Topic 1: Idea Generation

The following are some of the important idea generation techniques

1. SCAMPER

SCAMPER is an idea generation technique that utilizes action verbs as stimuli. It is a

well-known kind of checklist developed by Bob Eberie that assists the person in
coming up with ideas either for modifications that can be made on an existing
product or for making a new product. SCAMPER is an acronym with each letter
standing for an action verb which in turn stands for a prompt for creative ideas.

 S – Substitute
 C – Combine
 A – Adapt
 M – Modify
 P – Put to another use
 E – Eliminate
 R – Reverse

2. Brainstorming

This process involves engendering a huge number of solutions for a specific problem
(idea) with emphasis being on the number of ideas. In the course of brainstorming,
there is no assessment of ideas. So, people can speak out their ideas freely without
fear of criticism. Even bizarre/strange ideas are accepted with open hands.
Brainstorming can be done both individually and in groups. The typical
brainstorming group comprises six to ten people.

3. Mind mapping

Mind mapping is a graphical technique for imagining connections between various

pieces of information or ideas. Each fact or idea is written down and then connected
by curves or lines to its minor or major (previous or following) fact or idea, thus
building a web of relationships. To get started with mind mapping, the participant
just has to write a key phrase or word in the middle of the page. Then, he must write
anything else that comes to his mind on the very same page. After that, he must try to
make connections as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

4. Synectics: Synectics is a creative idea generation and problem solving technique

that arouses thought processes that the subject may not be aware of. It is a manner of
approaching problem-solving and creativity in a rational manner.

5. Storyboarding

Storyboarding has to do with developing a visual story to explain or explore.

Storyboards can help creative people represent information they gained during
research. Pictures, quotes from the user, and other pertinent information are fixed
on cork board, or any comparable surface, to stand for a scenario and to assist with
comprehending the relationships between various ideas.

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6. Role playing

In the role playing technique, each participant can take on a personality or role
different from his own. As the technique is fun, it can help people reduce their
inhibitions and come out with unexpected ideas.

7. Attribute listing

Attribute listing is an analytical approach to recognize new forms of a system or

product by identifying/recognizing areas of improvement. To figure out how to
enhance a particular product, it is broken into parts, physical features of each
component are noted, and all functions of each component are explained and studied
to see whether any change or recombination would damage or improve the product.

8. Visualization and visual prompts

Visualization is about thinking of challenges visually so as to better comprehend the

issue. It is a process of incubation and illumination where the participant takes a
break from the problem at hand and concentrates on something wholly different
while his mind subconsciously continues to work on the idea. This grows into a phase
of illumination where the participant suddenly gets a diversity of solutions and he
rapidly writes them down, thereby creating fresh parallel lines of thought.

Picture prompts help a lot when it comes to enabling one’s brain to establish
connections. These prompts can help to surface emotions, feelings and intuitions.
This makes them particularly useful for brainstorming solutions to innovative
challenges involving people, and issues with a deep psychological or emotional root
cause.

To get started with using picture prompts, the facilitator distributes a set of pre-
selected images – each participant gets one. He also asks the participants to write
down whatever ideas come to their mind when they look at the image in their
possession. After this, participants pair off and use additional time, sharing and
talking about the ideas they have come up with and brainstorming more solutions to
the existing problem/challenge. Lastly, the various pairs present their ideas to the
rest of the group.

9. Morphological analysis

Morphological analysis has to do with recognizing the structural aspects of a problem

and studying the relationships among them. For example: Imagine the problem is
transporting an object from one place to another by way of a powered vehicle. The
significant dimensions are: the kind of vehicle (cart, sling, bed, chair); the power
source (internal-combustion engine, pressed air, electric motor); and the medium
(air, hard surface, rails, rollers, oil, water). Thus, a cart-kind of vehicle moving over
rough services with an internal-combustion engine to power it is the automobile. The
expectation is that it would be possible to determine some novel combinations.

10. Forced relationships

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It is an easy technique involving the joining of totally different ideas to come up with
a fresh idea. Though the solution may not be strictly unique, it frequently results in
an assortment of combinations that are often useful. A lot of products we see today
are the output of forced relationships (such as a digital watch that also has a
calculator, musical birthday cards and Swiss army knife). Most of these ideas may
not be revolutionary discoveries but they are still advantageous products and usually
have a prospective market in society.

11. Daydreaming

Though mostly not met with approval, daydreaming is truly one of the most
fundamental ways to trigger great ideas. The word “daydream” itself involuntarily
triggers an uninhibited and playful thought process, incorporating the participant’s
creativity and resourcefulness to play around with the present problem. It enables a
person to establish an emotional connection with the problem, which is beneficial in
terms of coming up with a wonderful idea. The focus of productive daydreaming is a
particular goal irrespective of whether it seems to be an impractical task. Plenty of
famous inventors have engaged in daydreaming in the past, thereby setting off ideas
that contributed to life altering inventions.

12. Reverse thinking

As the term ‘reverse thinking’ itself suggests, instead of adopting the logical, normal
manner of looking at a challenge, you reverse it and think about opposite ideas. For
example: ‘how can I double my fan base?’ can change into ‘how do I make sure I have
no fans at all?’

13. Questioning assumptions

The majority of industries have an orthodoxy – unspoken but deeply-held beliefs that
everyone stands by for getting things done. Sadly, they fail to realize that by
questioning assumptions at every step of service or product development, they can
actually enable the birth of fresh possibilities and ideas.

The participants should start by settling on the framework for the creative challenge.
After this, they should produce 20 to 30 assumptions (irrespective of whether they
are true or false). The next step is to select several assumptions from the many
generated, and utilize them as idea triggers and thought starters to engender fresh
ideas.

14. Accidental genius

Accidental genius is a relatively new technique that utilizes writing to trigger the best
ideas, content and insight.

15. Brain writing

Brain writing is easy. Instead of asking the participants to shout out ideas, they are
told to pen down their ideas pertaining to a specific problem or question on sheets of
paper, for a small number of minutes. After that, each participant can pass their

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ideas over to someone else. This someone else reads the ideas on the paper and adds
some new ones. Following another few minutes, the individual participants are again
made to pass their papers to someone else and so the process continues. After about
15 minutes, you or someone else can collect the sheets from them and post them for
instant discussion.

16. Wishing

This technique can be begun by asking for the unattainable and then brainstorming
ideas to make it or at least an approximation of it, a reality. Start by making the
wishes tangible. There should be collaboration among the members of the team to
produce 20 to 30 wishes pertaining to your business. Everyone’s imagination should
be encouraged to run wild – the more bizarre the idea, the better. There should be no
restrictions on thinking. The next step is concentrating on a number of these
unattainable wishes and utilizing them as creative stimuli to trigger ideas that are
new but more practical.

17. Socializing

If employees only hang around with colleagues and friends, they could find
themselves in a thinking rut. Let them utilize all those LinkedIn connections to begin
some fantastic conversations. Refreshing perspectives will assist with bringing out
new thinking and probably, one or two lightning bolts. Socializing in the context of
ideation can also be about talking to others on topics that have nothing whatsoever to
do with the present problem.

18. Collaboration

As the term indicates, collaboration is about two or more people joining hands in
working for a common goal. Designers frequently work in groups and engage in
collaborative creation in the course of the whole creative process.

Topic 2: Analysing and Evaluating and choosing New Products

The following are the 3 models that can be used to analyse and evaluate new
products:

i. SWOT Analysis
ii. RCCDC Model
iii. RCGPI Model

Rogers Model (RCCDC Model) is used to evaluate the likely success of new products
R Relative Advantage
C Compatibility
C Complexity
D Divisibility
C Communicability

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Relative Advantage: Does the new product have any advantages compared to the
existing products in the market? The degree to which an innovation is seen as better
than the idea, program, or product it replaces.
Compatibility: Does the product fit into the norms of the industry that are existing
since the inception of the industry. How consistent the innovation is with the values,
experiences, and needs of the potential adopters?
Complexity: How difficult is the product to use?
Divisibility: Can the complexity be divided? In other words, can we reduce the
complexity of the new product through simple version, training etc? Also, the extent
to which the innovation can be tested or experimented with before a commitment to
adopt is made.
Communicability? How easy is it to communicate about your new product to
consumers?
R Relative Advantage Ideally should be high
C Compatibility Ideally should be high
C Complexity Should be low
D Divisibility If complexity is high, divisibility should
also be high. If complexity is low,
divisibility can be ignored
C Communicability Should be high
Any new product or service can be evaluated using Rogers Model. A scale of 1 to 5
can be taken and the likely success of a new product can be measured. Even before a
company decides to go for market research, Rogers Model (RCCDC Model) can be
applied and this saves the company a lot of money, if in case the product turned out
to be having low acceptability in the market.
If faced with the choice of two equally attractive and potential new products, the
RCGPI Model can be used.

RCGPI Model:
R Resources
C Competence
G Goals
P Passion
I Impact

Resources: With which product do our resources match the best?

Competence: To which product does our competence match the best? For which
product can we use our competence most effectively and efficiently?
Goals: Which product enables us to achieve our professional goals?
Impact: Which product creates the greatest amount of impact on society?

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All the above criteria can be rated on a scale of 1 to 5. The product with the best
rating can be chosen.

Topic 3: ROLES/FUNCTIONS OF ENTREPRENEURS

There are five important roles of entrepreneurs namely ‘Innovation’, ‘Arbitrage’,
‘Coordination’, ‘uncertainty bearing’, and ‘organisation & management ’.
ARBITRAGE: Arbitrage is the activity of buying an asset at a low price, and then
selling it in a different market at a higher price. A person who is engaged in arbitrage
is called an arbitrageur.
UNCERTAINITY BEARING: Economists have made a variety of suggestions
regarding the essence of entrepreneurship. One such suggestion, which was proposed
by economists, was that entrepreneurship lies in the bearing of pure and sheer
uncertainty. Richard Cantillon, an 18th century economist attributed the role of
uncertainty bearing to entrepreneurs. He suggested that the role of entrepreneur’s
uncertainty bearing was evident from the activity of buying inputs without knowing
how much customers would pay for the end products. The chain of speculation and
risk carried on from farmers to carriers, carriers to wholesalers, wholesalers to
retailers, and finally from retailers to customers, was key to the market system.
According to Frank knight, the unmeasured and unquantified risk borne by the
entrepreneur is called “uncertainty”. It is important to distinguish between risk and
uncertainty.
Some of the distinctions between risk and uncertainty are as follows:
 Risk is associated with ‘loss’ and uncertainty is with ‘gain’.
 Risk is designated by ‘objective probability’, whereas uncertainty is associated
with ‘subjective probability’.
 In risk, the distribution of outcomes in a group of instances is known whereas
in the case of uncertainty, the distribution of outcomes in a group of instances
is not known.

INNOVATION: Joseph Schumpeter popularized the concept of innovation.

According to him, entrepreneurs undertake “new combinations of productive means”
creating new products, methods of production, markets, supply sources or forms of
organization. Some economists have seen entrepreneurs concentrating on innovation
character. Innovation is an entrepreneurial alertness that generates, and harnesses
new technological knowledge, and discovers entirely new body of resources that
hitherto been overlooked. Innovation can be perceived simply as the transformation
of creative ideas into useful application by combining resources in new or unusual
ways to provide value to society or improved products, technology or services.
Innovation need not arise mainly from a new product or services but it could be an
old product or service finding a new market or penetration.

COORDINATION: According to Jean Baptiste say, the entrepreneur hires and

combines factors of production (such as land, capital, and labour), and serves as the

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“link of communication” between various classes of producers”, and between the
producer and consumer”. Israel M Kirzner, one of the leading Austrian economists
has enriched people’s understanding of the role of entrepreneur, and in bringing
about market condition.

ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT: According to Alfred Marshal, organization and

management of the enterprise is the main function of an entrepreneur. The
entrepreneur has to decide the nature and type of goods and services to be produced.
The entrepreneurs bring together the various factors of production. Land, Labour,
and Capital are separately owned and scattered all over the world. It is the
entrepreneur who brings together and harnesses them to work in production. In
order to minimize the losses entrepreneur allocates resources more judiciously. He
makes required alteration in the size of the business, its location, techniques of
production etc. Entrepreneur also undertakes the managerial functions like
formulation of production plans, organization of sales and personnel management.

FUNCTIONS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR (PETER KILBY’s Theory)

Type/Category of Description of function

Functions
1. Exchange Functions
2. Public Relation Functions
3. Management and Control
Functions
4. Technological Functions
 Identifying market opportunities
 Purchasing of input
 Marketing of the product and facing
competition
 Dealing with public bureaucracy
 Customer and Supplier Relations
 Human Resources Management
 Financial Management
 Production Management (control by
written record and supervision and
coordinating input flows with orders)
 Factory Control
 Industrial Engineering
 Upgrading process and product
qualities
 Introducing new product techniques

FUNCTIONS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR (ARTHUR H. COLE Theory)

According to Arthur H. Cole, the following are the functions of an entrepreneur:
 Determination of objectives

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  Development of an organization
 Securing of adequate financial resources
 Requisition of efficient technological equipment
 Development of a market for products
 Maintenance of good public relations

Topic 4: Important Attributes of Entrepreneurs

ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION:
Achievement motivation can be defined as: Behaviour towards
competition with a standard of excellence” (McClelland, 1953). People who have high
level of achievement motivation tend to set challenging goals and try to achieve
them. These people value feedback and use it to assess their accomplishments. They
have a strong desire for self-efficiency and persist on a task only if that they are likely
to succeed. Achievement motivation is a trait that is prevalent among prevalent
among entrepreneurs. Research indicates that is higher in company founders
compared to managers (Miner, Smith & Bracker 1989). It is also related to company
growth. Such findings that relate the level of achievement motivation of the founders
and the financial growth of the organization may stem from a relationship between
the personality traits of founders and the level of entrepreneurial orientation they
exhibit.

Certain characteristics of individuals with high achievement need may lead to

different levels of entrepreneurial styles. For example McClelland and Koestner
(1992) suggested that people with high levels of achievement motivation will be
future oriented and will take tasks very seriously if they believe that current tasks will
influence future goals. In addition, in a student sample achievement motivation is
positively correlated with proactiveness in their companies. Proactiveness requires
preoccupation with future goals and high levels of achievement motivation may take
the company more proactive. Achievement motivation may be also linked to the
innovativeness of the organisation. Research linking achievement motivation to
creativity suggests that in a highly intelligent group of children, achievement
motivation to explained high levels of variance in creativity (Jaswal & Jerath, 1991).
In an entrepreneurial sample, achievement motivation was correlated with personal
innovativeness. The innovativeness of the founder may take the organisation more
innovative as its impact on organization refers to a desire to outperform other
people. People with achievement motivation find satisfaction in comparing
themselves with others, and are by this comparisons. In college students, people with
high achievement motivation are found to pursue competitive strategies. Their
results may suggest a link between achievement motivation and competitive
aggressiveness.

AFFILIATION NEED: Affiliation need refers to a desire to be close to other people in

order to feel reassured that the self is acceptable (McClelland 1953). People with
higher level of affiliation tend to spend a significant amount of time socializing with

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other people. These people try to maintain harmonious relationship with others and
may sometimes sacrifice work success to protect these relationships. People with
level of affiliation need have a strong desire to be liked by their co-workers and
subordinates, and this may influence their performance in a negative manner. Based
on this definition, it is possible to draw links between entrepreneurial styles and
affiliation need. For example, we may expect a negative relationship between
proactiveness and affiliation need. Proactivenes requires a certain level of future
orientation, whereas people with protecting status quo tend to protect their
relationship with others. In addition, it may be possible to observe lower level of
competitive aggressiveness, because with high levels of affiliation need want to be
liked by people around them, and they may avoid thinking in competitive terms.
Being aggressive towards competition may lead some people to develop negative
attitude towards co-workers and they may prefer to avoid these negative feelings.

LOCUS OF CONTROL: Locus of control refers to the perceived control over the
events in the life (Rotter, 1960. People with internal locus of control believe they are
able to control what happens in their lives. On the other hand people with external
locus of control tend to believe that most of the events in their lives result from being
lucky, being at the right place at the right time, and the behaviour of powerful
individuals. People’s belief in personal control often influence their perception of
important events, their attitude towards life, and their work behaviour. In a student
sample internal locus of control was associated with a desire to become an
entrepreneur (Bonnet & Furnham, 1991). Internal locus of control of the founder is
associated with company performance. The impact of locus of performance may stem
from a relationship between locus of control and entrepreneurial orientation. Locus
of control may be related to proactive ness. When the individuals believe that they
can make a difference in their lives by performing certain actions, they may be more
willing to think about the future and act proactively. Research indicates that people
with higher degree of internal locus of control tend to monitor the environment (Van
Zuren & Wolfs,1991).Internal locus of control may also be related to risk taking
orientation. Research shows that internals tend to estimate probability of failures as
lower and in favour of a risky option. As an example of this tendency, internals are
found to plan expansion of their businesses even when unemployment rates are high.
These results show that firms whose founders have higher internal locus of control
may be more risk taking. There is also reason to expect a positive relationship
between locus of control, innovativeness and competitive aggressiveness. To the
extent the individuals feel that being competitively aggressive or being innovative are
ways of exerting control over the environment, we can expect a positive relationship
between these variables.

Successful entrepreneurs believe in themselves. They do not believe the success or

failure of their venture will be governed by fate, luck or similar forces. They believe
their accomplishments and setbacks are within their own control and influence, and
these can affect the outcome of their actions. This attribute is consistent with a high

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achievement motivational drive the desire to take personal responsibility and self-
confidence.

RISK TAKING PROPENSITY: Risk taking propensity defined as “the perceived

probability of receiving rewards associated with the success of a situation that is
required by the individual before he will subject himself to the consequences than the
proposed situation”(Brockhaus,1980).Risk taking is identified as a trait that
distinguishes entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs and managers
(Ahmed,1985).When entrepreneurs have the ability to influence the actions of the
organization with their personal decisions, their personal characteristics may be
reflected in the actions of the organization and as a result the organization may
become more risk taking. Risk taking propensity may positively influence
innovativeness especially product innovativeness. Product innovativeness requires a
certain degree of tolerance for taking risks, because innovativeness benefits from
willingness to take risks and tolerate failures. The risk taking propensity of the
founder and owners will positively influence innovative attempts of the employees,
and as a result the organization may adopt an innovation orientation to face the
competition.

CALCULATED RISK TAKING: successful entrepreneurs are not gamblers. When

they decide to participation a venture, they do so in a very calculated carefully
thought out manner. They do everything possible to get the odds in their favour, and
they often avoid taking unnecessary risks. These strategies include getting others to
share interest, financial and business risks with them for example, by persuading
partners and investors to put money, creditors to offer special terms, and suppliers to
advance merchandise.

TOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY: Burner (1962) defines intolerance for ambiguity as a

“tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as sources of threat”. From this
definition, we can infer that tolerance for ambiguity refers to a tendency to perceive
ambiguous situations in more neutral way. People who have low levels of tolerance
for ambiguity tend to find unstructured and uncertain situations uncomfortable and
want to avoid these situations. A certain level of tolerance for ambiguity may
influence organization success positively because organizational events are uncertain
and unstructured most of the time and organizational success requires the
willingness and ability to cope with uncertainty. Tolerance for ambiguity may be
related to certain entrepreneurial styles. It is found to be related to personal
creativity and the ability to produce more ideas during brain storming. These
findings suggest that creativity and innovativeness require a certain level of tolerance
for ambiguity. The ability to tolerate ambiguous situations may also be positively
related to the risk taking style of the organization. Risk taking requires a certain level
of tolerance for ambiguity. Additionally, research indicates that people with
intolerance for ambiguity tend to perceive higher levels of risks under the same
circumstances. This tendency may lead them to select less risky alternatives.

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Tolerance for ambiguity may also be positively related to proactiveness.
Proactiveness requires a desire to think about the future, and take actions to answer
future situations and threats. Proactive organizations need to think beyond
conventional way of operating and question the status quo. As a result, proactiveness
requires the capability to handle the unknown. People who are able to tolerate
ambiguity and stress into every aspect of the enterprise. setbacks and surprises are
inevitable. Lack of organization structure, and order is a way of life. Yet, successful
entrepreneurs strive on the fluidity and excitement of such an ambiguous existence.

TOLERANCE FOR FAILURE: Entrepreneurs use failure as a learning experience.

The iterative, trial and error nature of becoming successful entrepreneur makes
serious setbacks and disappointments an integral part of learning process. Most
entrepreneurs are realistic enough to expect such difficulties. Furthermore, they do
not become disappointed discouraged or depressed by a setback or failure. In
adverse and difficult times, they look for opportunity. Many of them believe they
learn from their early failures than from their early failures than from their early
successes.

DRIVE TO ACHIEVE: Entrepreneurs are self-starters who appear to others to be

internally driven by a strong desire to compete, excel, against self-imposed standards
and to pursue and attain challenging goals. This need to achieve has been well
documented in the entrepreneurship literature beginning with David McClelland’s
pioneering work on motivation in 1950” s and 1960’s. High achievers tend to be
moderate risk takers. They examine a situation, determine how to increase the odds
of winning and then push ahead. As a result, high-risk decisions for the average
business person often are moderate risks for the well prepared high achiever.

OPPORTUNITY ORIENTATION: one clear pattern among successful growth-

entrepreneurs is their focus on opportunity rather than on resources, structure or
strategy. They are goal oriented in their pursuit of opportunities and to say when to
say no. Their goals orientation also helps them to define priorities and provides them
with measures of how well they are performing.

INTIATIVE AND RESPONSIBILITY: Historically the entrepreneur has been viewed

as an independent and highly self-reliant innovator. Most researchers agree that
effective entrepreneurs actively seek and take the initiative. They willingly put
themselves responsible for the success or failure of the operation. They like to take
the initiative in solving a problem or in filling a vacuum where no leadership exists.
They also like situation where their personal impact on problems can be measured.
This is the action –oriented nature of the entrepreneur expressing it.

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HIGH ENERGY LEVEL: The extraordinary workloads and stressful demand
entrepreneur face place a premium on energy. Many entrepreneurs fine tune their
energy levels by carefully monitoring what they eat and drink, establishing exercise
routines and knowing when to get away for relaxation.

INTEGRITY AND RELIABILITY: Integrity and reliability are the glue and fiber that
bend successful personal and business relationship and make them endure. Investors
partners, customers, creditors alike sustain trust and confidence. Small business
entrepreneur in particular find these two characteristics crucial to success.

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATIVENESS: Creativity was once regarded as an

exclusively inherited trait. An expanding school of thought believes creativity can be
acquired. New ventures often have a collective creativity that emerges from the joint
efforts of the founder and the key personnel and produces unique goods and services.

VISION: Entrepreneurs know where they want to go. They have a vision or concept
of what their firm can be but not all entrepreneurs have predetermined visions for
their firms. In many cases this vision develops over time as the individuals begins to
realize what the firm is and what it can become, based on internal performance and
environmental factors including opportunities.
Topic 5: CATEGORIES OF ENTREPRENUERSHIP: There are five important
categories of entrepreneurship, viz., Individual Entrepreneurship, corporate
entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship, social entrepreneurship, technological
entrepreneurship, and serial entrepreneurship.
INDIVIDUAL ENTREPRENUERSHIP:
The creation of new business by an individual or a group of individual
for monetary gain and pleasure without being associated with any employer for the
Inception, running and growth of their company is called individual
entrepreneurship.
The entrepreneurship education boom in the 1980’s in North America, especially
USA, brought many changes in the interests and preferences of those involved in
Entrepreneurship development. Academicians, Researchers, and policy makers have
tried a variety of methods to promote individual entrepreneurship by conducting
entrepreneurship awareness camps, business plan contests, etc. Although these
activities have been useful to a large extent in the Indian context, a major issue has
not been resolved, which comprises of the identification of prospective individual
who can be educated and trained to achieve great success in individual
entrepreneurship.

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With the 1980’s start-up became fashionable and the success stories of
entrepreneurs, especially in the context of USA have attracted the attention of
academicians and researchers, students and professionals in many parts of the world
including India started evincing interest in individual entrepreneurship. Researchers
have identified various categories of individual entrepreneurs, and types of firms
they would create in different contexts. Norman Smith’s 1967 study distinguished
between the “craftsman entrepreneur” and the “opportunistic entrepreneur”. He
suggested that the craftsman entrepreneurs had more limited cultural backgrounds
and social involvement. Furthermore, craftsman entrepreneurs have lower
propensity for long term planning, and the likelihood of heading “adaptive firms”.
Subsequent researchers divided entrepreneur into more categories. Karl Vesper
identified eleven basic types and several sub-types.

INTRAPRENUERSHIP or CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

The creation of an organisation within an organisation is called intrapreneurship or
corporate entrepreneurship.
The Liberalisation and globalization policies in different parts of the world including
India have resulted in a hyper competitive business environment. Irrespective of the
sector of operation, innovation and speed to market have become the key success
factors for any business. It is in this context the concept of intraprenuership becomes
highly significant for large organizations as well as small and medium enterprises
(SMEs). Intraprenuerial thinking has become an indispensable tool to achieve global
competitiveness. Intraprenuership may be defined as the process of using innovation
ideas to create new business within an organization. Policy makers and consultants
are considering intraprenuership equally, if not more important than
entrepreneurship, because of the contribution of intraprenuership in transforming a
small business into a large business. Intrapreneurial thinking has not been prompted
in many organisations because of four major inhibitors, viz. risk aversion
opportunity cost, ambiguity aversion, cultural clash.
The top management in many organizations has been asking the question
“why to develop intraprenuerial culture in organizations?”. The following are some of
the important reasons why organizations have to develop intrapreneurial culture.
 To achieve global competitiveness
 Stimulating innovation by making use of intraprenuerial talent
 To channel the resources of an organization in an effective and efficient
manner, which in turn can enable the organization to develop more
successful products.
 To achieve improved customer focus and cost reduction.
 To enhance the reputation and image of the organization.
 To attract highly talented employees as well as retain the current employee.
 Informal team formation and inadequate monitoring of team performance.
 Low emphasis on dissemination and commercialization.
 Poor documentation procedure and methods
 Improper maintenance of records.

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There are at least three ill effects of not promoting intraprenuership in organization.
First, employee who is creative and shrewd will be discouraged; and will not generate
any new ideas for the organization. A competitive spirit will not be enhanced
irrespective of its longevity and financial success. Third, highly talented and creative
employees will leave the organization to purse better opportunities elsewhere.
Social Entrepreneurship: The creation and operation of new businesses for
solving social problems is called social entrepreneurship. Social Entrepreneurship is
the creation of a business to develop, fund and implement solutions to social,
cultural, or environmental issues.
Technology Entrepreneurship: Creation of a business using technology is called
technology entrepreneurship.
Serial Entrepreneurship: The creation of a new business by continuously coming
up with new ideas. This obviously involves in the creation of more than one
company. This is also called habitual entrepreneurship.
Topic 6: SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position by
identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Specifically, SWOT
analysis is a foundational assessment model that measures what an organization can
and cannot do, and its potential opportunities and threats.

SWOT analysis is a basic, analytical framework that assesses what an entity —

usually a business, though it can be a place, industry or product — can and cannot
do, for factors both internal and external. Using environmental data to evaluate the
position of a company, a SWOT analysis determines what assists the firm in
accomplishing its objectives, and what obstacles it must overcome or minimize to
achieve desired results: where the organization is today, and where it may go.

Analysts present a SWOT analysis as a square with each of the four areas making up
one quadrant. This visual arrangement provides a quick overview of the company’s
position. Although all the points under a particular heading may not be of equal
importance, there is insight in seeing how the number of opportunities measures up
to the number of threats, and so forth

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Elements of a SWOT Analysis

Strengths Opportunities

Weaknesses Threats

When using SWOT analysis, an organization needs to be realistic about its good and
bad points. The organization needs to keep the analysis specific by avoiding gray
areas and analyzing in relation to real-life contexts. For example, how do the
organization’s products and services compare to those of competing firms? SWOT
analysis should be short and simple, and should avoid complexity and over-analysis
because much of the information is subjective. Thus, companies should use it as a
guide and not a prescription.

 Strengths describe what an organization excels at and separate it from the

competition: a strong brand, loyal customer base, a strong balance sheet,
unique technology and so on.
 Weaknesses stop an organization from performing at its optimum level.
They are areas where the business needs to improve to remain competitive:
higher-than-industry-average turnover, high levels of debt, an inadequate
supply chain or lack of capital.
 Opportunities refer to favorable external factors that an organization can
use to give it a competitive advantage. For example, a car manufacturer
can export its cars into a new market, increasing sales and market share, if a
country cuts tariffs.
 Threats refer to factors that have the potential to harm an organization. For
example, a drought is a threat to a wheat-producing company, as it may
destroy or reduce the crop yield. Other common threats include things like
rising costs for inputs, increasing competition, tight labour supply and so on.

Advantages of SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a great way to guide business-strategy meetings. It's powerful to

have everyone in the room to discuss the company's core strengths and
weaknesses and then move from there to defining the opportunities and threats, and

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finally to brainstorming ideas. Oftentimes, the SWOT analysis you envision before
the session changes throughout to reflect factors you were unaware of and would
never have captured if not for the group’s input.

A company can use a SWOT for overall business-strategy sessions or for a specific
segment like marketing, production or sales. This way, you can see how the overall
strategy developed off the SWOT analysis will filter down to the segments below
before committing to it. You can also work in reverse with segment-specific SWOT
analysis that feeds into an overall SWOT analysis.

Executing a SWOT Analysis

Pre-SWOT Homework

Before you set out to do a SWOT analysis with your management team or other
group, there is preparation to go through. The first step is to take a stab at creating a
company profile. This is a description of what the business does and who the main
customers are. If time allows or your company is sprawling and complex, you may
need to profile each segment to capture what they add to the business. It also helps to
outline strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats you’ve perceived so you can
prompt the group if needed.

Leading the Process

When performing a SWOT analysis, it is best to start with a clean chart. Lay out the
four quadrants and outline the content you are looking to populate it with as above,
but let the group lead off. Again, in highly segmented business you may find the leads
in the separate areas have more specialized knowledge as to the strengths and
weaknesses in their areas. In extreme cases, you may need to do a segment-by-
segment SWOT and feed it up into the larger one. For most companies, however, a
single SWOT chart captures the current condition of the business.

At first, you want to capture everything you can from the group in a rush. When the
pace of input trickles off, you can go over the chart and eliminate
duplicate/overlapping entries and ensure each entry is in the right category. Walk the
group through your reasoning if you are outright eliminating an entry or combining
concepts. This is basic courtesy and shows the company values their input. The group
can also help in adding and removing entries within the SWOT chart to distil it to a
mutually agreed upon core.

Applications and Uses of SWOT Analysis

The uses of a SWOT analysis by a community organization are as follows: to organize

information, provide insight into barriers that may be present while engaging in
social change processes, and identify strengths available that can be activated to
counteract these barriers.

A SWOT analysis can be used to:

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  Explore new solutions to problems Identify barriers that will limit
goals/objectives
 Decide on direction that will be most effective
 Reveal possibilities and limitations for change
 To revise plans to best navigate systems, communities, and organizations
 As a brainstorming and recording device as a means of communication
 To enhance "credibility of interpretation" to be used in presentation to leaders
or key supporters.

The usefulness of SWOT analysis is not limited to profit seeking organisations.

SWOT analysis may be used in any decision-making situation when a desired end-
state (objective) is defined. Examples include NGOs and individuals governmental
units, and individuals. SWOT analysis may also be used in pre-crisis planning and
preventive crisis management. SWOT analysis may also be used in creating a
recommendation during a viability/survey.

Strategy Building

SWOT analysis can be used effectively to build organizational or personal strategy.

Steps necessary to execute strategy-oriented analysis involve identification of
internal and external factors (using the popular 2x2 matrix), selection and evaluation
of the most important factors, and identification of relations existing between
internal and external features.

For instance, strong relations between strengths and opportunities can suggest good
conditions in the company and allow using an aggressive strategy. On the other
hand, strong interactions between weaknesses and threats could be analyzed as a
potential warning and advice for using a defensive strategy.

Matching and Converting

The strengths can be used to fight with threats and the weaknesses can be converted
into opportunities. One way of using SWOT is matching and converting. Matching is
used to find competitive advantage by matching the strengths to opportunities.
Another tactic is to convert weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities. An
example of a conversion strategy is to find new markets. If the threats or weaknesses
cannot be converted, a company should try to minimize or avoid them.

Corporate Planning

As part of the development of strategies and plans to enable the organization to

achieve its objectives that organization will use a systematic/rigorous process known
as corporate planning. SWOT alongside PEST/PESTLE can be used as a basis for the
analysis of business and environmental factors.

 Set objectives — defining what the organization is going to do

 Environmental scanning
o Internal appraisals of the organization's SWOT — this needs to include
an assessment of the present situation as well as a portfolio of
products/services and an analysis of the product/service lifecycle

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  Analysis of existing strategies — this should determine relevance from the
results of an internal/external appraisal. This may include gap analysis. Gap
analysis of environmental factors
 Strategic Issues defined — key factors in the development of a corporate plan
that the organization must address
 Develop new/revised strategies — revised analysis of strategic issues may
mean the objectives need to change
 Establish Critical Success Factors (CSF) — the achievement of objectives and
strategy implementation
 Preparation of operational, resource, projects plans for strategy
implementation
 Monitoring all results — mapping against plans, taking corrective action,
which may mean amending objectives/strategies.

Marketing

In many competitor analyses, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in

the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and
weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each
competitor's cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies,
competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration,
historical responses to industry developments, and other factors.

Benefits of SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis in social work practice framework is beneficial because it helps
organizations decide whether or not an objective is obtainable and therefore enables
organizations to set achievable goals, objectives, and steps to further the social
change or community development effort. It enables organizers to take visions and
produce practical and efficient outcomes that effect long-lasting change, and it helps
organizations gather meaningful information to maximize their potential.
Completing a SWOT analysis is a useful process regarding the consideration of key
organizational priorities, such as gender and cultural diversity and fundraising
objectives.

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Topic 7: Entrepreneurial Assessment
High Entrepreneurial Potential High Entrepreneurial Propensity

Low Entrepreneurial Propensity High Entrepreneurial Potential

Low Entrepreneurial Potential High Entrepreneurial Propensity

Low Entrepreneurial Propensity Low Entrepreneurial Potential

X-Axis- Entrepreneurial Propensity

Y Axis – Entrepreneurial Potential
Entrepreneurial Propensity is the inclination to start and operate one’s own business.
Entrepreneurial Potential is the ability/wherewithal to start and operate one’s own
business.
Entrepreneurial Assessment is an evaluation based on two criteria namely
Entrepreneurial Propensity and Entrepreneurial Potential that enables individuals to
know their suitability for a career in entrepreneurship.
An Entrepreneurial Assessment can be conducted by administering a few
instruments integrated in the form of a long survey. Individuals who are taking the
survey need to give their ratings (on a scale of 1 to 5), which will be interpreted by an
instructor. The score obtained on the survey will enable individuals to know their fit
with a career in entrepreneurship. The instructor will identify areas of strengths and
weaknesses of each individual and suggest corrective action to be taken.

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