatization where a number of private
corporations are allowed to operate/manage organizations like the water and power sector. The idea of
allowing the private sector to play a major role in managing/operating public-oriented services is based
on the notion or the bias that the private sector can do it better and realizing the fact that the
government machinery lacks the needed funding and expertise to do so.

Among others, the impact of engaging the services of the private sector is not only a display of the need
to have a joint effort or partnership among concerned parties towards nation building but this is also a
way of minimising government budgetary expenses (and subsidies/deficits as well). This reality also
displays the fact that indeed in many ways, there are areas of concern where it is difficult for the
government bureaucracy to do some of the functions or businesses they used to undertake and that
there are merits in adopting some corporate philosophies and principles in the bureaucracy.

2.6 Entrepreneur versus inventors and promoters

Jeffry Timmons has distinguished an entrepreneur from an inventor, promoter, and

manager/administrators as shown on Figure 2.1. Timmons postulation theorizes that unlike a typical
inventor whose creativity and innovativeness may be high, general management skills, business know
how, and networks are relatively low. In the same schematic diagram, the entrepreneur is position on
the upper right quadrant indicating that an ideal entrepreneur needs to have high levels of creativity
and innovativeness coupled with high sense of general management skills, know-how, and substantial
network.

2.7 Entrepreneurial culture versus administrative culture

The entrepreneurial culture varies in many ways compared to a traditional administrative culture. H.
Stevenson and D. Gumpter has made a categorical comparison of an entrepreneurial culture and
administrative culture on the basis of focus. The comparison is shown on Table 2.3. The comparison is
made in terms of their strategic orientation, commitment to seize opportunities, commitment of
resources, control of resources, and management structure.
Stevenson's and Gumpter's comparison of an entrepreneurial and administrative culture was later
further improved or revised by Stevenson himself and William Sahlman as shown on Table 2.4.
Stevenson and Sahlman has compared entrepreneurial and administrative domains based on key
business decisions such as the aspect of strategic orientation commitment to opportunity, commitment
to resources, control of resources, and management structure.
2.8 The entrepreneurial traits and behaviour

The comparison made by Gifford Pinchot (refer to Table 2.1) between a traditional manager,
intrapreneur as well as entrepreneur is clear indication as to what are the basic traits and characteristics
of an entrepreneurial person. Likewise, the comparison between an administrative culture and
entrepreneurial culture made by Stevenson and Gumpter (refer to Table 2.3 and Table 2.4) further
reinforces as to traits and behaviour of an enterprising individual or manager.

In what appears to be parallel with Peter Drucker's concept of entrepreneurship, Stevenson described it
as an economic function that is reflected by a range of behaviour. Stevenson identified six dimensions
that he felt distinguish entrepreneurial behaviour from administrative behaviour as follows:

a) strategic orientation

b) commitment to opportunity

c) the resource commitment process

d) the concept of control over resources

e) the concept of management

f) compensation policy

Oliver Clayton (1981) conducted an extensive survey and he came up with the following advice that an
entrepreneur should be:

"Be aggressive, be competitive, be goal-oriented, be confident, make decisions, be an achiever very

early in life, be a loner in your final decisions, put family and friends second to business, be an
opportunist, do not be security-oriented, be persistent, have determination, be an optimist(to an
extreme), have desire to achieve, be hyperactive mentally, be a dreamer, be a calculated risk-taker,
want power, learn from previous mistakes, be a perfectionist, and be intuitive."
2.9 The Ten Entrepreneurial traits

On the part of William Bygrave, an american scholar who has done a lot of work on enterpreneurship,
the 10 most important entrepreneurial traits are shown on Table 2.5.

Table 2.5

TEN IMPORTANT ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAITS

Self-awareness. Know who you are, what you're good at, and what you like to do. Start a business that is
based on your expertise in a specific field and focus your involvement in an area that you thoroughly
enjoy.

Self-motivation. Also known as drive, self-motivation is one of the most important personality traits of
successful entrepreneurs. This is the characteristic that gets you going and keeps you moving when you
are in business for yourself. It's what helps you to keep turning out those craft items, upgrading your
technical skills, or developing new and improved promotional techniques when business is slow. It's
what gives you the tenacity and confidence to call on a potential client even though you've heard "No"
three times.

Courage. Courage or the willingness to take risks is a valuable trait when striving for success. A
successful person might say something like: "I don't know how I did it; I just made a phone call and
asked for the money I needed." It was more than luck that made it possible for this person to raise the
needed capital to get a business off the ground; it was the willingness to take a chance and hope for a
positive response to the request.

Confidence. The age-old philosophy of positive thinking is a major step in the direction of success. By
behaving as if you already are a success at what you do, it follows that you will be, and your customers
will believe it, too. A confident attitude is one of the most appealing traits you can exhibit to prospective
clients, for it lets them know that they will be getting the best their money can buy.

Patience. When you own your business, there will be times when you feel like the roof is craving in,
especially when your suppliers seem to be taking their own sweet time in fulfilling an important order or
when a customer's demands seem to be unrealistic. Although you may be able to hurry the supplier
along, you must remember that your customers are always right, since they are the ones who will make
or break your business.

Decisiveness. Business has been described as a process of making one fast decision after another. Often,
a decision has to be made immediately, on the spur of the moment. In those instances, you should go
with your intuition and trust that you are doing the right thing.

Experience. A primary reason some businesses fall within a few years of start-up is lack of business
experience. Whether or not your experience is directly related to business you are planning to start, it is
a key component for growth.

Knowledge. Experience in your field is invaluable, but it is not enough. You have a better chance of
succeeding by knowing as much as possible about such factors as business basics, the product or service
that you want to sell, the industry you are entering, your competition, and the local, regional, state,
and/or national markets. Do your homework.

Perseverance. One of the adages you will hear fime and time again when talking to entrepreneurs is that
perseverance is 90 percent of the battle to succeed. If you are like the majority of new small business
owners, the entire staff and support system for your venture is probably you. Making a dream comes
true can be a lonely task, especially when you are just getting started, and ensuring that it works often
means little rest or relaxation. You must be willing to persevere during the rough times, to hang in there
during the slow periods, and to maintain your belief in your product or service-even when it seems like
no one else in the world knows you exist. It has been written that through perseverance the snail
reached the ark. So it is with success!

Drive. You must believe in your goal and be determined to succeed. The successful businessperson does
not view obstacles or stumbling blocks as problems, but rather as challenges. To make your business a
success, you need to be totally committed and willing to work long hours, especially in the beginning. If
you do not have the time or commitment to dedicate your dream, then you are better off working for
someone else.

2.10 The Author's view on the entrepreneur

From the writings of prominent scholars and writers, the Author's research endeavors and observations
on the subject as well as his own personal experiences, the concept of an entrepreneur evolves around
the idea of a culture, attitude and attributes of taking risks, searching for opportunity, innovating and
initiating a business venture as amplified in earlier pages of the book. The entrepreneur refers to a
person who believes and practices the tenets of entrepreneurship and does actions by himself acting
both as a planner and a doer.

More than simply believing and practicing the attributes of entrepreneurs, a blue blooded entrepreneur
desires ownership if only to control his directions and achieve his goals. Hence, a true entrepreneur is
one that is a risk taker, opportunity seeker, innovation, initiator, change agent and in business context,
he owns or controls the business. As a risk taker, he dares anyone to prove his venture and he looks at
problems as opportunities. As an innovator, he is market-oriented and customer-driven rather than self-
centered or product driven. If only to take control the business and achieve monetary success, he
assumes control or ownership of the firm. Necessarily, he has to be familiar with various phases of
running the business.

The entrepreneur has that inherent tendency and drive to search for opportunities and willing to
assume some risks to initiate new ventures. An entrepreneur is a change agent in its broadest sense and
will exert effort to gain control or ownership of the organization he belongs. A contemporary
entrepreneur focuses on the market aspects rather than the finance or production aspects. As an
innovative businessman, the entrepreneur is biased towards creating his own market or finding his
market niche rather than introducing into the market an old product or brand. To be able to penetrate
his market, he is also concerned with both production and finance aspects as knowledge or expertise in
production and finance is considered as important in positioning his product or services in the market.
Being research-oriented or research focus is an important trait of an entrepreneur as this is where his "
seeing through and opportunity seeking "character is used to the fullest. A research orientation is what
the entrepreneur must have to discover new market and develop new product or services. On the other
hand, a typical entrepreneur must have some knowledge about human resource management as this is
his venue for recruiting and training support personnel that can serve as his team members in pursuit of
success in an entrepreneurial endeavor. As a team leader, an entrepreneur is typically concerned with
empowering his co-worker as in the end, entrepreneurship is empowering oneself as results of his own
efforts.
2.11 Entrepreneurship diagnostics

There are a number of diagnostics or quantitative measures which in many ways would help everyone
assess or evaluate his or her potentials as an entrepreneur. These various diagnostics range from
something simple to complex but most of them converge at a certain point where the resultant
quantitative parameters point towards a group of qualitative attributes of a person that runs parallel
with the basic criteria as to what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

Prentice Hall publications came up with a simplistic diagnostic model which in some way will determine
a person's capacity and worth of being an entrepreneur. There are several other models or diagnostic
schemes to determine a person's entrepreneurial potentials which are appropriate for a particular
culture or setting. While the diagnostic itself is not a perfect measure as to a person's entrepreneurship
potentials, it does contain relevant information as to what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Shown on
Table 2.6 is the diagnostic test and scoring scheme as shown at the end of the tabulation. Even if after a
self- diagnosis, the result stems a low entrepreneurial potential, one need not be discouraged. After all,
many successful entrepreneurial succeeded as entrepreneurship by itself. It is a process and approach
which every individual can nurtured.

2.12 When to take the plunge?

Age is not a constraint for any entrepreneurial endeavor or business venture. However, how nicer it
would be when one can see, nurture and fully enjoy the fruits of one's efforts and hard work. Timing in
venturing into business is very important. Author Gardiner Greene has the following to say about when
to take the plunge:

"Most of our creative ability is concentrated in the years before forty. We have more energy then, better
health, usually and have had fewer disappointment and hard knocks.

Take advantage of your youth. Don't work for GE or GM until your best years are past. Start now to work
for yourself. This is not to say one cannot start out for himself later in life. Thousands have. If you are
over 45.... or 50.... or even 60, no matter. But if you are younger person, even a student, ask yourself
one question:

Why should I wait to start for my self? "

2.13 Summary and conclusions

It is not enough for creative and self-driven individuals as well as innovative corporate organizations to
be simply aware of what entrepreneurship is really all about. It is much more exciting and challenging to
get involved or apply the principles of entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, ultrapreneurship or any of its
principles, theories and attributes. Getting involved into entrepreneurship or being an entrepreneur
does not necessarily mean putting up a big business. For corporate organizations, it does not necessarily
mean changing something within the organization for the sake of change or putting up as many
subsidiaries of building up an empire. Rather, it could mean having new and innovative changes to meet
the challenges of the time, carrying another product or brand because it is worth it, or establishing
another company or subsidiary or engaging in joint ventures/partnerships with other organizations for
strategic reasons.

There are a lot of advantages in becoming an entrepreneur foremost to this is the opportunity to gain
control over one's own destiny to reaching one's full potentials, and of course, the promise of economic
empowerment as well as social standing. The flipside of being an entrepreneur are the various
drawbacks which if no proper mind-setting is in place and no precautionary measures are adapted, could
lead to a frustrating scenario.

On the part of corporate organizations, the ever changing market conditions demand or necessitate
anticipatory measures if only to survive. This requires innovative and creative ways to meet the needs of
the market and be as competitive as ever. This situation perfectly fits well into the concepts or principles
and attributes of entrepreneurship via the concept of intrapreneurship and ultrapreneurship. If only to
be an on-going and competitive organization, the notions of intrapreneurship and ultrapreneurship are
options to take which remained fully unexplored by many small and medium organizations but which
has been one of the secrets behind the expansion and successes of many large mutlinational
organizations.

For governmental organizations or even non-government organizations (NGOs), getting into

entrepreneurial endeavours is not a taboo but rather, an excellent opportunity and a great challenge as
well as a very appropriate strategy for organizational refocusing and reforms. In the era of globalization,
adopting the principles of entrepreneurship or getting into entrepreneurial endeavors couldnbe an
option that can lead to productivity, quality products and services, and competitiveness or level of
standing that can withstand the challenges of the time.

Key words and terms

Entrepreneur

Intrapreneur

Multipreneur

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial governance

Economy-of-scale-exploiters

Acquirers
Ultrapreneur

Social

Deal-to-dealers

Innovators

Review and discussions

1. Describe who is an entrepreneur?

2. Discuss briefly the advantages of becoming an entrepreneur.

3. Discuss the drawbacks of entrepreneurship.

4. Distinguish an entrepreneur from intrapreneurs.

5. Differentiate ultrapreneurship from multipreneurship.

6. Distinguish a traditional manager from an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur.

7. Characterize entrepreneurial governance.

8. Discuss the views on social entrepreneurship.

9. Distinguish an entrepreneur from an inventor.

10. Cite and discuss briefly the various attributes of entrepreneurs.