Risky Business
For starters, an entrepreneur is focused on building a business and moving all resources necessary into the urgent task of finding customers for the offerings being produced. Within large organizations, entrepreneurs are given the independence, clarity of purpose and sense of urgency to produce results with the “new” business. For the entrepreneur, the “new” is the foundation for building that business. Innovation and change are two of the instruments that the entrepreneur uses to build the engine that delivers results. The key factor that differentiates the entrepreneur from others who would enter into the business arena is that the entrepreneur is proactively working to impose a vision on the marketplace, ahead of all others or in competition with those who would attempt to take that opportunity away.
Secondly, an innovator is intent on advancing the state of the art. Whether this means advancing the progress of an entrepreneur, improving the overall cost of production, or delivering seemingly unimaginable new products, the aim is the same. Crucial to the success of the entrepreneur, the businessperson, the production supervisor and the innovator is that they are willing to take the “new” and challenge what exists in the name of progress.
Lastly, the agent of change that is, the person who embodies transformation, a form of strategic change is intent on gaining competitive advantage. The agent of change can also be called on to be the “turnaround artist,” or the person who works to help a company survive to fight another day (which can also mean being acquired). In either situation, the case for transformational change is made as a result of the external environment, and the agent of change sees this as an opportunity to take the organization where it needs to be. In change, the richest sources for the innovator and the entrepreneur can be found.
Although we can see that each of these roles is distinct, the fact that they can also be considered a connected whole is crucial to the understanding of how the entrepreneur works. The entrepreneur is the champion of the new business and its rewards those rising stars who will create tomorrow’s economy.
But also note that the entrepreneur is also about failure. The risks of the “new” are real, especially when the riskiest of all factors is in play the people who are prepared to defend the status quo at all costs. Although we laud the faith, drive and courage of the entrepreneur, it is with the knowledge that the possibility of failure is extremely high. The task of entrepreneurs is to reduce that risk as much as possible, while turning their vision of the future into a practical reality.
Read part 2 Defining Victory
Additional articles by Jorge Lopez:
An Entrepreneur’s Right IT Hand
Jorge Lopez is a Gartner Inc. vice president and distinguished analyst based in the United States, where he focuses on issues of concern to business executives, especially the CEO, and their relationship to IT and the CIO.
