Entrepreneurship: is a full time job with 100% motivation

Starting up a new business is hard to do and even more difficult to be a successful new business. Why is it that many people starting of? What makes the difference between a Winner and a Laggard?

Oké, one logic explanation to start is that I got fired and nobody wants to hire me and the only thing I can (not wanted to) do is put a sign in my front yard with my name and twitter account on it hoping for the best. I know I’m good (or at least I was good) but the problem is that nobody knows it, or even worse nobody needs my goodness anymore. Instead of being an entrepreneur I become a day-worker for hire. So just starting on your own doesn’t mean you are an entrepreneur?

What are the key characteristics of an entrepreneur? Much is well documented in the startup owner’s manual from Steve Blank and Bob Dorf.

Knowing to start with untested hypotheses. It starts with a vision of a missing job-to-be-done (something what customers need to get fulfilled but can’t find yet). Although he has clear ideas of product or service to get the job-done, the entrepreneur will start immediately checking his vision with real customers.  The entrepreneur will spend more time with customers than inside his office.

Understanding the need for speed, learning and iteration. From the start you understand that the business plan will not survives the first contact with the customer. The first day, you will learn that the brutal facts in the market is different as will be the next day and you need to adjust your product, service and process to the willing customers.

Monitoring the cash-burn-rate, time (number of months cash in the bank). Understanding the key financial metric that only matter to do the job. In the time you have left, you need to find the right business model to survive. Understand (structured process for testing) what is absolutely necessary to spend time and money on to get your money machine up and running (business model hypotheses).

The motivation and courage to get into action. This is the most important internal driver for any entrepreneur to become a winner versus a laggard. Watch the nice clip of Tom Corson-Knowles explaining what I mean by that.

Entrepreneurship in Corporate Organizations

Entrepreneurship means acting in a special modus: experimental, connected to the outside, being authentic and looking for mastery. How does this fit into the typical corporate culture of global organization?

The drive for Innovations in often described in strong marketing language in order to invite employees to come with new business opportunities. But what will happen if you really want to go for this new opportunities? Experimental is oke as long as it fits into our company compliances rules. Connected to the outside world is good but as long as we can protect our knowledge and ideas. Being authentic is fantastic as long as it fits in with our personal development plan template. Mastery is important but needs to be profitable on short notice. As we experience so often, there is a huge gap between the (marketing) company values and the daily practice of balancing between freedom to take risks (entrepreneurship) and the security of our environment (hold on to your job and material benefits).

In the great story of Eric Ries's Lean Start-up we can learn how to practice entrepreneurial skills in a hostile corporate environment.

Innovation leadership study. Managing innovation: an insider perspective

Capgemini Consulting, the global strategy and transformation consulting brand of the Capgemini Group, in partnership with IESE Business School, the top ranked business school of the University of Navarra, today announced the findings of its annual global Innovation Leadership Study, examining innovation management strategies at organizations around the world. The study reveals that innovation leadership is becoming increasingly important, with 43 percent of respondents stating they have a formally accountable innovation executive in place, responsible for driving innovation, compared to just 33 percent last year. This rise of the ‘chief innovation officer’ suggests driving innovation is becoming a key priority for companies everywhere. However, despite this, the majority of companies (58 percent) still do not have an explicit innovation strategy in place, with most companies considered ‘innovation laggards’ (38 percent) and just 7 percent classed as ‘innovation leaders’.


The study, which surveyed over 260 innovation executives globally, suggests that while innovation is an emerging functional area within organizations, limited organizational strategies for driving innovation are impairing growth. Only 30 percent of respondents agree they have an effective organizational structure in place for driving innovation and less than a quarter (24 percent) believe innovation efforts within their companies are effectively aligned. This is mainly due to not having a formal organizational structure for innovation (45 percent) or a well-defined governance structure (45 percent) in place, or a lack of clear roles and responsibilities for innovation (40 percent). 39 percent of respondents also referenced the lack of an effective decision making process for innovation, largely due to not having a well defined process in place to prioritize and allocate time and funding to innovation projects

Download Report: Innovation Leadership Study
 
See reaction son Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine

Future Trends in the Value Chain shows Innovative Strategies for the New Decade

Every two years a collaborative platform of The Consumer Goods Forum, Capgemini, HP and Microsoft formulate key trends for the Value Chain. Together with top Executives from the Retail and Manufacturers Industry the third version is submitted.

In 2006 the first report 2016: A Vision of the Future Value Chain came out. The platform worked with 80 Executives of Global Organizations to collect the key trends for the industry. 2 global workshops are initiated (Utrecht, NL & Chicago, USA). The key message was: New Ways of Working Together in the Value Chain.

Two years later (2008) the second edition was born 2018: Succeeding in a Volatile Market. In this year already 130 Executives participated in several workshops: Global workshop (Utrecht, NL), Asian workshops: Hong Kong (Asian region), Mumbai (Indian market), Tokyo (Japanese market). The key trends pointed out: Changing society, Rising cost (and scarcity) of raw materials, Increasing awareness and action on sustainability, Growing consumer access to technology and Changing business models.

In 2010 the last report was fomulated 2020: Building Strategies for the New Decade. The number of participants in several workshops had been 200 Executives. Global workshop (Chantilly, FR), Regional workshop GS1 in Europe (Antwerp, BE) en diverse Country workshops: Australia (Melbourne), France (Paris), Netherlands (Utrecht), US (Chicago), Mexico (Mexico City). De most important trends from this year are: Make our business more sustainable (From niche to norm), Optimize a shared supply chain (Collaborate differently, compete differently); Engage with technology-enabled consumers (The consumer in the driver’s seat), Serve the health and wellbeing of consumers (Focus on quality of life). For more detailed outcome of the report please visit my slide share space.

What we see in the past 6 years is that Asia is rapidly becoming the key region for the new global innovative business strategies for corporate players. I like the discussion about the outcome of the Future value Chain reports during my Academic Guest Lectures or when I speak at international Innovation forums.
My experiences is that many organizations are talking about it but a few are acting upon it.

Koen Klokgieters