What Happens in the Entrepreneurial Process?
Starting and managing an EV involves four key steps:
1 Exploring the Entrepreneurial Context
The context includes: current economic, political/legal, social, and work environments.
Why is each of these important to look at? Because they help an entrepreneur:
Viacheslav Iakobchuk/Alamy Stock Photo
Determine the “rules” of the game and which decisions and actions are likely to lead to success.
Recognize and confront the next critically important step in clarifying the EV. . . STEP 2!
2 Identifying Opportunities and Possible Competitive Advantages
MORE on this . . . . coming soon . . . see the Planning section in this chapter!
3 Starting the Venture
Bringing the idea(s) to life! Includes:
Researching the feasibility of the venture
Planning the venture
Organizing the venture
Launching the venture
4 Managing the Venture HOW?
Managing Processes.
Managing People.
Managing Growth.
What Social Responsibility and Ethics Issues Face Entrepreneurs?
As entrepreneurs launch and manage their ventures, they’re faced with the often-difficult issues of social responsibility and ethics.
Despite the importance they place on corporate citizenship, more than half of those small firms lacked formal programs for connecting with their communities. In fact, some 70 percent admitted that they failed to consider community goals in their business plans. We discussed in an earlier chapter why organizations need to be socially involved, and it is just as important for entrepreneurs to think long and hard about when, where, and how to be socially responsible.
Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurs
Some entrepreneurs do take their social responsibilities seriously. The world’s social problems are many, and viable solutions are few. But numerous people and organizations are trying to do something. We use the term “social entrepreneur” to describe these individuals. A social entrepreneur is an individual or organization that seeks out opportunities to improve society by using practical, innovative, and sustainable approaches. For example, Deane Kirchner, George Wang, and Kiah Williams co-founded SIRIUM, which stands for Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine. The group recognized that unexpired medications worth billions of dollars are discarded while underfunded medical clinics do not have the means to purchase medication for low-income patients. Kirchner and her team use a digital platform for hospitals and clinics to find matches, and SIRIUM then ships medication to where it’s needed most. “Our goal is to save lives by saving unused medications,” says Kirchner. “We thought we could use technology to bridge this gap between surplus and need.”15
Other entrepreneurs have pursued opportunities with products and services that protect the global environment. For example, PurposeEnergy of Woburn, Massachusetts, developed a technology that removes waste by-products from the beer brewing industry and changes them to renewable natural gas, treated water, and organic fertilizer. Another company, Botl of Toronto, Canada, sells a biodegradable portable water filter. Founder Emily Wilkinson sought to protect the environment by reducing the amount of plastic waste going into landfills. Rather than using and disposing one plastic container of filtered bottled water after another, consumers can quickly filter tap water in any container by dropping the filter in and then shaking it.
What can we learn from social entrepreneurs? Although many businesses have committed to doing business ethically and responsibly, perhaps there is more they can do, as these social entrepreneurs show. Maybe it’s simply a matter of collaborating with public groups or nonprofit organizations to address a social issue. Or maybe it’s providing services and products where they’re needed but not available. Or it may involve nurturing individuals who passionately and unwaveringly believe they have an idea that could make the world a better place and simply need the organizational support to pursue it.
Social entrepreneur Keller Rinaudo is co-founder and CEO of Zipline, a California-based robotics firm that makes drones, called “zips”, and uses them to deliver vaccines, medicines, and blood transfusions to hospitals and health centers in Rwanda. Zipline’s mission is “to bring life-saving medicine to the most difficult to reach places on the planet.” To achieve its mission, Zipline plans to expand its service globally.
James Akena/Reuters
Entrepreneurial Ethics
Ethical considerations also play a role in the decisions and actions of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs do need to be aware of the ethical consequences of what they do. The example they set—particularly for other employees—can be profoundly significant in influencing behavior.
If ethics are important, how do entrepreneurs stack up? Unfortunately, not well! In a survey of employees from different sizes of businesses who were asked if they thought their organization was highly ethical, 20 percent of employees at companies with 99 or fewer employees disagreed.16 Entrepreneurs, like organizational managers, need to be aware of the importance of doing business ethically and providing an ethically strong environment to encourage ethical decisions and actions.