The Various Roles of Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs all around the world have adopted various kinds of strategies for coming into the business. Some of these entrepreneurs adopt the ideas of others while some makes their own strategy (Dennis Jr, 2011). Entrepreneurship has always been understood as the conversion of idea into the business. It is generally the act of taking the financial risk by investing in an idea. It is not a fancy job but rather involves a lot of nerves to make business successful. These people have to make sure that they have adopted the best strategy for transforming their ideas into business. This is due to the fact that any lagging in handling the situation may lead to long term losses to the companies. With the start of age of industrialisation many entrepreneurs came up especially in the 20th century. In different time frames different types of entrepreneurs emerged. From the last few decades technological innovations have promoted entrepreneurship. Two of the most famous entrepreneurs are Larry page and Sergey Brin who was the founder of the Google. Apart from this founder of Virgin group Richard Branson is also an example of successful entrepreneur. This report highlights the characteristics and roles of entrepreneurs as well as the ways in which they have contributed to design and innovation. It also reflects on two of the entrepreneurs and also showcases the ways in which entrepreneurial contribution had an impact on the society.
Every entrepreneur has many kinds of roles (Burrows, 2015). These roles are highly diverse and they adopt it as per the required situation. Apart from this every entrepreneur has a certain characteristics that are common. These characteristics are highly important for making their business venture successful. Some of these characteristics are inherited by these people from the childhood and some of them are incorporated by them in the due course of their life.
Some of the roles of entrepreneurs are as follows:
- Nurturing an idea: They have the role of believing in any particular idea and nurturing them to transform it into the business (Congregado, Golpe and Parker, 2012). It is to be made sure that the idea does not get leaked to any other people. This helps in making surety that full benefit of the idea is taken by the entrepreneur themselves.
- Investments: It is the role of the entrepreneurs to make investment in the idea. This is totally done on the basis of financial requirements business has. It is the primary role of the entrepreneurs to make financial arrangement for their start-ups.
- Arranging and organising resources: It is the role of the entrepreneurs to arrange resources as well as organise them in a proper manner so that they can be available at the required time (Chell, et al., 2016). They need to make sure that he or she has a sustainable development plan for utilisation of resources so that it is available for their present and future use.
- Motivation: It is the role of the entrepreneurs to make sure that they motivate their employees and other shareholders for their business start-up. They have to transfer their own believe about any certain idea to their junior level members. This helps them in achieving higher productivity which is necessary for the making the business a success (Hobbs, 2015). They also have to put optimism present in them to the other employees so that they also work with the same enthusiasm. This is necessary for the growth of the company in the longer run.
- Bringing creativity: Entrepreneurs have the role of bringing creativity to their firm. This is due to the reason that bringing creativity brings new energy to the business venture which is necessary for the growth of any start-up. They have the role to promote others who have creative ideas in terms of financial assistance. This will help in solving many problems that are exist in the society (Bennett, 2014).
- Society need: They have the role of thinking towards the problems in the society in which they are operating so that they can solve these issues. This can be in the terms of bringing new things in the market (Bridge and O’Neill, 2012). It can also be in terms of monetary assistance to the society by proving jobs to people or working as a philanthropist. Many a times it is in the terms of providing education to the people who cannot afford it by opening school.
- Decision making: They have the role of making decision as per the requirement of the business. They must be able decision makers and must be quick responsive to the situation. It is necessary for the growth of the company in every situation. It also motivates the lower level employees to contribute more to the development of the company (Sahut and Peris-Ortiz, 2014).
- Managing CSR and ethics: It is crucial role of the entrepreneurs to make polices related to corporate social responsibility and ethics. It is essential that before the start of the venture there is effective evaluation of what can be the ill effects of the business on the society (George and Bock, 2011). Without this it is very hard for the new venture to build its brand image.
- Confidence: Entrepreneurs are highly confident person and hence they are highly motivated towards achieving any task. This confidence in them has to be transformed into their sub-ordinates. This helps in transforming their idea into the business. Most of the successful entrepreneurs have higher confidence in whatever they do and on the other hand the entrepreneurs that failed in their business either had less confidence or over confidence (Zali, et al., 2013). They have higher amount of self believe.
- Motivational skills: One of the most crucial characteristics that entrepreneurs have is that they have excellent motivational skill (Schaper, et al., 2014). This will help in bringing confidence in the minds of the people which is crucial for enhancing their productivity. They must be able communicator so that he can express his ideas in a better way in front of the shareholders especially investors.
- Optimistic: Most of the entrepreneurs have the characteristics that they are highly optimistic (Koellinger and Roy Thurik, 2012). This helps them in believing in their ideas. It is essential for achieving success even after they face many obstacles in their business in the starting only. Their optimism is vague and is highly based on the reasons and their evaluation. They are future oriented people and generally take decision checking the situations prevailing in the society.
- Creative thinking: Every entrepreneur must have the capability to think in a creative way (Trimi and Berbegal-Mirabent, 2012). This will helps them in generating new ideas for business. Innovative ideas have higher chances of generating profits as compared to the old ideas. Creative ideas can be highly beneficial for the growth of the company. Not only in terms of making of new ideas but also in terms of managing the resources and carrying out various operations within the firm.
- Risk takers: Most of the entrepreneurs all around the world are risk takers. In the start of new business taking risk is very essential. There cannot be a new venture being started with the innovative idea without taking risk that it may fail. The risk that is taken by the entrepreneurs must be calculated and pre planned so that it may not lead to heavy loses to the company (Dees, 2017).
- Hard worker: This is the common characteristic that is present in almost all the entrepreneurs. All of them are highly dedicated and does hard work for making their business success (Drucker, 2014). This helps them in setting example in front of their sub-ordinates.
- Product and market knowledge: They have higher amount of knowledge about the product and market management. They have a deeper understanding of the situation in the market as well as the product they want to launch. This helps them in bringing products as per the demand of the people which is necessary for achieving success (Pott and Pott, 2012).
- Passion: Most of the successful entrepreneurs in the world have passion in them (Kiss, Danis and Cavusgil, 2012). This can be seen easily seen in the entrepreneurs that are related to IT field. It is their passion that drives them for continuing their work even after small failures and obstructions in the path.
- Adaptable and flexible: It is one of the core characteristics of the entrepreneurs that they are highly adaptable to any situation. This helps in facing all the barriers in the venture. They are also highly flexible in their approach which is necessary for removing the obstacles coming in front of them (Sadler-Smith, 2016).
All these characteristics can be easily seen in the Larry page, Sergey Brin and Richard Branson portfolio. All these have made them successful entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs all around the world have contributed a lot on the designing and development of new technologies (Hatten, 2015). They were the prime players in the generation of ideas and designing of the ways in which this idea will be converted into the successful ventures. They also started creating network that may help in building their business. Innovation has played a very essential role in their business ventures. In many of the cases the person who has innovated the items were benefitted it. For example Larry page the developer Google was extremely found of doing research in the IT fields. In the earlier 19th century Ford who was known to be as one of the oldest entrepreneurs has innovated not only the products but they have also innovated the ways of doing business. Their T model and assembly line concept is the result of their creative ideas. The Steve jobs who was considered as one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time was a very good researcher and throughout his life he was dedicated towards the designing of the modern age computers. His idea of computer for everyone supported him in his venture. He developed many of the technology that his company takes use of like i-pods and i-pads. Entrepreneur’s thinks about the problems that exist in the society, this helps them in generating ideas which ultimately drives for making innovations. When entrepreneurs understand the problems they start thinking of the possible solutions they have for it. In this course they develop many kinds of ideas and think of the design that could achieve success (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011). They act as a leader in the completion of project. They keep on evolving it so as to make to make it perfect.
Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovations
Apart from this the innovators takes a lot of time in thinking about the financial resources it will require to develop idea into the final product (Onetti, et al., 2012). Changes in the design of the product are done so as to make it cost effective or to make it more profitable. They also make changes as per the complexities that it may bring to the society. This can be highly seen in the case of IT innovations as these innovations directly affect the lives of the people. It is due to the fact that now a day everything is connected to the IT mediums and the people are getting more dependent on these IT mediums.
Entrepreneurs always put the idea in a more clear way to their junior level workers so that they may not be confused about the things they have to do for the development of the business (Welter, 2011). It helps in making sure that company develops at much faster rate. They work towards eliminating all ifs and buts in the business idea so that there is no chance that a business can fail. Any confusion in the business might result in the long term loss to the venture. It is also to be taken care that a proper goals and objectives are made this helps in making sure that there is no losses to the company. They also have to understand the scenarios that may lead to failure of business and hence take initiatives so as to reduce such problems.
In the starting phase of the development of Google Page and Brin at the Standford university developed a searching algorithm named as BlackRub. In the later stage they both developed one of the most important mediums for modern day communication popularly known as Gmail. It made sensation in the communication industry.
In the case of Larry page and Sergey brin it can be seen that there entrepreneurial venture that started in the backyard of their home became successful. It was highly innovative and was one of its kinds as it helped in making the work process easier and also assisted in the expansion of the internet. This was necessary for the growth of the internet market.
On the other hand Richard branson who is also the social entrepreneurs is known for his ideas on making the things cheaper. He wants to touch almost all the horizons of lives that people leads. This is crucial for the growth of the society as resolving many of the problems related to them. He is also known for making investments in the reason such as energy. He has focused on some of the biggest challenge that humanity is facing like the energy, health, governance, security, food etc. It is always not necessary that an entrepreneur is himself a researcher like in many cases rather they can also give the support to the new innovators. They can give their ideas regarding the requirement of the business to the new innovators and help them in monetary terms for their research. He is now planning to enter into the business of medicine so as to find the curb for many new diseases. He is ready to invest in the new technology will help in medical sciences. Such kind of innovations will help the society in the longer run. It is due to his entrepreneurial mind set to innovate thing for making it useful for the people that it is now producing more than 100 types of things. From technology to medical, from energy to gym it owns everything and provides services to so many people all around the world.
Entrepreneurs’ Contributions to Design and Innovation
Fig: Virgin group companies profits
As in the above section it can be seen that entrepreneurs have greater role in the design and innovations. This is due to the fact that they are the prime players in the designing of the idea for any business. Entrepreneurs always make innovations as per the demand of the society. They need to think effectively on the innovations in terms of the ways in which it is going to affect the society (Kuratko and Morris, 2013). Entrepreneurs always think about the various situation and challenges that are faced by the society. This is the main reason for their innovation. They convert their innovation into the business idea and make profits from it. The innovation that is not made according to the demands f the society does not achieve success.
There are two kinds of innovation sin the society first s based on the need that people have in the society and other is to bring a totally new products that may become the need of the society in the future (Mulej, 2011). There are many innovations in the medical field is made which has helped the people in fighting with the disease. These innovations have helped the people to maintain healthy lives. One of the primary examples in this regards is the medicines that are capable of fighting deadly diseases. There are many innovations made by the entrepreneurs in the field of military services these helps the society in fighting with the terrorism. Apart from this in the countries like Israel where there is scarcity of water, there are several entrepreneurs who have developed technologies for proper management and recycle of the used water (Volkmann, Tokarski and Ernst, 2012). This has helped them in removing the problems related to the water. There are many innovation in the IT field has been made by various entrepreneurs which has helped in making the work process easier. One of the most common entrepreneurial innovations is desktops which has transformed the lives of the people in the whole society.
On the other hand the innovations that are made by the entrepreneurs have helped the society in the economic terms. This is due to the fact that entrepreneurs help in the development of the economy of the nation which directly has the impact on the lifestyle of the people. Innovation done by the entrepreneur helps in brining money to the local society which is crucial for the development of many people (Zahra and Nambisan, 2012). This is also due to the fact that these entrepreneurial innovations provide jobs to many of the people which assist in raising their standards of living.
Impact of Entrepreneurial Contribution on Society
Entrepreneurial innovation helps in making the lives of the people more comfortable. In many of the poor nations some of the local entrepreneur have innovated small technologies that are able to provide them with basic facilities of their requirement. One of the most primary innovations in this regards is use of solar energy for converting into the electricity. Apart from this there are many smaller innovations made by entrepreneurs which has helped in improving the lives of the people (Wiklund, et al., 2011). When a new innovation is done by the entrepreneurs it enhances competition in the market which directly effects on the prices of the products. This ultimately helps in reducing the inflation rate and hence favouring the poor section of the society.
Entrepreneurial contributions towards the design of any product have also helped the people. This can also be understood by the example of computers. In previous times there were bigger desktops but since the mobility issue was associated with it. This forced the entrepreneurs like Steve jobs to think about the movable computers like i-pads (Audretsch, 2012). Same was reason behind the development of i-pods. This has made the work of the people easier.
With the development of Google by Larry page and Sergey brin there was a change in the lives of the people as they got the place where they can find their answers (McDonough, 2011). This can be understood by the fact that earlier it was difficult to find the webpages as per the requirement of the users. Development of Google was essential in many terms as it fostered the speed of finding any answers on internet (Otache and Mahmood, 2015). It has empowered the clients who were in search of particular things. Such kind of innovation helped in the expansion of the internet. This was also due to the fact that Google made searching easier and user friendly. People started understanding the place they have to look for to get the desired results. With the foundation of Google now it has not only limited to the search engines (Fayolle and Todorov, 2011). It has worked typically harder towards increasing the storage capacity of the people.
This is an era of data and hence companies like Google provide support to the users for keeping their data. This helps them in keeping their information for their future use. Since the amount of data that is generated in these days is in large quantity and general people are not able to store the data (Bailetti, 2012). The search with the voice helped the people who were somehow paralysed. In the modern times it is also empowering the small scale business in doing their marketing and finding new markets for their product sale. The innovative idea for transforming the mails industry lead to the development of Gmail which acts one of the most widely used formal communication mediums (Bosma, et. al., 2012). It has helped society as most of the formal communication which was previously done with the physical posts was now done with the use of this mailing system. This has helped in increasing the privacy between the communicators. As the physical modes of communication were not so secured and there was a chance of data leaks. With the wide use of mails like Gmail helped many people in keeping the privacy rights of the people. Entrepreneurial innovations like Google analytics have helped many of the companies to measure their performance on the basis of various metrics. Now Google is one of the fastest growing companies of the world and is a pioneer in innovations. It is possible due to the hardship of the Page and Sergey in the starting phase of the innovation for changing the dynamics of the internet world. Today it has become synonym that if you need to find anything just Google it.
Different Types of Innovations
Richard Branson who is one of the most successful innovators has come up with many kinds of innovations. These innovations were totally on the basis of the requirement of the people (Samila and Sorenson, 2011). At many times it was called as the business of opportunities but on the greater scale it helped in removing the needs of the people. The virgin airlines were one of the primary examples of it which aimed to join many of those places that were not connected through air mediums that too at the satisfactory rates. The competition brought by this company helped in bringing the flight tickets on the lower side. He is also the philanthropist who helps many of the people in raising their life standards. Richard branson is also helping for changing the scenario related to the IT industry.
He wanted to do investment in the new fields which is necessary for the growth of IT like the Artificial intelligence. It is also considered to be the future of the digital technologies and is highly capable of solving many types of problems related to the lives of the people. He also has an idea for development of technologies that are smart and are capable enough to deal with the problem of cyber security. This is going to be one of the biggest problems that society is going to face in the future. He also has contributed heavily on the technology that is towards making environment friendly business. It is necessary for the existence of the humanity.
In the starting Richard’s ideas was to find opportunities and go into that business. Now his approach is to find the ways through which the future of the business can be ensured as well as their responsibilities towards their society can be fulfilled. This approach of his towards the innovation has helped him in changing the needs of the stakeholders that are associated with it. This is necessary for the growth of the company in the longer run. Richard has an in depth understanding of the trends in the market and the needs of the people which assists Virgin group in expanding their reach into the market. They are operating so many kinds of business of various types and hence providing jobs to so many people around the world. These days Virgin group is just focused on making investments that are good for the future society as well as the stakeholders that are associated with the firms (Branson, 2013). His investment plans for future is towards innovative business that helps in dealing with the problems that society is going to face in the future. He is known for his risk taking abilities and quick decision making approach.
Understanding of the problem in the society and making changes in the design as per the requirement of the people is necessary for the company. It depends on the creativity of the entrepreneurs that which kid of idea they come up with to solve the problem (Andersson, 2011). Their approach towards the way in which they want to build the society helps them in their thinking process. This is the thing that helps them transforming the society. All these entrepreneurs have been known for their deeper understanding of the problems that society is facing and finding solutions for it by applying their innovative ideas and design. Their innovative ideas have also made society to aspire for more and get it fulfilled.
There are many smaller and bigger innovations that are going on inside various industries. These two companies and the entrepreneurs related to these two must be examining the demands of the market that can help them in their survival. It is to be made sure that the investments that they are making in the innovations are for the longer duration. All the associated ethical concerns must be checked out in a proper so that there are no legal issues. If not done in a proper way t may dismal the image of these firms. Richard branson needs to think about the social concerns in the rural areas so as to make investments in the infrastructure that can raise their life standards. Richard Branson has to think about the ways in which they can improve the living standards of the stakeholders associated with it. Number of problems in the society is increasing at very faster rate and hence entrepreneurs who are already established in the market needs to think about the ways in which they can remove these.
In the Google there are many types of innovation that are going on but one of the primary things on which Larry page and Sergey Brin have to think about is regarding the security of data. This is due to the fact that Google is one such company that has to maintain the large amount of data. Since there are larger numbers of people that are using Google and hence protecting their privacy is the challenge for the company. In the field of cyber security Google needs to invest on the larger scale. This is also due to the fact that the speed at which the innovations are going on the IT field is large and hence they also need to continuously improve the technologies they are using. In the past several years it was seen that most of the people inside the IT industry have faced the challenges due to privacy at some or the other level. This tends to decrease the credibility of such companies.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that there are large numbers of innovations that are going on in the industry. These entrepreneurs have the idea to change the society with their design and innovation. This has also to be made sure that the challenges that are faced by the society can be eliminated in an efficient manner. Entrepreneurs have different kinds of roles in business. Apart from this almost all the entrepreneurs have some kinds of common characteristics. This has forced entrepreneurs to make sure that they have effective plans for innovation. Richard Branson, Larry page and Sergey Brin also have to think about the future requirements that both and industry and their stakeholders have. Innovation is a continuous process and the role of entrepreneurs in it becomes very significantly. Most importantly they play a vital role in converting that innovation into the business that can help both society and the innovators. All the three above mentioned entrepreneurs must support the new innovators in the financial and guidance terms so that they can continue with their entrepreneurial venture
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