Entrepreneurship Assignment: Managing A Business Enterprise

Question

Task:
The saying goes: “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.”
Kets de Vries and Manfred (1985) state: “For some entrepreneurs … the high degree of energy necessary to achieve a dream has desires and needs behind it that if let loose can wreak havoc in an organization.”

All people have strengths and weaknesses. The strength of an entrepreneur is to be able to create new and successful businesses. This is celebrated by the business community and encouraged by politicians because, among other things, it helps grow the economy and reduces the social costs of unemployment.

The weaknesses of an entrepreneur may go un-noticed by many, but can be all to evident to those on the receiving end of their fury or sharp business practice. The infamous rage of Steve Jobs in pursuit of perfection built one of the largest companies in the world by creating some of the most desirable and most popular consumer products ever seen.

So can you make an omelette without breaking eggs? Is the downside of difficult behaviour or shady business dealings an acceptable trade-off for the success and wealth that entrepreneurs create?

Write an entrepreneurship assignment critically discussing this question. Make specific reference to the activities of two well-known entrepreneurs to help illustrate your position.

Answer

Introduction to Entrepreneurship Assignment
The definition for term “entrepreneurship” has remained constant for decades, but the possibilities for aspiring entrepreneurs have progressed. Let’s see what meant entrepreneurship 100 years back and what options had with entrepreneurs at that time; it was simple that if anyone is not financially strong or didn’t have sufficient resources to raise capital, it can’t work out. But, look at the today, things have come a long way, according to Google, today, there are more than 582 million entrepreneurs in the world. It simply means, the pool is full of opportunities and it is up to an entrepreneur’s skill, expertise, and willpower that how he going to make the most out of it.

(Figure 1: Rise of Entrepreneurship)

So, entrepreneurship is a type of business where an individual captures a market problem or an opportunity and offer a solution to the problem by producing a specific product or service. In today’s business, it can also be an innovative idea, a service that can bring ease in consumers’ buying journey, bring a social change, or anything. The objective of an entrepreneurship firm is to make profits.

In this report, entrepreneurship from every aspect will be discussed followed by positive and negative sides of entrepreneurship, key traits of successful entrepreneurs, etc. The next phase of the report will discuss entrepreneurial journey of two most successful entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, considering the saying “can you make an omelet without breaking eggs”?

Theoretical Background of Entrepreneurship
The concept of setting up and managing a business enterprise to gain profit while dealing with a lot of risks of the corporate world is known as entrepreneurship (Venkataraman, 2019). Any individual who starts a new business on his own is known as entrepreneur. The role of entrepreneurship is quite high in the economic development and generating new marketplace opportunities across the globe.

Entrepreneurial Attributes/traits of Entrepreneurs
The entrepreneurs’ innovation skill is considered the significant amongst all. Furthermore, an entrepreneur can become successful and take his startup a long way with the ability to innovate, generate new ideas, and the ability to address existing consumers’ problems with unique ideas for the business purpose (Hjorth, Holt & Steyaert, 2015). Apart from this, an entrepreneur should be well-aware of the leadership qualities in order to successfully lead his subordinates and establish a collaborative workplace environment.

Positive and Negative Sides of Entrepreneurship
Social Media
The social media has played a vital role in revolutionizing the term entrepreneurship. Social media platforms have generated a numerous employment and entrepreneurship opportunities (Liang, Wang & Lazear, 2018). Along with this modern day perks, social media lets entrepreneurs make their way into the global marketplace. Businesses use social media platforms on a large scale to approach its target audience. Entrepreneurship in the modern day is considered something any independent individual with leadership qualities would opt for.

Contemporary Entrepreneur
Everyone believes that the social media and technologies have generated more opportunities for people to become entrepreneurs and successfully implement their business plans, but the reality is that these factors have made entrepreneurship more complex. On the one hand, businesses can easily reach out to their target audience; on the other, it has also increased the workload of an entrepreneur. The marketplace has become demanding, consumers’ expectations have reached to a next level, and the need for innovative ideas is readily increasing (Boudreaux, Nikolaev & Klein, 2019). It has become quite difficult for today’s entrepreneurs to come with new and unique ideas, as each field and market is well-equipped with modern products and services. So, it can be said that as many as advantages, the entrepreneurship is also accompanied by various disadvantages.

Challenges and Criticism
It is believed that entrepreneurship is the best way out for people who prefers to be their own bosses and are in not favor of working under someone else. This statement might be true to a limited extent; however, the fact also cannot be denied that from the moment a person chooses entrepreneurship as a career option, the challenges arise (Kets de Vries & Manfred, 1985). An entrepreneur confronts criticism at every phase of his entrepreneurship journey from friends, relatives, outsiders, and even from family members sometimes.

Monotonous Ideas
The burden of coming with a new idea can only be felt by an entrepreneur because the only way out to successful establish own business and gain the peak position in the corporate world is unique and innovative ideas. According to the business experts and leaders, “Creativity is the key to success in Entrepreneurship” (Entrepreneur India, 2015).

However in this modern and developed business world, proposing ideas that are unique and creative becomes a daunting task and the issue of proposing a monotonous idea leads to disapproval from the critics (Mazzarol & Reboud, 2020).

Risk of Failure
Although a startup owner always carries a pessimistic approach towards his business idea and works dedicatedly to get the success. However, the reality is success comes after failure and both are considered two sides of a same coin. When an entrepreneur comes with innovative ideas, in his perception, it becomes the most valuable business idea in the market, but there is no guarantee whether the target audience will accept it (Ostergaard, 2019). Therefore, it can be said that an innovative idea even can’t promise the success of a startup.

Case Study 1 Steve Jobs
In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded a company named Apple computer, which is now Apple Inc., one of the biggest IT companies in the world. Steve Jobs didn’t have much experience in engineering field; neither had he any experience of doing business. But it was his instinct that made him so successful. With his willpower and strong decisions, he made Apple stand today at the peak position. The journey started from Job’s family garage and he sold his beloved bus to fund his dream and vision. He utilized his partner’s ability to produce computers and he made himself the in charge for the marketing operations (Murugesan & Jayavelu, 2017).

Soon after the company made its way and it reached the unbelievable heights. The reason behind Apple’s success is Steve Job’s passion, vision and dedication to achieve something. On the other side, Steve Jobs made a few mistakes and bad decisions throughout his journey that not only affected the company’s reputation, but once, he had to resign from his own organization. But, according to a saying, good comes after bad and vice-versa. In the same manner, an entrepreneur learns from his mistakes and tries to overcome them and turn them around into strengths in the future (Entrepreneur India, 2013).

So, it will be fair to say that Jobs’ instinct and mistakes helped him achieve success. Let’s have a look at his activities, traits, etc. –

Traits/activities/attributes

• Pressure handling techniques
• Unbelievable imagination
• Bright visionary
• Active participation in product design
• Fearless attitude
• Passionate

Dark Side of Jobs
Jobs was not a favorite of his employees, in fact, the senior management said that they handled his tantrums and temper a lot of times for the sake of company’s reputation. Despite, he was a great leader and a very successful entrepreneur; he didn’t able to make his way into his employees. It is not necessary that every time an entrepreneur’s efforts drive the optimum results, there are some incidents when one of the greatest entrepreneurs failed and was criticized. However, still Apple is one of the largest companies in the world today. So, it would be right to say that one cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs. In the same manner, an entrepreneur learns from his mistakes and bad experiences, and sometimes by breaking conventional rules to make its innovative business idea work and flourish (Ziemianski & Golik, 2020).

Rude Behavior – Jobs was known for his uneven behavior. He would publicly criticize his subordinates and question their intelligence. So, if you’re willing to take entrepreneurship as a serious career option, you should not follow Jobs, especially his dark side. A good leader is the one who respects his employees and provide friendly and a positive work environment (Talmage & Gassert, 2020).

Wrong Decision – One of the greatest wrong decisions of Jobs was hiring Sculley as CEO of Apple. Soon he hired him, he fired Jobs from his own company and this affected Apple’s position in the market.

Apart from these, there are various negative/dark sides of Steve Jobs. So, there is no doubt in saying that Jobs was a force of nature and unique of his time. He is recognized as one of the great visionary leaders in the history and there are various other things that can be learned from his actions; some good or bad.

Case Study 2: Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is the CEO of Amazon, one of the largest companies in the world. According to Forbes, he is the first centibillionaire in the world, having more than $140 billion net worth. Jeff is also one of the great entrepreneurs as he utilized the opportunity optimally. He believed that the internet will become a major source of buying and various other things in the near future. Hence, with the introduction of the internet, he introduced Amazon, an online bookstore. Soon, it became an online store of everything, from groceries to packed food items, clothes to accessories, etc. The company visions to offer A to Z products and services on their platform and so, the company’s symbol represents.

Jeff’s Traits/attributes/activities
Some of the major traits of the world’s richest man are as follows –

• He is a risk taker
• A ruthless boos who doesn’t tolerate complacency
• Knack for innovation
• His belief in regret minimization theory
• Highly competitive
• Fan of science, fiction, and books

There are a lot more other traits of Jeff Bezos that made him a successful entrepreneur. In a very short time period, he has made his company a giant conglomerate which was started from a garage. His exception way of utilizing internet has helped him reach new heights and acquire the peak of success.

Dark Side of Bezos
According to the employees of Amazon and who work closely with the founder and CEO of the e-commerce giant, he sometimes explodes. However, it is said that his outbursts are a result of his dedication and commitment to improve and make Amazon, Earth’s most customer centric company, improve customer service, and the company’s overall performance (Shepherd, 2019).

According to the business experts, one gets upset if the things are not going according to his plans or vision. Jeff Bezos is a CEO of one of the top four big companies in the US and if he’s expecting his employees to work hard as he had and still doing to retain the acquired position, there is nothing bad in that. According to a saying “a leader can’t keep everyone at the workplace happy and he wants to keep everyone happy, he should sell ice creams”. Hence, it can be said that you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

Furthermore, when a young entrepreneur takes inspiration from great leaders like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, he should not only see what good they have done to turn around their dreams into reality, but he should also closely observe their mistakes. No one is perfect in this world; no matter how successful or a wealthy person is; but there are some dark sides of everyone (Business Alligators, 2019). But the one who learns from his or others mistakes, shady dealings, and downside can also set an example like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. In an interview, Jeff’s father said that he always told his son to not be another Steve Jobs, but to admire him, grab his good things, learn from his mistakes, and do what your instinct says because until you will not fall, you will not able to find the way to stand and walk again (Forbes, 2014).

Conclusion
From the aforesaid discussion on entrepreneurship, it can be said that when an entrepreneur is passionate to achieve his goals and make the best out of his business idea, he can be upset at his employees and a little harsh behavior is acceptable. The saying, can you make an omelet without breaking the eggs doesn’t go hand-in-hand with the entrepreneurship because if an entrepreneur will focus on maintaining good relationships with his subordinates and keep them happy, then he won’t be able to achieve what he desires. If the outbursts are good for the achievement of goals, they are worth it. So, we can conclude that when a person chooses entrepreneurship as a career option, he surely faces negative sides, he sometimes get into wrong directions, signs shady deals, but if he is focused and passionate about his business idea, he will going to make his own way to success.

No one can make an omelet without breaking eggs. Hence Proved!

References
Boudreaux, C. J., Nikolaev, B. N., & Klein, P. (2019). Socio-cognitive traits and entrepreneurship: The moderating role of economic institutions. Journal of Business Venturing, 34(1), 178-196.

Business Alligators. 2019. 10 Personality Traits of Jeff Bezos – Richest Man [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.businessalligators.com/jeff-bezos-personality-traits/

Entrepreneur India. 2013. What Personality Traits Made Steve Jobs Successful? [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/answer/226410

Entrepreneur India. 2015. 7 Dark Truths About Entrepreneurship [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245640

Forbes. 2014. Is Jeff Bezos a Horrible Boss and is that Good? [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2013/10/22/is-jeff-bezos-a-horrible-boss-and-is-that-good/?sh=5c5f6d49645f

Hjorth, D., Holt, R., & Steyaert, C. (2015). Entrepreneurship and process studies. International Small Business Journal, 33(6), 599-611.

Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R. 1985. The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship, Harvard Business Review, Nov/Dec 1985, Vol.63(6), p.160

Liang, J., Wang, H., & Lazear, E. P. (2018). Demographics and entrepreneurship. Journal of Political Economy, 126(S1), S140-S196.

Mazzarol, T., & Reboud, S. (2020). The Entrepreneur. In Entrepreneurship and Innovation (pp. 35-61). Springer, Singapore.

Murugesan, R., & Jayavelu, R. (2017). The influence of big five personality traits and self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention: The role of gender. Journal of entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging economies, 3(1), 41-61.

Ostergaard, A. (2019). The beneficial differentiation within entrepreneurship of self-employed, business owner and entrepreneur. Industry and Higher Education, 33(1), 18-29.

Shepherd, D. A. (2019). Researching the dark side, downside, and destructive side of entrepreneurship: It is the compassionate thing to do!. Academy of Management Discoveries, 5(3), 217-220.

Talmage, C. A., & Gassert, T. A. (2020). Unsettling entrepreneurship by teaching dark side theories. Entrepreneurship education and pedagogy, 3(3), 316-345.

Venkataraman, S. (2019). The distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research. In Seminal ideas for the next twenty-five years of advances. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Ziemianski, P., & Golik, J. (2020). Including the Dark Side of Entrepreneurship in the Entrepreneurship Education. Education Sciences, 10(8), 211.