Seminar 2: The foundations/fundamentals of

entrepreneurship and its process

Dr Amon Simba
 Starter
Business News

Any entrepreneurship stories in the

Financial Times (FT) to share with us?
 Reflection from last week
Apply this model to the situation at Dyson. Assess how the vacuum
cleaning company has been able to maintain and sustain
competitive advantage through building dynamic capabilities
To understand the fundamentals of entrepreneurship in
What are we learning for?
entrepreneurial firms

To explore the role of establishing a culture in

entrepreneurial firms

To understand the challenges of entrepreneurship

The fundamentals of entrepreneurship
 The fundamentals of entrepreneurship

Bygrave, W. D. (2004). The entrepreneurial process. In W. D. Bygrave & A. Zacharakis (Eds.). The
portable MBA in entrepreneurship (p. 3). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
 Group Activity (in groups of 3s)

 What is the role of a business incubator? What role does it play in the
development of nascent or entrepreneurial firm?
Consider
 The type of support they provide
 Its key stakeholders
 The environment they create
 Opportunities they provide
Organisational Culture
Organisational Culture & Entrepreneurship
 A culture that fuels entrepreneurship
Encourage Action
Use informal meetings whenever possible
Tolerate failure and use it as a learning experience
Reward innovation for innovation’s sake
Plan the physical layout of the enterprise to encourage informal
communication
Place people into small teams for future-oriented projects
Encourage personnel to circumvent rigid procedures & bureaucratic red
tape
Rewards & promote innovative personnel
 Group Activity (in groups of 3s)
What role does organisational culture play in facilitating an entrepreneurial
organisation? Identify organisations where culture of its owner appears to drive
day-to-day operations
Consider
 Organisations in the high technology sector
 Automobile industry
 IT
 Science etc
Entrepreneurship is a challenge
 Challenges often associated with starting and running
an entrepreneurial entity
Market opportunity identification
Limited resources
 Financial capital
 Human capital
Gender
Age
 Young and often considered inexperienced
 Market conditions
 Government policies, market turmoil
 Ten deadly mistakes of entrepreneurship
Management mistakes
Lack of experience
Poor financial control
Weak marketing efforts
Failure to develop a strategic plan
Uncontrolled growth
Poor location
Improper inventory control
Incorrect pricing
Inability to make the “entrepreneurial transition”
 Putting failure into perspective
Entrepreneurs are not paralyzed by the prospect of failure.
Failure – a natural part of the creative process.
Successful entrepreneurs learn to fail intelligently.
 Avoiding the pitfalls of failure in entrepreneurship

Know your business in depth

Develop a solid business plan
Manage financial resources
Understand financial statements
Learn to manage people effectively
Keep in tune with yourself
 Case study-based activities concerning the foundation of
entrepreneurship

In groups of 4 analyse the case studies provided

You are expected to ready to share your thoughts with the
rest of the class in 25 minutes.
 Plenary
How would one create an entrepreneurial organisation?
How is culture important in creating an entrepreneurial organisation?
What are the two main characteristics of an entrepreneurial process?
 What are the deadly mistakes of entrepreneurship?
How would you avoid the pitfalls of failure in entrepreneurship?
 What we know now
The fundamental of entrepreneurship
The role of business incubators
The role of culture in establishing an entrepreneurial firm
The challenges often associated with creating, running and establishing an
entrepreneurial venture
The pitfalls of entrepreneurship
Ways of avoiding the pitfalls and failures in entrepreneurship
Any Questions?