ENTRPRENEURSHIP

1. ENTRPRENEURSHIP UNIT 2 FACTORS INFLUENCING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

2. FACTORS INFLUENCING ENTREPRENEURSHIP • Personal Characteristics • Unsatisfactory work environment • Creative Thinking and Problem Solving abilities • Career and Lifestyle Changes • Leadership and Team work • Favourable Environmental Conditions • Perceptions of Desirability and Feasibility

3. The 10 PERSONAL COMPETENCIES OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS • Calculated Risk-taking approach • Self-confidence • Creativity • Persistence • Demand for Quality and Efficiency • Goal Setting • Systematic Planning • Persuasion and Networking • Commitment to Contract • Opportunity Identification

4. Unsatisfactory work environment • How does the work environment impact entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning? • Four factors were identified as being crucial in the entrepreneurial learning process, namely: support and guidance, external interaction, internal communication, and task characteristics • Different types of business opportunities presented different dynamics for entrepreneurial learning. 

5. Unsatisfactory work environment • Problems • inadequate resources and equipment, • poor working conditions, • occupational health and safety issues. • Strategies • feedback from employees should alert management to fix the problems, as should data from job analysis, • OHS audits and inspections

6. Unsatisfactory work environment • breaches of work practices, procedures and rules — such as breaching occupational health and safety requirements, excessive absenteeism, theft, harassment of other employees, etc; and • employees' personal problems — usually 'off-the-job' issues that affect their performance at work. • HOW WOULD YOU FIX THESE ISSUES?

7. Unsatisfactory work environment • A simple definition of unsatisfactory job performance is a gap between the employee's actual performance and the level of performance required by the organisation. • There are three basic types of poor performance: • unsatisfactory work content — in terms of quantity, quality, etc;

8. Unsatisfactory work environment • Remember, there is more to performance management than identifying what is wrong. You must back up the diagnosis with active steps to fix the problems and prevent them from recurring. This requires ongoing support, resources and reviews of progress. 

9. CREATIVE THINKING • What is CREATIVE THINKING? • the process we use to develop ideas that are unique, useful and worthy of further elaboration

10. Creative Thinkers • Consider rejecting standardized formats for problem solving. • Have an interest in a wide range of related and divergent fields. • Take multiple perspectives on a problem. • Use trial-and-error methods in their experimentation. • Have a future orientation. • Have self-confidence and trust in their own judgment.

11. Improving Your Creative Abilities • Keep track of your ideas at all times. Many times ideas come at unexpected times. If an idea is not written down within 24 hours it will usually be forgotten • Pose new questions to yourself every day. An inquiring mind is a creatively active one that enlarges its area of awareness. • Keep abreast of your field. Read the magazines, trade journals, and other literature in your field to make sure you are not using yesterday's technology to solve toady's problems.

12. Improving Your Creative Abilities • Engage in creative hobbies. Hobbies can also help you relax. An active mind is necessary for creative growth. • Have courage and self-confidence. Be a paradigm pioneer. Assume that you can and will indeed solve the problem Persist and have the tenacity to overcome obstacles that block the solution pathway.

13. Improving Your Creative Abilities • Learn to know and understand yourself. Deepen your self-knowledge by learning your real strengths, skills, weaknesses, dislike, biases, expectations, fears and prejudices. • Learn about things outside your specialty. Use cross-fertilization to bring ideas and concepts from one field or specialty to another. • Avoid rigid, set patterns of doing things. Overcome biases and preconceived notions by looking at the problem from a fresh view point, always developing at least two or more alternative solutions to your problem.

14. Improving Your Creative Abilities • Be open and receptive to ideas (yours and others). New ideas are fragile; keep them from breaking by seizing on the tentative, half formed concepts and possibilities and developing them. • Be alert in your observations. Look for similarities, differences, as well as unique and distinguishing features in situations and problems.

15. Improving Your Creative Abilities • Adopt a risk taking attitude. Fear of failure is the major impediment to generating solutions which are risky (i.e., small chance of succeeding) but would have a major impact if they are successful. Outlining the ways you could fail and how you would deal with these failures will reduce this obstacle to creativity. • Keep your sense of humor. You are more creative when you are relaxed. Humor aids in putting your problems (and yourself) in perspective. Many times it relieves tension and makes you more relaxed. • Taken from http://www.umich.edu/~elements/probsolv/strategy/crit-n-creat.htm

16. Problem Solving Abilities • Everybody can benefit from having good problem solving skills as we all encounter problems on a daily basis; some of these problems are obviously more severe or complex than others. • Businesses fail because of poor problem solving • This is often due to either problems not being recognised or being recognised but not being dealt with appropriately. Solving a problem involves a certain amount of risk - this risk needs to be weighed up against not solving the problem. • Find more at: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/problem-solving.html#ixzz2tX1zwrBY

17. Problem Solving Abilities • What is a Problem? • The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) defines a problem as: • “A doubtful or difficult matter requiring a solution” • and • “Something hard to understand or accomplish or deal with.” • All problems have two features in common: goals and barriers. • Find more at: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/problem-solving.html#ixzz2tX3Rm2wX

18. Problem Solving Abilities • Goals • Problems involve setting out to achieve some objective or desired state of affairs and can include avoiding a situation or event. • Goals can be anything that you wish to achieve, where you want to be. If you are hungry then your goal is probably to eat something, if you are a head of an organisation (CEO) then your main goal may be to maximise profits. In the example of the CEO the main goal may need to be split into numerous sub-goals in order to fulfil the ultimate goal of increasing profits.

19. Problem Solving Abilities • Barriers • If there were no barriers in the way of achieving a goal, then there would be no problem.  Problem solving involves overcoming the barriers or obstacles that prevent the immediate achievement of goals. • Following our examples above, if you feel hungry then your goal is to eat. A barrier to this may be that you have no food available - you take a trip to the supermarket and buy some food, removing the barrier and thus solving the problem. Of course for the CEO wanting to increase profits there may be many more barriers preventing the goal from being reached. The CEO needs to attempt to recognise these barriers and remove them or find other ways to achieve the goals of the organisation.

20. Stages of Problem Solving • Effective problem solving usually involves working through a number of steps or stages, such as those outlined below. • Problem Identification: • This stage involves: detecting and recognising that there is a problem; identifying the nature of the problem; defining the problem. • The first phase of problem solving may sound obvious but often requires more thought and analysis. Identifying a problem can be a difficult task in itself, is there a problem at all? What is the nature of the problem, are there in fact numerous problems? How can the problem be best defined? - by spending some time defining the problem you will not only understand it more clearly yourself but be able to communicate its nature to others, this leads to the second phase.

21. Problem Solving Abilities • Structuring the Problem: • This stage involves: a period of observation, careful inspection, fact-finding and developing a clear picture of the problem. • Following on from problem identification, structuring the problem is all about gaining more information about the problem and increasing understanding. This phase is all about fact finding and analysis, building a more comprehensive picture of both the goal(s) and the barrier(s). This stage may not be necessary for very simple problems but is essential for problems of a more complex nature.

22. Problem Solving Abilities • Looking for Possible Solutions: • During this stage you will generate a range of possible courses of action, but with little attempt to evaluate them at this stage. • From the information gathered in the first two phases of the problem solving framework it is now time to start thinking about possible solutions to the identified problem. In a group situation this stage is often carried out as a brain-storming session, letting each person in the group express their views on possible solutions (or part solutions). In organisations different people will have different expertise in different areas and it is useful, therefore, to hear the views of each concerned party.

23. Problem Solving Abilities • Making a Decision: • This stage involves careful analysis of the different possible courses of action and then selecting the best solution for implementation. • This is perhaps the most complex part of the problem solving process. Following on from the previous step it is now time to look at each potential solution and carefully analyse it. Some solutions may not be possible, due to other problems, like time constraints or budgets. It is important at this stage to also consider what might happen if nothing was done to solve the problem - sometimes trying to solve a problem that leads to many more problems requires some very creative thinking and innovative ideas. • Finally, make a decision on which course of action to take - decision making is an important skill in itself.

24. Problem Solving Abilities • Implementation: • This stage involves accepting and carrying out the chosen course of action. • Implementation means acting on the chosen solution. During implementation more problems may arise especially if identification or structuring of the original problem was not carried out fully. Find more at: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/problem-solving.html#ixzz2tX448pTg

25. Problem Solving Abilities • Monitoring/Seeking Feedback: • The last stage is about reviewing the outcomes of problem solving over a period of time, including seeking feedback as to the success of the outcomes of the chosen solution. • The final stage of problem solving is concerned with checking that the process was successful. This can be achieved by monitoring and gaining feedback from people affected by any changes that occurred. It is good practice to keep a record of outcomes and any additional problems that occurred.

26. Career & Lifestyle Changes • Write a 400 -600 word essay on the career and lifestyle changes that an entrepreneur goes through. • DUE ON THURSDAY 20th FEB,2014