Entrepreneurship Development and Communication Skill 3(2+1)

Lesson 3. Entrepreneurial characteristics, Distinction between an entrepreneur and a Manager, Agri-entrepreneurship-concept, need and scope

1. Need to achieve: Entrepreneurs must have strong and keen desire to achieve higher goals. Their inner instincts motivate them to achieve higher goals: majority of the people dream of achieving something but do not work towards achieving their dreams whereas Entrepreneurs  act incessantly to accomplish the goal and turn their dreams into reality. For them, success is achievement.

2. Independence: Majority of the entrepreneurs establish their own business because they abhor working for others. They prefer to be the boss of their own self and want to be enjoy responsibility of their own decisions.

3. Risk-bearing: Entrepreneurs are the individuals who take decisions under unfavourable circumstances and thus they are willing to take risk, but they never prefer gambling with the results. They opt for reasonable risk rather than playing wild gamble. In a way they undertake calculated risk which is supposedly enough to be exciting, but with fair chances of success and fruitful result.

4. Locus of control: According to Rotter’s locus of control theory, an individual perceives the outcome of an event as being either within or beyond his personal control. Entrepreneurs believe in their own capability to manage the consequences of their endeavour by influencing their socio-economic environment.

5. Determination: Entrepreneur always sticks to his job. They take personal interest in solving the problems while setting up the project. They keep on working quite sincerely until their projects get implemented.

6. Positive self-concept: Entrepreneurs are never negative in their action. They always try their best to convert their dreams into reality and prove their caliber. They utilize their positive knowledge to support their thinking. They never entertain negative attitude.

7. Ability to find and explore opportunities: Entrepreneurs seek opportunities. They convert the problems and challenges into viable opportunities. They plan out using their intelligence and achieve their goals in realizing an opportunity.

8. Hope of success: Entrepreneurs set their goals with a hope of success. This is because they set their goals that are practically possible.

9. Flexibility: Majority of the successful entrepreneurs measure the pros and cons of a decision and change their decisions as per the situation. They on no account feel indisposed to revise their decisions. They are always open to face any situation.

10. Analytical ability of mind: Entrepreneurs always keep aside their personal likes and dislikes. They are always pragmatic in their approach. At times they opt for experts rather than friends and relatives to assist them. They generally evade emotional and sensitive attitude towards their business.

11. Sense of efficacy: Entrepreneurs are always goal oriented. They usually solve their problems themselves. They set their goals for future and plan accordingly to accomplish them.

12. Openness to feedback and learning from experience: Successful entrepreneurs always get immediate feedback of their performance. They modify their plans on the basis of the feedback received from the environment around them. They keep learning from their own experience and never get disheartened having received unfavorable information. On the contrary, they get stimulated by unfavorable information and involve themselves sincerely in their own tasks to reach their preferred goals.

13. Confronting uncertainty: Successful entrepreneurs are always optimistic and take every problem as the opportunity. They manipulate their surroundings in such a way that the works get accomplished rationally. Thus, their extraordinary insight and skill makes each situation favorable  for them.

14. Interpersonal skills: Entrepreneurs always remain comfortable while dealing with people at each level. They interact with raw material suppliers, customers, bankers, etc. for different activities and that is their quality of interpersonal skill to deal with people.

15. Stress takers: Entrepreneurs do have that capacity to work continuously for longer time and side by side solving the problems at the same time. They have to come across number of challenges which many times give them stress. They can face these challenges if they have the capability to work for long hours and keep themselves cool under monotony.

16. Time orientation: Entrepreneurs look forward to future trends on the basis of their past experience and exposure. They stick to the time pragmatically while doing their jobs.

17. Innovators: Successful entrepreneurs are innovative with their ideas. They continuously put their efforts in introducing innovative products, new technique of manufacture, opening new markets and recognizing the enterprise.

18. Business communication skill: The entrepreneurs must possess good communication skill. Both written and oral communication skills are necessary for the entrepreneurs for running enterprise efficiently.

19. Telescopic faculty: Successful entrepreneurs always think in advance. They do possess telescopic faculties that make them think for the future. Future point of reference makes them quite attentive to the changing circumstances of the time and they tend to manufacture goods and commodities as per the changing demands.

20. Leadership: Entrepreneurs should have the quality of leadership. The quality of leadership will allow them to influence people by means of communication towards the accomplishment of goals. As the leaders, they should provide the necessary motivation by guiding, inspiring, assisting and directing the members of the group for accomplishment of unity of action, efforts and purpose. The quality of leadership also allows them to reduce the problems. Good organizational work depends upon efficient leadership of the entrepreneur.

21. Business planning: Planning relates to deciding in advance what, when and how to do a thing. Entrepreneurs should be well-equipped with dexterity and knowledge to set up their business plan. A successful entrepreneur always follows the doctrine of management while setting up  his business. The planning can perform as a link between the current positions and probable future form of the enterprise. It provides a sense of vision to the entrepreneurs to cope with risky and uncertain situations.

22. Decision making: Decision-making skill is an elemental distinctive of an entrepreneur. This helps them in choosing a particular course of action at every stage of creation of an enterprise out of numerous alternative courses for the purpose of achieving particular goals. Hence, decision making is essential at all times and mostly at circumstances of uncertainty and risk.

23. Ability to mobilize resources: Entrepreneurs must have the capability to marshal all the inputs to acquire the end product. They have to mobilize Man, Money, Material, Machinery, Market and Method efficiently to realize the ultimate product as entrepreneurship is a function of gap filling and input completing.

24. Self-confidence: Entrepreneurs must have self-assurance to accomplish the task efficiently and powerfully. They must take decisions on their own in unsure and perilous situation and should stick to it assertively even if there occurs preliminary setbacks.

3.2 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENTREPRENEUR AND  MANAGER

1. An entrepreneur is involved with the start-up process whereas a manager with running the business

2. Over a long period of time an entrepreneur assumes financial,  material and psychological risks whereas a manager does not have to bear risks

3. An entrepreneur is driven by perception of opportunity whereas a manager by the resources he currently possesses

4. An entrepreneur initiates change whereas a manager follows rules & procedures

5. An entrepreneur is his own boss whereas a manager is a hired employee

6. An entrepreneur gets uncertain rewards  whereas a manager gets fixed rewards and salary

3.3 AGRI – ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONCEPT, NEED AND SCOPE

As India is a nation mostly dependent upon agriculture, it needs to focus on this sector. This specialty will increase agri-preneurs with distinctive traits and skills to utilize opportunities in great quantities in the field of agriculture. Agriculture is the main foundation of the Indian economy because of its high contribution in employment and livelihood creation. It supports more than half a billion people that is up to 52 per cent of the workforce. It is also a significant resource of raw material and demand for many manufacturing products, particularly fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural equipments and a variety of consumer goods.

Agripreneurship: It can be defined as generally sustainable, community oriented, straightforwardly marketed agriculture. Sustainable agriculture denotes a holistic, system oriented approach to farming that focuses on the interrelationships of social, economic and ecological process.

Need for Agripreneurship:

• growing demand of macrobiotic and quality foodstuff both in India and overseas

• Private segment is disposed to come into  agribusiness at all levels of function.

• To decrease mall nutrition as most of the women and children in the country are mal nourished.

Scope for entrepreneurship development in Agriculture:

• Technologies those reduce the expenditure of production and increase the benefit of the farmers will unlock new opportunities for Agri-entrepreneurship.

• New technologies that are trouble-free , time saving and relieve farmers from hard work will also provide opportunity for entrepreneurship in agriculture.

• Technologies that supply social and psychosomatic reimbursement to farmers will also provide opportunity for entrepreneurship in agriculture.

On farm Activities:

Depending upon the geological location and resources accessibility, the probable areas of entrepreneurship in agriculture are:

(1) Agro produce processing units: These units do not manufacture any novel product. They simply process the agriculture produce. e.g., Rice mills, Dal mills, Decorticating mills etc.

(2) Agro produce manufacturing units: These units produce completely innovative products based on the agricultural produce as the key raw material. e.g., Sugar factories, Bakery, Strawboard units etc.

(3) Agro-inputs manufacturing units: These units manufacture goods either for automation of agriculture or for increasing production. E.g., Fertilizer manufacturing plants, insecticides manufacture units, food processing units, agricultural equipment etc.

(4) Agro-service centers: These include the workshops and service centers for repairing and serving the agricultural equipments used in agriculture.

Off-Farm Vocations:

Entrepreneurship development is also beneficial in various off-farm activities such as cloth stitching, knitting, needlework, cloth printing, carpeting, dari making, wrapping and synthetic bag making, agarbatti making, candle making, rope making, case making, bamboo-work, distilled water making, grease extraction, chalk making, biogas mechanic, electric cabling, mason, woodwork, black smithy, solar mechanic, electrician, auto mechanic, welding, pottery, and other rural crafts.

The possible areas of entrepreneurship in allied activities of agriculture

This includes the activities like, Dairy technology, Horticulture, Goat rearing, Rabbit rearing, Floriculture, Fisheries, Shrimp farming, Poultry farming, Sheep rearing, Vegetable cultivation, Nursery farming, Grafting, Farm forestry, etc...

Reference

www.actioncoach.com/_downloads/whitepaper-FranchiseRep5.pdf dated 22/11/2012 ceajournal.metro.inter.edu/spring09/umukoro0501.pdf dated 22/11/2012

Zimmerman, T.W., Scarborough N.M., 1998. Essentials of Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, Second Edition.