Essay On Entrepreneurship Process And Inspiration From Dhirubhai Ambani.

Who is an entrepreneur and what makes him successful?

Question:

Discuss about the Opportunity Recognition Framework for Exploring Technology.

This report looks into the entrepreneurship process in business and seeks to find out what made Dhirubhai Ambani so successful in running Reliance Industries. The report examines the sources of opportunity ideas in entrepreneurship. It also explores the processes involved in opportunity identification, recognition, and exploitation in entrepreneurship. The primary focus is on who an entrepreneur is, what makes him successful and how entrepreneurs exploit opportunities in the market. It focuses on finding out who exploits the entrepreneurial possibilities in business. 

Every person who owns a business does not necessarily become, a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is characterized by technological innovations and risk taking to realize success. Entrepreneurs are driven by their will to engage in a business and develop it alongside its risks to succeed. Entrepreneurship involves identifying a business idea, developing it into a business and being able to manage its processes with the aim of realizing the profit (Casson, 2010).  Entrepreneurship opportunities have been on the rise because people want to be their own bosses as well the need of having a better commercial breakthrough. With enough determination and perseverance in entrepreneurship, a financial empire is likely to be born. Entrepreneurship requires leadership qualities and innovation to have a breakthrough in the market. For example, Dhirubhai Ambani grew to be among the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, due to his leadership skills in managing his business as well as having perseverance in business dealings. This entrepreneur grew to be a great risk taker and was able to fight competition by using the latest technology to create innovation in the Reliance Industries. Today, many people are opting to be entrepreneurs due to the availability of more advanced technology and the growing need for innovative opportunities in the corporate world market (Roy, 2011).

A person who develops an idea and transforms it into a solid business while taking high financial risks in the business management is known as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are initiators of business ideas, drivers of changes and growth and finally risk takers in business who takes accountability for the progress of the firm (Entrepreneur, 2010). To be an entrepreneur, it calls for leadership skills because entrepreneurship is more than just gaining financially. It is more of creating a strong foundation for business, providing healthy empowerment to the workforce in the organization and maintaining a high level of management in the organization. For example, Dhirubhai Ambani believed in working with determination rather than chasing money first. He believed money was not a product but a byproduct and that’s why he based his strengths in being determined and working to perfection so as to realize his goals.

Dhirubhai Ambani was an entrepreneur who drew his motivations from his personal interest and curiosity in the world of business (Tiwari, 2010). This interest grew when he started working in Aden bazars after his father got ill and was not able to work anymore, and asked Dhirubhai to take over the job. Despite his interest in pursuing a bachelor’s degree, he sacrificed and went for the job due to the prevailing situation. His curiosity in trading grew in his working life, and that’s where he got motivated to start his own business. He was motivated by other factors such as taking up the challenge of growing a company amidst the stiff competition in trading and the need to achieve his personal goals objectives

Motivation factors for entrepreneurs

Every entrepreneur out there has different motivations as to why they venture into business. Every entrepreneur is different from the other. Various factors motivate entrepreneurs. One of the major factors is a passion; many entrepreneurs venture into the business due to the passion they have towards something (Fairchild, 2011). For an entrepreneur to have the will in calculating risks, they need to have the passion for the business they want to start. There must be interest in the area of business. Another factor is the sense of independence and freedom. Entrepreneurs always love solving problems on their own and not taking orders on how to do something from someone else. This motivational factor leads to many people venturing into entrepreneurship so as to be self-reliant. A sense of accomplishment by entrepreneurs is yet another factor that motivates them. According to Landa (2013), entrepreneurship involves offering services to the surrounding society such as charity works. Thus, entrepreneurs are driven by that feeling of accomplishment.  

While already in business entrepreneurs have motivations as well. Entrepreneurs in business are motivated by the progress of their business activities. For example, when an entrepreneur hires employees and is happy with their output, this become a great motivator. Entrepreneurs find morale if everything in business is turning out positively (Entrepreneurship: Motivation, performance and risk, 2013). Another motivational factor in entrepreneurship is when entrepreneurs have a strong relationship with the staff. Entrepreneurs realize that employee’s performance and involvement in business are very crucial and they ensure that this relationship does exist. Relating well with the working staff is another motivator for entrepreneurs in business.  Most entrepreneurs are motivated by personal growth (Moorhouse, 2013). In every entrepreneurship business, an entrepreneur realizes his strengths and weaknesses and thrives hard on working on the shortcomings. He or she is fully responsible for every aspect of the business. Thus personal growth is a very crucial motivation factor.

From the above motivations it clear that money is not a motivator. Entrepreneurs are not motivated by the financial gains to be achieved because there is more to entrepreneurship than money. They are more concerned in achieving the success.

There are various sources that entrepreneurs use to get ideas for entrepreneurship opportunities (Burns, 2014);

This is the largest source of entrepreneur’s ideas. When embarking on own research, an entrepreneur can identify a lot of ideas to venture in and get ideas on how to be a successful entrepreneur.

In coming up with ideas, consumers offer an excellent source of entrepreneurial ideas. Considering the potential market is ideal especially in being able to decide on what products to major on and ensuring that the larger part of this market favors the business.

Entrepreneurs source ideas from other entrepreneurs who have existing businesses. This step helps to get ideas about the market of various products and services and the surrounding environment (Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), 2010). This step helps to get some ideas on what you can do differently from them to have a competitive advantage .for example, Dhirubhai Ambani sourced his ideas on the information he learned on trading from different businesses while he was working.

Sources of entrepreneurship ideas

Individuals who are close to entrepreneurs can be a reliable source of ideas. Individuals with the same mindset on business may source ideas from each other and end up forming a partnership with businesses (Razeghi, 2008). For example, when starting the spice and yarn business, Dhirubhai Ambani partnered with his cousin who was good in trading to start the company.

The government is a great source of ideas for entrepreneurs. The governments contain departments that offer information on products and services provided in a particular region. This resource helps an entrepreneur to identify gaps available and transform them into ideas and eventually into a business.

Entrepreneurs get some ideas from both print and mass media. Entrepreneurs get from the press through the reports of consumer needs, extracting information from adverts made by other businesses and getting to learn the gaps in the market through media business news (Mihaljevic, 2013). The media can help in sourcing few ideas for entrepreneurs. All entrepreneurs should stay up to date with the latest trends in the world market and be informed on every aspect.

The primary focus of entrepreneurs is identifying and recognizing the entrepreneurial opportunities and later exploiting the ideas into business. These opportunities include emerging markets, innovations and latest market trends. This process can be challenging to entrepreneurs. They are factors that contribute to identification and recognition of possibilities, some of them include: skills by individual entrepreneurs, the time, the nature of business and resources available (Wei Lee Lim, 2015). For entrepreneurship to take place, there must be a recognition of opportunity.

An entrepreneur must possess attributes to identify, recognize and choose the right opportunities. If opportunities with high potential, are exploited, they lead to a competitive advantage, strong productivity growth and maximization in profits. If an entrepreneur has a rich knowledge of market trends and other business information, he or she can identify and recognize an opportunity faster.

This step involves an entrepreneur being able to notice opportunities that have been under looked before in the market. It involves the entrepreneurs to be acquitted with knowledge before and being alert to opportunities (Wang, 2008). This step calls for creativity to gather information and make clear connections.

The other step involves an entrepreneur having previous knowledge of information, for example from work experiences or other past experiences. Having this prior knowledge, helps entrepreneurs to be able to recognize opportunities by creating connections between this information and the history.

The social network is an important aspect in the process of opportunity recognition.          Entrepreneurship needs to have linkage to the possibilities.  Social networks create this linkage. This resource is very crucial to an entrepreneur as it assists in gaining assistance and information from other people. This information exchanged through an entrepreneur’s social network may lead to an identification of individual opportunities. Entrepreneurs need to keep a large social network for information sharing (Baron, 2011).

The last process in the entrepreneurial process is business performance. This is how the company performs after using prior knowledge, alertness, social networks, and skills in recognizing the opportunities (In Luftig, 2012). After identifying and exploiting the opportunities, a business should indicate a massive performance.

The individuals participating in the recognition and exploitation of opportunities process are the entrepreneurs, consumers, other business owners and business mentors. The key people are entrepreneurs who identify opportunities with the indirect help of the other individuals. To be an entrepreneur is a personal choice. Anyone with the attributes to venture in entrepreneurship can be an entrepreneur.

Conclusion

From the above discussion. It is clear that entrepreneurship is a process that involves innovations to realize success in business.  It includes stimulating resources as well as people with the need to achieve objectives. It’s a process that requires a lot of knowledge in identifying, evaluation and realization of an opportunity successfully amidst the obstacles to achieve success.

References

Baron, R. (2011). Cognitive Foundations of Entrepreneurship: Creativity and opportunity recognition. London: Henry Stewart Talks.

Burns, P. (2014). New Venture Creation: A framework for entrepreneurial start-ups. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Casson, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship. Cheltenham[u.a.: Edward Elgar.

Derrick, j., M., (2013). Entrepreneurship: Motivation, performance, and risk. Nova Science.

Fairchild, R. (2011). Entrepreneurship: Motivation, performance, and risk. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), F. M. (Director). (2010). Gen.erating and Protecting Business Ideas [Motion Picture].

In Luftig, J. O.-M. (2012). Business performance excellence.

Landa, L. (. (2013). Entrepreneurship. Falls Church, VA: Landmark Media.

Mihaljevic, J. (2013). The manual of ideas: The proven framework for finding the best value investments. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

Moorhouse, D. (2013). The five -year entrepreneur: Guide 01. Bath: Always Onwards Ltd.

Razeghi, A. (2008). The riddle: Where ideas come from and how to have better ones. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Roy, R. (2011). Entrepreneurship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tiwari, P. (2010). Corporate guru, Dhirubhai Ambani. New Delhi: Diamond Pocket Books.

Wang, Y. (2008). Organizational learning, entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, and innovation performance in high technology firms in Taiwan. Dissertation Abstracts International,69-5.

Wei Lee Lim, &. S. (2015). Opportunity Recognition Framework: Exploring the Technology Entrepreneurs (Vol. 5). American Journal of Economics. doi:10.5923/c.economics.201501.10