Entrepreneurship is all about creating an idea
For many, the word entrepreneurship is about turning out to be a millionaire, being your own boss, doing it your way or becoming famous.
Also for most to be an entrepreneur means one has to be a ‘genius’.
This is not completely true. Those are only some of the side results of entrepreneurship that may or may not always happen. More importantly they are not necessary to happen, Apeejay Surrendra Family Business and Entrepreneurship Chair and academic at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Prof. K. Kumar, delivering the keynote address at the 37th National Conference of the Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA) said decoding this complex and heavy word ‘Entrepreneurship’ is rather an easy task if one reads its definition but is quite a long process when one wants to understand the whole concept in depth.
As many have wrongly believed entrepreneurship is not about writing a business plan. “Entrepreneurs do anything but planning. They create something of value with what they have and don’t start with a business plan and don’t have a definite end in mind,” he said.
According to him entrepreneurship is a messy process of creating an idea.
“When you first delve into entrepreneurship, it’s likely you’ll have no idea what you’re doing. You’ll mess up, you’ll become dispirited when your plans don’t work out, and you’ll become drained after pouring all your effort into an idea that may or may not pay off.
But pushing through the experience, whether it ends in success or failure, will change your perspective for the better and give you experience that you can use in your next adventure – even if it isn’t an entrepreneurial one”, Prof. Kumar said.
Being successful requires a mix of characteristics that are both innate and learned, he said pointing out that entrepreneurs use lean methodology and constantly work and co-or with others.
Entrepreneurship is going beyond popular wisdom to create something new under certain conditions, with limited resources and without regard for the resources under control, he said citing Israel as an example. Yes, he said anyone – enterprising communities, agile, nimble, paranoid companies, forward-thinking governments and virtual communities can be entrepreneurial.
Ecosystem
Entrepreneurs do not exist in a vacuum, but are supported by an entire ecosystem, Prof. Kumar said. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation as no answer has been found as to whether the ecosystem or the entrepreneur came first. “If there is an opportunity an entrepreneur should take it and the individual has the responsibility to create the world you want to live in,” he said noting that no one had wanted Facebook for an example.
“Believe that you will create the product by working with other people. Believe that your individual actions matter. Be prepared to meet uncertainties. You cannot be fixated on what you want.”
He highlighted that it’s paramount to nurture entrepreneurs and in order to do so, entrepreneurship should be part of general education curricular, he advocated. Entrepreneurship is about taking a new idea to a market, he said.
“An open mind to leverage the unexpected to support the creative endeavour is imperative to meet the need of the hour – unleashed thinking and entrepreneurship,” he said. The CA conference theme ‘Unleashed Thinking’ saw a special focus on the potential of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship and how it can benefit the country and help Sri Lanka become a global player. The annual event which was further boosted with an expert panel of local and foreign speakers sharing insights during two days of technical sessions.