On Tue, 4 Jun 1996 hweesing@singnet.com.sg wrote:
> I tend to consider entrepreneurship something about innovation rather
> than invention. It is not necessary technical. It brings about change
> in perception, meaning of life, knowledge etc.
----AND----
> Could someone enlighten me with a better definition of entrepreneurship;
> the process of entrepreneurship....
Then Michael Erickson wrote:
I've noticed that if one takes advantage of opportunity-that person
is called an entrepreneur. In my company there is a lot of talk about
what is is to be "world class" and "systems thinking", but most are
content to talk about it, and I'm called a "creative thinker" because I
just do what the system says it wants us to do. I consider this to be
particularly weird because I feel I'm not doing anything except what what
my upper management has asked of us. But the DOING seems to be something
special.
Why? I don't know. But I wonder if there is a barrier to the DOING
that I just don't see, or worry about. Is it "innovative" to take a new
freedom and run with it? or is it reckless?
I've figured out that my career development is in MY hands, not my
managements hands. So if I'm given an opportunity to explore that my
potential is, then I need to do it.
I guess my point here is, maybe entrepreneurship isn't so mysterious.
I suspect it's simply making an assessment of what you have, figuring out
what you can do with it, and then doing that is what entrepreneurship is
really all about. Sure, some innovation may crop up, maybe even a little
bit of invention, but I find that usually, allthe pieces exist to take
advantage of "what I have", I just simply have to Go and Do.
So I wonder if the real question is, What stifles entrepreneurship?
or Why do people NOT do with what they have? I have a rule of thumb that
I apply to myself. It says: Go and find out. or Find out WHAT's
POSSIBLE.
Possibilities are what innovation is all about.
------------
I think that it is very easy to stifle entrepreneurship. Some of the ways
I can think of are: critism, control, blocking resources, customers can
make outdated or petty requirements on a RFP, ISO requirements can limit
what a company is willing to try, cost containments and paralysis of
analysis. Some people will not take any risk and try anything new because
of a critical parent. I have seen managers so control a department that no
one can do anything different than what he says. Finance can limit a
budget so risks cannot be taken. The marketplace demands backward
compatibility for DOS which severly limits new operating systems on PC's.
One company I know was afraid to try out a new idea for fear that it would
alter or delay their ISO 9000 certification.
Individuals can, I believe, do incredible things when set free to resolve
problems. We cannot be stifling those around us, we as individuals must
become people who can bring out the best in others.
Now to add to this the question, how do we install in a team the resolve
to persist towards the resolution of a challenge?
Archie
-----------------------------------------------------------
Archie Kregear
kregear@lims.lockheed.com
"We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are."
-Jim Rohn
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--Archie Kregear <kregear@lims.lockheed.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>