So earlier this week I began working on my master's degree in entrepreneurship. So far it has been very interesting and it has a great set of people also doing the program. But I also want to share it with the broader community of friends and associates that I do business with and bring up and discuss issues that stem from my studies or from my own curiosity and get real views and inputs from all of you. I think it's helpful to see what many of you think (I know many of you guys are successful entrepreneurs) and helpful for all to learn more.
The first question I will pose is "Who is an entrepreneur and how do we define entrepreneurship?"
The the followup question is "what is an entrepreneur's role in society and/or the economy?"
I will start, please don't just quote dictionary.com or somesuch, speak for yourselves (and there are many definitions and we can all be right).
I think an entrepreneur is a profit motivated innovator. I also think it can be an individual or an entrepreneurial firm where a team acts in the same interests. I think there is a difference between someone who just invents something and an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur takes an idea and commercializes it. I think entrepreneurs have the willingness and/or ability to see opportunity in a market and capitalize on that opportunity.
As to the role of an entrepreneur in society and the economy, they are the foundation of innovation and technology growth. I think the individual or firm that innovates creates new jobs, new markets, new products and new revenue streams. While I like Joseph Schumpeter's kondratiev ideas and think they have some validity, I don't that there is just 1 major innovation, I think many complementary ones come into place and very rarely does anyone truly make such a huge jump. Can't build a skyscraper all at once, you go floor by floor and I think same analogy holds towards innovation. So while something like the steam engine revolutionized the world and would probably fit, there were advances leading up to it and supporting it. I think credit goes to many entrepreneurs and innovators.
That's all I can write for now, I would like to hear some other's opinions, feedback and experience(s).
Comments
This is a good start for
Thu, 09/04/2008 - 08:23 — alldigThis is a good start for discussion. I think it's interesting to note the interconnection between creative destruction, capitalism, and entrepreneurship. All three notions play off one another while supporting a marketplace in which ideas are free to continuously evolve. The legendary economist, Milton Friedman, elaborates on free market principles and the benefits of entrepreneurship in society in his 1990 publication, Free to Choose (an excellent read by the way).
From Patrik Snajdr
Fri, 09/05/2008 - 07:16 — kohashiOn Entrepreneurism. A great topic that certainly does include us, as domainers and domain channel developers.
In my opinion, an entrepreneur is someone who replaces a structured work setting with a self leadership ethos, driven by the desire to innovate, integrate and initiate ideas from their seed form to their successful market viability. Entrepreneurship is micro-economic risk taking behavior. It is based in the development of ideas from scratch to finish. And even with careful analysis of countless measures and conditions, the assurances of success are never a guarantee. But, through drive and determination, vision can transform the odds and result in personal and social profitability.
The role of entrepreneurship in society is to form the matrix of innovation which, through it's various support mechanisms, novel business models, and evolving operational knowledge base, allows further growth and innovation pollination by additional integrated adherents of the entrepreneurial spirit. This, is the micro engine of future macro-economic realities, and the ground from which communities and markets spring forth.
Entrepreneurship is the key to any country's growth, and sustenance. It is necessary and unavoidable reality of the capitalistic model of society.