Some Strategies by Successful Entrepreneurs 02

1. Using Microscope and Telescope

It is kind of a necessity for an entrepreneur to have a microscope and telescope at the same time (Alex McMillan 2003). An entrepreneur should really have a steam ahead is the one that can learn from the past and also see good in the future – which means being a person who is very flexible and takes many different perspectives before coming to decisions. The long-term strategist and visionary is blended with the practical, active person.

2. Be Decisive - but Explore all Options

One must learn in business how to wait and be patient. It is good to take most the available opportunities but not all opportunities are to be taken. For a successful business he/she must spend much time before taking a decision.

3. Be Flexible – for a Wider and Multiple perspective

For a successful business, trying different approaches are also sometimes key for success. Looking the challenges from a different point of view often produces ideas. Giving everyone in the organization an equal chance to have their say –brainstorming – can be one way for having multiple ideas for the successful business.

4. Always have a PLAN B

Sometimes just thinking ahead is not enough for a successful business person. Another commonality among the successful entrepreneurs is having a plan B for their business. So, often when their competitors think that they have caught them out they would show that they had made emergency plans for exactly that kind of situation.

5. Spread the Word and Moving Fast

The most effective, reliable and cheapest marketing is the word of mouth and personal recommendation. People who are buying on recommendations are also less likely to bargain on price as they are almost already convinced of quality and service of the product and/or service. Also it requires to move fast, as business is always about deadlines and meeting them is critical for success and a good impression on the customers. We know that Microsoft has spent years developing and improving an operating system for common use. Although in the earlier version there were some bugs but it still offered more than its competitors, which shows their commitment of moving fast and getting feedback from the customers which lead to enhancements.

6. Keep things Simple and Keeping the Strengths

It is also a responsibility of an entrepreneur to keep the operations of the business simple for everyone working in the organization so that they might not feel that structure or working of the organization is something like extraordinary for them (especially when the firm is growing, so to minimize the internal turmoil in the firm) and must consider people and the working staff as their main strength as it is people who are the real assets and strength of the organization. Other than that the business owner must also look not only to makes the materialistic strengths more powerful but also try to look deeply into the business operations and minimizing the weaknesses.

Entrepreneur as Follower

Followership Styles as defined by Stewart L. Tubbs (2004) are behavioral tendencies people have toward authority figures (e.g., obedient versus rebellious). To be effective in this type of leadership role, one must first secure the respect of his/her team members in at least one of the following three areas:

1. Knowledge: Entrepreneur must have respected expertise and proven judgment in areas relevant to the team's goals.

2. People Skills: He/she must care about the team members and value the team's goals.

3. Performance: He/she must show that he/she is willing to take on tasks and activities that actually help the team meet their goals.

An observer of such a team would see that at any moment, the person on the team who has either information, wisdom, or creativity to offer steps quietly forward to assume the leadership position.

After one has delivered the knowledge to the group, he/she then steps quietly back into the role of a follower, as the next person slips into the leadership position. This outgoing tide and flow of leadership and followership is one of the hallmarks of a highly-functioning and productive team.
Many of the leaders do not want to be followers and for them being follower is imagined as inferior beings in need of the leader’s direction, motivation, and protection. We need to rethink this outdated script. While, the leadership for them common script in which the leader is in charge, saying, “You do this, and you do that, and don’t do this”.

Collectively, one can grow the followership field so that it makes powerful contributions to society and to the individuals who make up society and an entrepreneur must also look his/her role as follower not only from the good ideas inside the organization but also from the other institutes.

References:

• Angela Thody (2003) in Leadership and Policy in Schools, Followership in educational organizations: a pilot mapping of the territory
• Chaleff, I. (1995) The courageous follower: standing up to our leaders, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
• Furnham, A. (1997) The Psychology of Behaviour at Work: The Individual and The Organization, Hove: Psychology Press.

Entrepreneurship in Rent seeking Enviornment

Rent seeking is defined as a situation in which an individual or firm makes money by manipulating economic environment rather than by profit making through trade and production of wealth. Rent seeking can be obtained by some settings and traditional profit seeking obtains by others, it is not because of differing modes of rationality among economic agents but because of the institutions that characterize those settings. (Roby Rajan Carl Journal 1988)

When wealth transfers it can be achieved through government provided wealth transfers. Economic agents will expend efforts toward attempting to influence government actions in their favor in order to accumulate wealth.

In the context of the economy of a poor country, welfare losses induced by rent seeking are likely to be more significant than the losses originating from the traditional price distorting effects of taxes and subsidies.

Few ways by which it can have an effect on the economy of the country are by:

· Conferring of a monopoly through a license or patent (e.g., for a time being, usually a way to have a competitive advantage)

· Obtaining resources at below the market prices (e.g., publicly provided land at cheaper rates than market to influential groups)

· Protection from competition (e.g., restriction of number of players in a market)

· Manipulation of government subsidies, tariff and tax policies in the developing economies

From a theoretical and practical standpoints, rent seeking can have significant effects on the ecnomoy. If "buying" a favorable regulatory environment is cheaper than building more efficient production, a firm will choose the cheaper option, and then reaping incomes entirely unrelated to any contribution to total wealth or well-being. Thus, it is one process, which needs to be controlled by the government specially, so that government can initiate people to work entrepreneurially.

References:

· Entrepreneurship & Rent Seeking in India by Roby Rajan Carl Journal Vol.8, No. 1 1988
· Buchanan, James M. “Rent Seeking and Profit Seeking.” In Toward a Theory of the Rent Seeking Society 1980Kirzner, Israel. Competition and Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.