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| There is more to a successful business than a good idea; there must also be a good entrepreneur. Although the ideal entrepreneur cannot be profiled, there are certain characteristics of a potential entrepreneur and certain trends they may follow. This entrepreneur then goes through the entrepreneurial process, which involves finding, evaluating, and developing opportunities for creating a new venture. Each step is essential to the eventual success of the new firm and is closely related to the other steps. Before the opportunity identification stage can result in a meaningful search, the potential entrepreneur must have a general idea about the type of company desired.
There are both formal and informal mechanisms for identifying business opportunities. Although formal mechanisms are generally found within a more established company, most entrepreneurs use informal sources for their ideas, such as being sensitive to the complaints and chance comments of friends and associates. Once the opportunity is identified, the evaluation process begins. Basic to the screening process is understanding the factors that create the opportunity: technology, market changes, competition, or changes in government regulations. From this base, the market size and time dimension associated with the idea can be estimated. It is important that the idea fit the personal skills and goals of the entrepreneur, and that the entrepreneur have a strong desire to see the opportunity brought to fruition. In the process of evaluating an opportunity, the required resources should be clearly defined and obtained at the lowest possible cost.Managing a new venture differs in many ways from managing an existing operation, particularly along the five key dimensions of strategic orientation, commitment to opportunity, commitment of resources, control of resources, and management structure. The entrepreneurial venture presents the manager with a different set of circumstances from the one the corporate manager typically faces. A distinctly different set of skills often needs to be developed, either through the entrepreneurial experience or through education. This may include obtaining an MBA degree. Social and business pressures have caused an increase in new venture creation, both outside and inside existing corporate structures. Within existing corporate structures, this entrepreneurial spirit and effort is called intrapreneurship. To develop successful innovation, a corporation should establish a conducive organizational climate. Traditional managers tend to adhere more strictly to established hierarchical structures, to be less risk oriented, and to emphasize short-term results, all of which inhibit the creativity, flexibility, and risk required for new ventures. Organizations desiring an intrapreneurial climate need to encourage new ideas and experimental efforts, eliminate opportunity parameters, make resources available, promote a teamwork approach and voluntary intrapreneurship, and enlist top management's support.The intrapreneur must also have appropriate leadership characteristics. In addition to being creative, flexible, and visionary, the intrapreneur must be able to work within the corporate structure. Intrapreneurs need to encourage teamwork and work diplomatically across established structures. Open discussion and strong support of team members are also required. Finally, the intrapreneur must be persistent in order to overcome the inevitable obstacles. The process of establishing intrapreneurship within an existing organization requires the commitment of management, particularly top management. The organization must carefully choose intrapreneurial leaders, develop general guidelines for ventures, and delineate expectations before the intrapreneurial program begins. Training sessions are an important part of the process. As role models and intrapreneurial ventures are introduced, the organization must establish a strong organizational support system, along with a system of incentives and rewards to encourage team members. Finally, it should establish a system to expand successful ventures and to eliminate unsuccessful ones. |