Entrepreneurial Competencies

Entrepreneurial Competencies

1. What are entrepreneurial competencies? Name any three.
Entrepreneurial competencies are the skills necessary for an entrepreneur to

1. venture into an enterprise
2. organize and manage an enterprise ably and competently
3. realize the goal for which the enterprise is established

These competencies help and entrepreneur to successfully venture into an enterprise.
These can be broadly classified under the following categories.(Choose any three of the following competencies)

1. Behavioral competencies
   1. Initiative
   2. Systematic planning
   3. Creativity and innovation
   4. Risk taking and Risk Management
   5. Problem solving
   6. Persistence
   7. Quality performance
   8. Information management
   9. Persuation and influencing abilities
2. Enterprise launching competencies
3. Enterprise managing competencies.

2. What do you understand from the term Behavioral Competencies?

1. Behavioral competencies are certain basic competencies to be acquired by the entrepreneur.
2. The behavioral competencies acquired will determine the type of behavior exhibited by the entrepreneur in performing various tasks in the discharge of his functions.
3. Some of these competencies are latent in the entrepreneur, which ned to be identified, nurse and nurtured.
4. Others are acquired through training and practice.
5. These are basic competencies that need to be acquired by all the entrepreneurs irrespective of the size, location, economic and social dimension.

The behavioral competencies include the following.

1. Initiative
2. Systematic planning
3. Creativity and innovation
4. Risk taking and Risk Management
5. Problem solving
6. Persistence
7. Quality performance
8. Information management
9. Persuation and influencing abilities

3. Why are behavioral competencies important for an entrepreneur
Behavioral competencies are important for an entrepreneur because of the following reasons.

1. They’re the basic competencies required by an entrepreneur
   1. To venture into an enterprise.
   2. To organize an enterprise
   3. To manage an enterprise
   4. Run the enterprise competitively
   5. Realize the goals for which the enterprise is established
2. Take the enterprise to the success levels

4. What are entrepreneurial competencies? Name any three.
The following are the various behavioral competencies required by an entrepreneur.

1. Initiative
2. Systematic planning
3. Creativity and innovation
4. Risk taking and Risk Management
5. Problem solving
6. Persistence
7. Quality performance
8. Information management
9. Persuation and influencing abilities

5. Why is speed of performance required on the part of an entrepreneur?
The entrepreneur puts lot of effort and in making a decision to take an initiative.
Once he is decided to take an initiative he has to take the initiative ahead of others.
Speed is an important factor in the success of the enterprise because if the entrepreneur is slow in implementing the initiative, chances are there that someone else will move forward and implement it.
This calls for

1. Alertness
2. Agility
3. and dynamism on the part of the entrepreneur.

Due to these reasons speed of performance is required on the part of the entrepreneur.
6. What is the difference between creativity and innovation?

Creativity	Innovation
1. Creativity is the ability to bring something new into existence.	1. Innovation is the process of doing new things or bring new new ideas or new process or new products or new services into reality.
2. Creativity is pre-requisite for innovation.	2. Innovation is a process that transforms creative ideass into useful realities.
3. A creative individual may just have a vision but may not have the necessary resources or the drive to convert the idea into action.	3. An innovator may have the right ability to transform the ideas into products and services, but may suffer from shortage of creative thoughts and ideas.

7. A good entrepreneur combines the quality of a creative individual and an innovator – Justify the statement.

1. In many cases, a good entrepreneur adopts new ideas or services so that he will be the first to implement them.
2. The entrepreneur may not have new and creative ideas. He might only use the creative ideas and innovative products and services to meet the challenges of a situation. He might take advantage of the utility of an idea or a product to create wealth.
3. He uses the ideas and services only to solve the problems on the hand to achieve the objective.
4. Competency in creativity and innovation are sometimes basic traits of certain individuals and help in achieving the goals.

Thus we can say that a good entrepreneur combines the quality of a good entrepreneur and an innovator.
8. What are the areas involving risk in creating and managing an enterprise?
The following are the areas involving risk in creating and managing an enterprise.

1. The design of the product or service and its acceptability.
2. The resources availability.
3. The availability of market.
4. The variance in consumer expectations.
5. The speed of change in the types and patterns of the products and services.
6. The demand-supply situation.
7. The finance flow in the market.
8. The performance of tools and equipment.
9. The social and political climate for sustainability of the products.

9. In taking and managing a risk, the entrepreneur does not behave like a gambler – Do you agree?
While venturing into new ideas and services, the entrepreneur treads into areas of uncertainty. Thus the entrepreneur is exposed to risk. Hence risk taking and risk management are important aspects of entrepreneurial competencies. There are several areas and elements which throw potential challenge to the entrepreneur. Therefore, he has to take crucial risk-prone decisions in the process of discharging his responsibilities.
However, unlike gamblers, an entrepreneur takes a calculated and perceived decision in the light of the facts and circumstances available at his disposal. So, we can say that, in taking and managing a risk, the entrepreneur does not behave like a gambler.
10. What are the general practices an entrepreneur should adopt to acquire the skills of risk management?
The following are the general practices an entrepreneur should adopt to acquire the skills of risk management.

1. Analysis of various policies, programs and situations
2. Identification of roadblocks in the road map of the enterprise
3. Consideration of alternatives
4. Plan of action for alternatives
5. Crisis management
6. Possibility of the new ideas or services being hijacked by other powerful individuals or systems.

11. What are the standard problem solving competencies required for an enterprise?
The following are the standard problem solving competencies required for an enterprise.

1. Acquiring the necessary mindset which will help to understand that the problems are part of the process and start working on the problems in the context of the process to which the problems belong to.
2. Basic understanding of the phenomenon that normally problems are always caused.
3. Clear understanding of the fact that every problem has a solution and one must seek for the solution.
4. Decision making capability to choose the relevant, contextual and pragmatic solution, among the available multiple solutions for a problem.
5. Explore the alternate strategies till the solutions for the imminent problems are found.
6. Find or look for resources that would help to solve the problems in an amiable way.
7. Generating new ideas, products, services, visions so that the problems of the similar type do not occur in future.

12. Dicision-making skills are crucial for a successful entrepreneur – What are those skills?
The following are the decision-making skills that are crucial for a successful entrepreneur.

1. Absolutely complete knowledge of the entire system of the enterprise.
2. Broad understanding of the software, hardware and human-ware of the sytem.
3. Complete knowledge of the types of resources involved and their flow and mobility.
4. Different types of speed breakers in the flow of the operations, their magnitude and direction.
5. Expert leve understanding of the urgency, the time and the impact of the decisions.
6. Futuristics of the decision.
7. General impact of the decisions taken on the clients and the society in which the enterprise servives.

13. Why is persistence important for an entrepreneur?
In general, entrepreneur pursuits are new and need very close attention. So, it calls for appropriate climate building and acceptability and required intense perseverance on the part of the entrepreneur.
The entrepreneurship is a complex activity covering various parameters of the society. So, it is very difficult for any enterprise to be successful in the first attempt. Therefore, the failures or roadblocks to success and achievement should not deter the entrepreneur. He needs to have the quality of perseverance. Behavioral skills to persist even when the failure is visible are one of the qualities of a successful entrepreneur. The ability of persistence is indicative of the confidence of the entrepreneur in his system, tools and techniques.
Thus we can say that persistence is important for an entrepreneur.
14. What is the persistence of an entrepreneur indicative of?
The persistence of an entrepreneur is an indicative of the following.

1. The faith of the entrepreneur in the system.
2. The exactitude of the tools used in the system.
3. The confidence in the quality of the product or the service.
4. The understanding of the entrepreneur about the market.
5. The conviction of the entrepreneur to succed.