ABSTRACT
This article is an attempt to allow the reader to be specific in the specialism of entrepreneurship while understanding the core concept of the entrepreneur and leader, and its transformation from an entrepreneurial perspective. The content is constructed with research studies of published resources, which would allow the reader to dive deep into the perspective stream to determine how they could be the person to whom the article referred hitherto.
Keywords: entrepreneur, leader, entrepreneurship, leadership
INTRODUCTION
The industrial world has been changing with new adaptations to its fundamental nature due to technological advancements. Nowadays, industrial competitiveness has been increasing while creating many entrepreneurial trends and prospects for innovative people with advanced technology. Open economic potentials caused by globalization have been creating one vast network, which has covered almost every part of the world, regardless of developed or undeveloped countries. Under this globalized network, the spotlight has been turned to the entrepreneur who introduces brand new innovative ideas and concepts with an intention to generate profits and opportunities. This is where Entrepreneurship as an economic and enterprise term has been overtaken by the globalized economic ideologies while engaging in free trade among all nations. Perhaps, most of the people in this world with an innovative idea realize that they have been given the chance to create their concept to its existence, somehow, depending on their vision, missions, and ethics (E.g.: The Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma founded Alibaba group that leads almost 1/3 of the e-commerce world and has taken over the internal and external industries of the Chinese economy.).
“The entrepreneur is one who uses all means of production to create profit through the value of the products that are thereby created” (Agard, 2011), this is the very earliest definition of entrepreneur, which was declared by Jean Baptiste Say in the year of 1816. His definition of an entrepreneur is vivid, and it exposes that whomever the person innovates or produces products with an intention to sell and generate profits, has been economically categorized as a significant character even more than 100 years ago by the social and economic system. Due to this characterized standout persona: the entrepreneur, thereby receives an important ethical value as a social icon in society. Eventually, this persona as an entrepreneur with his achievements transforms into a leader because he/she creates opportunities for others without expecting anything in return. This is where the entrepreneur becomes a leader with social and enterprise responsibilities. “A leader is someone you opt to follow to a place you would not go by yourself” (Smith and Cockburn, 2021) according to Joel Baker’s definition of the leader in the year of 1990s, clearly accentuates that a leader tends to guide a group of people while being a vision to them, and the followers trust the leader exceptionally because they believe there will be a benefit in their choice by following the leader at the present moment to the future.
However, entrepreneurship and leadership are comprehensively related terms, which influence one on the other. But it doesn’t mean an entrepreneur has to be a leader in order to exist in entrepreneurship; because the mere expectation of an entrepreneur is to create profits, and it depends on the entrepreneur’s choice, vision, and personality to become a leader. Leadership is an ethical quality and a mindset that an entrepreneur can adapt if they have a motive to inspire many followers who have the same agenda as them.
OVERVIEW
WHO IS AN ENTREPRENEUR?
Entrepreneurs are all-time risk-takers, they have emerged faith in any concept, which they tend to proceed with in order to generate profits. Jean Baptiste Say’s definition of the entrepreneur as mentioned above, describes that since historical time, the entrepreneur has been categorized as a contribution to the economy. But in today’s world, the entrepreneur’s value is much likely declining to an image as a rugged and heroic individual (Ruef,2010). The reason for this matter is due to continuously increasing competition among the business industry and pretentious intentions of entrepreneurs to achieve power over the system.
Nowadays, people tend to engage in any activity to earn their daily expenses if the government is not paying them a benefit payment, or they know they would starve without a daily meal. In fact, there is only one law left in this economic gesture: people have to be employed for an organization, or they must create or produce a product to trade, or they must sell or distribute a product that has already been created or produced. The social order is maintained in that particular viewpoint. But on the other hand, this technologically progressive world offers a free economy—if a person tends to be motivated to find his/her daily expenses through new inventions or innovations or perhaps a startup enterprise, the economy is broadly open, regardless of the person’s identity—they just have to work hard and earn it—this is where the true entrepreneurship exist.
Entrepreneurs can be divided into two different segments as Commercial Entrepreneurs and Social Entrepreneurs. Commercial entrepreneurs have an intention to accumulate wealth for personal and commercial purposes by expecting profits, turnover, and market shares in return for the products or services they provide (Shukla, 2020). According to Paul Light’s definition in the year 2006, “a Social entrepreneur is an individual, group, network, organization, or alliance of organizations that seeks large-scale change through pattern-breaking ideas in how governments, non-profits, and businesses can address significant social entrepreneurs” (Agard, 2011). Commercial entrepreneurs are highly motivated by profit while social entrepreneurs are occupied by a social mission. But both of these entrepreneurs hold only one desire—to serve themselves while serving others.
Once there was a video uploaded on Facebook and YouTube regarding a man, washing windshields in traffic. In the video, he started washing the windshield of a random car in traffic without asking. The owner of the car called him closer, grabbed his soap bottle, and said, “this is old school.” Then he gave him a box of masks during the Covid-19 pandemic time for him to sell and make profits. In the meantime, he gave the man some money saying, “this is how you sell,” and showed him the value of a mask by buying one out of the given box: taught him how to sell. Later, when he searched for him the next day at the same spot, the man has already started generating profits and wanted to invest his money to purchase more products from him.
This video-recorded event exposed the real meaning of entrepreneurship because both the man who tried to wash the windshield and the man who offered the box of masks showed characteristics of a true entrepreneur. However, the man who offered the box of masks did not expect the other man to pay for what he offered, but on the other hand, the man who took the box of masks had a desire to sell the product and accumulate profit with an intention to invest in the same activity. Nonetheless, entrepreneur and entrepreneurship exist in almost every corner of this world, which cannot be determined by an exact prospect or segregated as a concept. People become entrepreneurs intentionally or unintentionally because they attempt to be occupied while searching for any source of income, which can support their living i.e.: they frequently look for residual incomes.
Entrepreneurs are clever thinkers; they can define a business idea in ten different concepts while proceeding with a propagation. They prefer to favor themselves while favoring another person. Exclusivity is their key assimilation in success. Therefore, they have become a great contribution to the local and global economy by innovation and creating new employment opportunities. This review will introduce five key elements to evaluate skills and attributes that conceptualize a successful entrepreneur.
Strategic thinking: They prefer to establish what they desire the most in order to gain advantages for their establishment. Immediate feedbacks are their expectations from other parties to develop their concept while searching for perfection with revolutionizing ideas. They are prudence and achievement-oriented, also focus on their concepts with keen foresight.
Risk-taking: They do not doubt their entrepreneurial investment, thus sunk in a hard-working attitude, they continue with taking responsibilities to achieve goals. Planning and organizing abilities are their main focus to reduce risks and prefer to practice self-reliance and independence rather than waiting for others to support or help their concepts. Business acumen and sincerity allow them to keep close relationships with other parties to lessen risk through their business visions and missions.
Introducing futuristic curriculums: They have an innovative spirit. Innovation is the main aspect for them to seek changes in the industry while introducing advanced features for new or existing products through their creativity. Most of the entrepreneurs are visionaries, they are liable to have a futuristic vision when generating new ideas; also, they have high confidence in their ability to succeed with their futuristic curriculums.
Comprehensive social serving: They have a heart in their entrepreneurial perspectives because they create their concepts relying upon a long-term vision. They have strong desires in contributing to society through social missions while establishing their concepts: partnering with nonprofit organizations or introducing green concepts. They do not adhere to a specific location, instead, they do research in global and local economies to create new opportunities. According to the economic changes and variations, they are well educated and experienced to adapt accordingly by using their instincts.
Advance managerial skills: They hold immense interpersonal skills when dealing on behalf of their business prospects. Most startup entrepreneurs work as managers for their businesses. So, they believe in resiliency when negotiating with other parties or their employees to manage their businesses. They have a high level of energy that they are entirely dedicated to reaching their visions and missions. Their management style is advanced and optimistic at all times. And they keep close public relations to develop and propagate their concepts throughout their creation.
WHO IS A LEADER?
The world has been inspired by many leaders since historical times. Leaders are made because of an exigent reason i.e. leaders are chosen and made due to an insistent circumstance. Most of the time, there is an apparent reason for a leader to come into power. People choose a leader depending on a person’s character and how much that person can endure in a period of time in order to serve the community. There are high expectations in people when they vote to choose a leader in any geographic location. According to Baker’s definition of the leader, as mentioned earlier in this paper—at all times, people tend to rely on an ideal person whomever they bring to power by expecting that person to guide them appropriately. Also, they believe that they deserve to receive the best experience from the leader in return for the vote in a duration of time.
The leader has to be a strategic thinker and a planner with the ability to handle a group of people according to various circumstances. Thus, their leadership style and approach have to be concerned with the situation if they tend to determine appropriate solutions nonetheless. There are three basic Leadership Styles introduced by Lewin’s Iowa Study that has been discussed throughout the world. Autocratic Leadership: repressive ideologies are given by the leader and the others will be thoroughly ordered to carry out tasks to meet expectations. Democratic Leadership: the leader will be supporting and guiding the group members while contributing to carrying out tasks by exploring his/her team’s inputs. Laissez-Faire Leadership: a leader is delegating and offers less guidance to the team while expecting them to make decisions with responsibilities (Patrick and Andriopoulos, 2014). And there are four basic leadership approaches introduced by Ebert and Griffin: Trait approach: Leadership is determined by the essential characteristic of a leader. It has been distinguished by intelligence, confidence and knowledge about the job, previous experiences, and understanding of the social norms and democracy. Situational approach: Leadership has to be differentiated upon different situations to lead followers. Also, leaders and followers have to work together for better outcomes. Behavioral approach: Leadership is focused strictly on leaders’ behavior, and it determines by their style and how accurately they function as leaders. Transactional Leaders: Leadership is focused on training and coaching followers while motivating them to achieve tasks and goals (Ebert and Griffin, 2015).
Leaders are organized with the course to follow up with their unique leadership style in order to lead affluently and strategically according to the particular circumstance. Once the Ford Motor Company had to face a downturn crisis of $3.3 billion lost between 1980 and 1982. In contrast to the newly elected president of the company, Donald Peterson had decided to serve as a catalyst, who expected his employees to come up with solutions themselves rather than he himself looking for answers. However, he had a participative leadership style i.e. a democratic leadership style while maintaining a low profile, which allowed him to obtain a correct vision and understanding of the leader, follower, and the situation to execute strategic plans and solutions with the help of his team. Yet, Peterson and the Ford company reached an astounding success in 1987 by a remarkable profit surpass while competing in the industry after the calamity (Pascale, 1991). Ford company’s story is a great example that exposes strategic leadership due to its leader’s unique leadership style. Another example of leadership and leader is limited to the situation has proven by Sir Winston Churchill’s story during WWII. He served in different leadership positions prior to the WWII incident, but due to the Royal request and much-needed decision-making intricacy, he was brought into power (Perry, 2010). His best performances were not highlighted until the events of Dunkirk. Nonetheless, he showed extraordinary achievements as a talented leader; but when the war was over, most of the parliament and his country voted him out of office, and they believed he was not compatible to lead anymore because of his leadership style (Zenger and Folkman, 2002). Therefore, the leader has to be a person who can prevent pitfalls—think and plan strategically to approach and inspire a group of followers with a correct vision and a mission while adapting to the particular circumstance.
TRAITS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR AND A LEADER
"The entrepreneurial leader is a 'one-man army,' and his army is his thoughts, ideas, skills, and personality, so he intelligently uses his army to be successful from the perspective of Entrepreneurship and Leadership."
FROM A SMALL SPACE TO A CORPORATE BUILDING
Entrepreneurial overview of Jeff Bezos and Amazon
Jeff Bezos started Amazon in July 1994 as a small book store in his garage located in Seattle. He was employed as a vice president at an investment company in New York even before moving to Seattle, but he decided to leave the company with a high risk to start his business idea from the scratch. In 1992, when he started the company, the internet was overtaking most parts of the USA. He addressed, “I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast.” His vision was extensive even though he started the company as a small startup. Due to the high demand for e-commerce, Bezos decided to analyze 20 products that he would be able to market and sell online. His strategic entrepreneurial approach was smart.
Finally, he decided to proceed with his listing with books rather than other products because books do not have an expiration date, and there is no need for tryouts since all published books are identical from one bookstore to another, so he introduced customers to purchase books as gifts. At the start, he only had one employee working for him apart from his wife. Therefore, he hired another employee that can team up and develop the website. On July 16th, 1995, Amazon launched its website. Within the first week, the business received $12,000 worth of book orders, and by the end of the month, Amazon generated increasing profits by reaching out to 50 states in the USA and 45 countries around the world.
Bezos had a hard-working attitude and a strong desire to compete with other retailers in the industry. He always motivated his employees to be committed and competitive. Because of his frugal thinking, he used the best cost-effective methods to fund his company: he used door furniture to build desks for the company, requested his employees to pay for their own parking tickets, leased a private jet for the company, invested in new internet companies and advancing technology. In May 1997, Amazon released the company’s stock to the public with an initial public offering (IPO), and raise $54 million. Eventually, Amazon has become one of the leading bookstores in the world by overtaking both Barnes & Noble and Borders. Thus, Jeff Bezos is a fine idol who inspired the world when it comes to entrepreneurship and leadership. However, his strong desire motivated himself and his employees to stand in the place where they have reached today. (Moore, 2019)
ENTREPRENEUR SERVES THE SOCIETY AS A LEADER
Today’s society is inspired politically and economically by many leaders. But, out of all leaders, entrepreneurs have been an important part of many countries because of their innovative and social serving desire. The entrepreneurs work under clear social visions and multiple missions. They tend to invest in one project after another, expecting to create more opportunities for themselves and others. Empiricism is the key trait that guides them to think and serve as leaders in society. However, as they become leaders from the phase as entrepreneurs, they are not only retaining themselves in the core concept of profit-making for development, they also wish to inspire others, regardless of the consequences i.e. they become heroes as a leader for being dedicated to serving the community where they bloomed from as a child with high hopes.
The above introduction will be elaborated through the reputation of two business magnets and entrepreneurs when they had been called upon a meeting with Hillary Clinton. Mukesh Ambani, who was estimated to be worth a wealth, which exceeded $19 billion at the time—explained his mission to control emissions through innovative technology with a creative solution to reduce strain between developed and developing nations. Also, Ratan Tata, who owns a reputed company in the Indian subcontinent—explained how his enterprise was volunteering to provide nutrients through milk products to children across India. (Cappelli, Singh, Singh, and Useem, 2010)
These two leaders had not only exposed a micro concept but an international trait, which can influence other entrepreneurs to become leaders nonetheless.CONCLUSION
The above content offers a brief idea to determine what entrepreneurship and leadership are and how they interrelate with each other. It can be concluded as follows, imagine if a person with a small innovative idea starts an entrepreneurial concept from scratch while struggling too hard to establish what he desired the most, he then becomes an entrepreneur who tends to drag in opportunities for himself and all the others while introducing innovative concepts to be more advanced and empirical at the same time. He then eventually transforms himself into a leader with the reputation he created for himself, thus ending up as a national hero nonetheless. In contrast, the entrepreneur—with missions and a far kind vision—is a key to the society and a country's economy under the guidance of his own leadership, which would not once be second to none.
REFERENCE
Agard, K., 2011. Leadership in nonprofit organizations. Los Angeles [etc.]: Sage Publications, p.476 – 477
Capelli, P., Singh, H., Singh, J. and Useem, M., 2010. The India Way. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, p3.
Ebert, R. and Griffin, R., 2015. Business Essentials. 10th ed. London: Pearson Education, Inc., pp.09-33.
Patrick, D. and Andriopoulos, C., 2014. Managing Change, Creativity And Innovation. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, p.186.
Shukla, M., 2020. Social entrepreneurship in India. New Delhi: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd., p.80.
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