Entrepreneurship Development

Entrepreneurs serve as agents of change, provide creative, innovative ideas for business enterprises and help businesses grow and become profitable. Whatever the specific activity they engage in, entrepreneurs in the twenty-first century are considered the heroes of free enterprise. Many of them have used innovation and creativity to build huge enterprises. Entrepreneurship is now regarded as "Pioneer ship" of business. The history of the early industrial development and trade and subsequent innovation in any country is largely the history of its entrepreneurs. It describes people with the pioneering spirit, intuitive and inspiration and a willingness to work hard and take risks. They are the energetic self-starters who make it their mission to meet business challenges, independently and are restless in working for someone else, for a salary.

In a nutshell, concept of entrepreneurship can be understood as under:

• Entrepreneurship involves decision making, innovation, implementation, forecasting of the future, independency, and success.
• Entrepreneurship is a discipline with a knowledge base theory and is an outcome of complex socio-economic, psychological, technological, legal and other factors.
• It is a dynamic and risky process.
• It involves a fusion of capital, technology and human talent.
• Entrepreneurship is equally applicable to big and small businesses, to economic and non-economic activities.
• Different entrepreneurs might have some common traits but all of them will have some different and unique qualities.
• ntrepreneurship is a process. It is not a combination of some stray incidents.
• It is the purposeful and organized search for change, conducted after systematic analysis of opportunities in the environment.
• ntrepreneurship is a philosophy and is the way one thinks, one acts and therefore it can exist in any situation, be it business or government or in the field of education, science & technology.
• It is the ability to create and build something from practically nothing.
• It is a knack of sensing opportunity where others see chaos and confusion.
• Entrepreneurship is the attitude of mind to seek opportunities, take calculated risks and derive benefits by setting up a venture.
• It is made up of activities to conceive, create and run an enterprise.
• Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of vision, change and creation.

To sum up, "Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of vision, change and creation. It requires an application of energy and passion towards the creation and implementation of new ideas and creative solutions. Essential ingredients include the willingness to take calculated risks-in terms of time, equity, or career, ability to formulate an effective venture team, creative skill to organize needed resources, the fundamental skill of building a solid business plan and, above all, the vision to recognize opportunity where others see chaos, contradiction, and confusion.''

Functions of Entrepreneurship

The various functions of entrepreneurship are Innovation, Creativity, Risk taking and achievement and organization and management, Catalyst of Economic Development, Overcoming Resistance to Change and Research. These have been depicted, at a glance, with the help of the given Figure and are being discussed, in brief, below.

(i) Innovation and Creativity – Innovation generally refers to changing processes or creating more effective processes, products and ideas. For businesses, this could mean implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving your existing services. Creativity is defined as "the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others. Creativity and innovation have always been recognized as a sure path to success. Entrepreneurs think outside of the box and explore new areas for cost-effective business solutions.

(ii) Risk taking and Achievement – Entrepreneurship is a process in which the entrepreneur establishes new jobs and firms, new Creative and growing organization which is associated with risk, new opportunities and achievement. It results in introducing a new product or service to society. In general, entrepreneurs accept four types of risks namely Financial Risk, Job Risk, Social & Family Risk & Mental & Health Risk, which are as follows:

• (a) Financial Risk – Most of entrepreneurs begin by using their own savings and personal effects and if they fail, they have the fear of losing it. They take risk of failure.
• (b) Job Risk – Entrepreneurs, not only follow the ideas as working situations, but also consider the current risks of giving up the job & starting a venture. Several entrepreneurs have the history of having a good job, but gave it up, as they thought that they were not cut out for a job.
• (c) Social and Family Risk – The beginning of entrepreneurial job needs a high energy which is time consuming. Because of these undertakings, he/she may confront some social and family damages like family and marital problems resulting on account of absence from home and not being able to give adequate time to family.
• (d) Mental Health Risk – Perhaps the biggest risk that an entrepreneur takes it is, the risk of mental health. The risk of money, home, spouse, child, and friends could be adjusted but mental tensions, stress, anxiety and the other mental factors have many destructive influences because of the beginning and continuing of entrepreneurial activity. This can even lead to depression, when faced with failure.

(iii) Organization and Management – The entrepreneurial organization is a simple organizational form that includes, one large operational unit, with one or a few individuals in top management. Entrepreneurial management means the skills necessary to successfully develop and manage a business enterprise. A small business start-up under an owner-manager is an example of an entrepreneurial organization. Here, the owner-manager generally maintains strict control over business operations. This includes directing the enterprise's core management functions. According to Mintzberg, these include the interpersonal roles, informational roles and decision-making roles. The smaller the organization, the more concentrated these roles are in the hands of the owner-manager. The entrepreneurial organization is generally unstructured.

(iv) Research – An entrepreneur is a practical dreamer and does a lot of ground-work before taking a leap in his/her ventures. In other words, an entrepreneur finalizes an idea only after considering a variety of options, analysing their strengths and weaknesses by applying analytical techniques, testing their applicability, supplementing them with empirical findings, and then choosing the best alternative. It is then that he/she applies the ideas in practice. The selection of an idea, thus, involves the application of research methodology.