ROLES OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

 

Entrepreneurs fulfill the following three dominant roles −

1.Economic Change

2.Social Change

3.Technological Change 

These are referred to as behavioral roles. All entrepreneurs have these common characteristics and decide to become an entrepreneur due to the factors or circumstances in their lives which made them think the way they do.

To do their work effectively and operate a successful business, these entrepreneurs should perform certain roles. These roles are the same as the basic managerial roles. All such roles are listed out in detail as follows −

Figure Head Role

The entrepreneur needs to be the Head in the organization and participate in ceremonial duties, such as representing the organization in formal and informal events or even being the public spokesperson whenever there is a press release, etc.

Leader Role

The entrepreneur should also act as a leader because an entrepreneur may need to bring people with dissenting views and approaches to work together as a team. So, he needs to be good with his people management and leadership skills. He has to lead the people by hiring, firing, training and motivating his resources as and when necessary.

Liaison Role

The entrepreneur should also be the liaison officer for his organization. He should be the source of link with the outside world and business houses, always trying to find an opportunity of working together with other big organizations.

Monitor Role

The entrepreneur acts as a regulatory body too; he monitors both the internal and the external environment of the business constantly.

Information Provider and Receiver Role

The entrepreneur should also act as the organizational representative and transmit information internally and externally the organization.

Spokesman Role

The manager should also act as the spokesman of the business and transmit information internally and externally the organization. He needs to be the source of knowledge about his company to potential investors and collaborators.

Entrepreneurial Role

This is the basic role of the entrepreneur; he/she declares new ideas for the organizations, brainstorms it with the employees and friends and then bears the risk of any unsuccessful implementation.

Disturbance Handler

The entrepreneur needs to act as the mediator and bring people with dissenting thoughts to the table and get them motivated to work together. He needs to handle all conflicts and get the team to focus constantly on the goal.

Resource Allocator

The entrepreneur needs to find out how the available resources can be allocated between different departments of the organization to suit their demands and necessities. This helps them achieve the organizational goals and the objectives.

Negotiator Role

The entrepreneur must negotiate on behalf of the organization both internally with the staff as well as with the external investors or collaborators. At such opportunities, the entrepreneurs need to be more focused on their role of being a ‘win-win” deal breaker.

Added Roles of an Entrepreneur

Apart from the above-mentioned roles, there are some specific entrepreneurial roles that a person is supposed to fill up in his duties of an entrepreneur. These are divided into three categories, which are as follows −

Social Roles,

Economic Roles, and

Technological Roles.

Let us now discuss each of them in detail.

Social Roles of Entrepreneur

Creating opportunities for entrepreneurship.

Creating job or employment opportunities in the society.

Engaging in social welfare services of redistributing income and wealth.

Transforming a standard working procedure into a more modern approach.

Economic Roles of Entrepreneur

Bearing the risk of failing in business.

Mobilizing the revenue of the organization properly.

Utilizing human resources in a cost-efficient manner.

Providing channels of further economic growth in the organization.

Technological Roles of Entrepreneur

Changing traditional technology to modern system.

Adapting improved technology to business environment.

Utilization of available technology in the production process.

Developing efficiency and competence in the workforce through technology

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS TUTORIAL

Many industry observers have debated on the origin of entrepreneurship. The fact to note here is that most scholars who debate the origin of entrepreneurship are either Economists or Historians. The common forum accepts that the concept of ‘Entrepreneur’ is derived from the French concept entreprendre, which matches closely with the English concept of business conduct; in this sense – “to undertake”. From the business point of view, to undertake simply means to start a business. The entrepreneurship theory has been changing throughout several decades of business growth and has received numerous definitions and characteristics from different scholars, who believe that some qualities are common among most entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship’s foundations are based on economics and other such disciplines such as History, Politics, Education, Culture, Experience, and Networking.

 Schumpeter(Joseph Alois Schumpeter, who was an Austrian-born American Economist and Political Scientist) told that the coming together of various disparate theories forms a generalized set of entrepreneurship skills and guidelines. He then listed the characteristics of entrepreneurs as given below − Risk-Bearers Coordinators and organizers Gap-Fillers Leaders Innovators Creative Imitators He concedes that although these features are not the only ones, but they do go a long way in explaining why some people become entrepreneurs while others do not. 

What is Entrepreneurship? 

There are many meanings of the term ‘entrepreneurship’. After attentively discussing all the available ones, we can conclude that entrepreneurship is a system of operating business in which opportunities existing within the scope of a market are exploited. Self-employment necessitates that any available opportunities within the economic system should be utilized in the creation and functioning of new organizations. 

A potential entrepreneur should show the interest to seek out investment opportunities in the market, so that they can run the enterprise successfully based on the identifiable opportunities. Thus, going through the above responsibilities of an entrepreneur, the term ‘entrepreneurship’ has been finally defined as a function which covers multiple functions such as − Building organizations. Providing self-employment Utilization of available resources Innovation applied to the novel concept Bringing together multiple factors of production in a tangible manner. Identifying and exploiting business opportunities within the available market. 

Who is an Entrepreneur? 

Entrepreneurs are business people who can detect and sense the availability of business opportunities in any given scenario. They will then utilize these opportunities to create new products by employing new production methods in different markets. They will also function in different ways by using various resources who will give them profit. It is important to note that although most entrepreneurial businesses start small, the owners of such businesses need not be small scale owners. They could in fact be big business owners, who first try and test the waters before investing big time in the business. Small business owners dread risk, but successful entrepreneurs are very innovative and know how to operate profitably in a business environment, even if the risk is very high. In fact, innovation is the life blood of any kind of entrepreneurs; this is one of the tools that helps them gain an advantage over established players in the market. Entrepreneurs are, thus, defined as “individuals or groups of individuals who carry out entrepreneurship activities that are based on their innovative approaches to solving real-word problems”. 

Who is an Intrepreneur? 

There are many possible situations where a potential entrepreneur doesn’t get a chance to establish or fund his or her own business and is forced to work in an organization. In this case they are referred to as ‘Intrepreneurs’ i.e. entrepreneurs within an organization. These individuals are also entrepreneurs because they don’t share the typical “employer employee” relationship with their bosses; instead, they operate just as collaborators and are treated as visionaries in the organization. Sometimes, such individuals themselves aren’t aware of their talent and hidden skills. The organization needs to identify these talented people and then encourage these individuals to exercise their entrepreneurial abilities to the benefit of the organization otherwise such people eventually will get frustrated over the routine life and will leave the organization or start their own businesses to pursue their ideas. 

How an Entrepreneur differs from an Intrapreneur? 

An entrepreneur is a person who enters a venture through a startup model of business and tries to establish it. This is done while taking risks of bringing together the factors of production to address a cause and making a profit out of it at the same time. An intrapreneur, on the other hand, will tend to work within an existing organization to pursue the exploitation of business opportunities, in the absence of available business capital, infrastructure or clear direction. 

Who is a Technopreneur? 

   Just like entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, we also have a “technopreneur”, who is an individual interested in bringing innovations thorough technology, and then using the same technology to build a successful business empire. A technopreneur is first a technological innovator and then a businessman who wants to create self-employment and other employment opportunities through his technological innovations.