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What’s different about Kisfalvi’ s approach toward the way entrepreneurs make decision is that its true, empirical in my opinion. I have known many entrepreneurs who have followed this phenomena, multiple determination gives you the gratification of a number of wishes. For Ben in the article it was the “most efficient strategy to solve a whole set of life issues.” Through Ben’s pattern of decision making , one can easily identify the layers of bootstrapping at each aspect of decision making.
According to Kisfalvi, he states that Ben would give priority to only those issues to which a number of his life issues were connected, while he would give a lower priority or even a deaf ear to those decision that weren’t related to his life issues. This he called “Careful Gambling” , which he based on the results of his decision. If they were negative results he would start tightening the finances and make centralization more stronger. Another interesting aspect was also highlighted in this article and that was “controlled boldness”, a method where the person attacked or played his card only when the conditions were in his/her favour.
As I have already illustrated in my previous posts the theories that defined an entrepreneur and the leader, Kisfalvi sets a different floor as the perspectives he has shown are clearly identifiable in most entrepreneurs of today and I suppose also in the past. The muddle through approach is the way entrepreneurs make their day to day decisions based on their past successful experiences. The only objective is to survive, ironically this strategy becomes an old habit and it’s hard to die, therefore they carry this to the mature stage until they have the “growing pains”(Wiklund & Dahlqvist, 2008). Which is why the statement that entrepreneur makes bad managers are also proved, as these entrepreneurs sometimes don’t even have a clue that their business has matured. However some of those entrepreneurs I know about preferred the muddle through approach even when they were aware of the growing business. The reason I suppose is to be safer and it’s less risky.
In the fast changing environment omniscience and omnipotent have become common examples and for an entrepreneur if he/she survives the start-up phase, according to the article he/she has much a much more bigger challenge ahead: that is the transition from an founder managed firm to a professional managed firm. This will be shortly discussed in the next post. (Kisfalvi, 2002)
Kisfalvi, V. (2002), The entrepreneur’s character, life issues, and strategy making. A field
study. Journal of Business Venturing, 17, 489-518.
Wiklund, J & Dahlqvist, J(2008) Jibs Entrepreneurial Growth Spring 2008 Study Guide .
According to Kisfalvi, he states that Ben would give priority to only those issues to which a number of his life issues were connected, while he would give a lower priority or even a deaf ear to those decision that weren’t related to his life issues. This he called “Careful Gambling” , which he based on the results of his decision. If they were negative results he would start tightening the finances and make centralization more stronger. Another interesting aspect was also highlighted in this article and that was “controlled boldness”, a method where the person attacked or played his card only when the conditions were in his/her favour.
As I have already illustrated in my previous posts the theories that defined an entrepreneur and the leader, Kisfalvi sets a different floor as the perspectives he has shown are clearly identifiable in most entrepreneurs of today and I suppose also in the past. The muddle through approach is the way entrepreneurs make their day to day decisions based on their past successful experiences. The only objective is to survive, ironically this strategy becomes an old habit and it’s hard to die, therefore they carry this to the mature stage until they have the “growing pains”(Wiklund & Dahlqvist, 2008). Which is why the statement that entrepreneur makes bad managers are also proved, as these entrepreneurs sometimes don’t even have a clue that their business has matured. However some of those entrepreneurs I know about preferred the muddle through approach even when they were aware of the growing business. The reason I suppose is to be safer and it’s less risky.
In the fast changing environment omniscience and omnipotent have become common examples and for an entrepreneur if he/she survives the start-up phase, according to the article he/she has much a much more bigger challenge ahead: that is the transition from an founder managed firm to a professional managed firm. This will be shortly discussed in the next post. (Kisfalvi, 2002)
Kisfalvi, V. (2002), The entrepreneur’s character, life issues, and strategy making. A field
study. Journal of Business Venturing, 17, 489-518.
Wiklund, J & Dahlqvist, J(2008) Jibs Entrepreneurial Growth Spring 2008 Study Guide .
The best thing about studying from the articles is that you get numerous number of perspectives and though you have no background in the knowledge of that specific area you tend to understand as each author tries to explain his/her viewpoint. From there then its upto the person to connect the dots and make it useful to him/her. This brings me to the terms that I found quite interesting. They are as follows:
Omnipotence syndrome
Companies try to grow too fast and run out of cash.
Omniscience syndrome
Companies are unable to delegate effectively enough to make the company work
Ossification
It is characterized by a lack of innovative decision making and the avoidance of risks. It seems most common in large corporations whose sizable market share, buying
power, and financial resources keep them viable until there is a major change in the environment. Unfortunately for these businesses, it's usually their rapidly growing competitors that notice the environmental change first.
Reference
Churchill, N.C. & V. Lewis (1983), The five stages of small firm growth, Harvard Business
Review, 53, 43-54.
Omnipotence syndrome
Companies try to grow too fast and run out of cash.
Omniscience syndrome
Companies are unable to delegate effectively enough to make the company work
Ossification
It is characterized by a lack of innovative decision making and the avoidance of risks. It seems most common in large corporations whose sizable market share, buying
power, and financial resources keep them viable until there is a major change in the environment. Unfortunately for these businesses, it's usually their rapidly growing competitors that notice the environmental change first.
Reference
Churchill, N.C. & V. Lewis (1983), The five stages of small firm growth, Harvard Business
Review, 53, 43-54.
The image illustrates the entrepreneship/leadership approaches.
Reference:
Northhouse.P.G (2007). Leadership(4th ed.). California : Sage Publications.
They say when a person is about to die, flashes of his past life appears infront of his/her eyes. I thought we could take this opportunity and take a flash back to the start of this journey and to see what we have gained as we approach the end.This blog is divided into four parts, starting first in Entrepreneurship/ Leadership, The difference between an entrepreneur and a manager and further the link with opportunity creation or opportunity identification, the new terms, the entrepreneurs personal style of thinking and solving problem, and the list goes on to the importance in organizational culture. These all will be covered in several posts and they are all linked to opening a new venture or managing one. The aim is to help weave one whole picture that has been dispersed via different articles...this is done in order to prove the last statement or reflections for this blog; that statement my dear friends is that the study/journey was all worth it.
Since the blog are for students and to keep it interesting, I have used a less academic approach, however the knowledge and details provided are all authetic and as ususal the reference are at the end of each post.
Having said that, let us approach from the popular theme of Entrepreneurship:
"An entrepreneur is an individual who establishes and manages a business for the principal purposes of profit and growth. The entrepreneur is characterized principally by innovative behavior and will employ strategic management practices in the business."
(Carland, et. al. , 1988)
Many literatures tried to define who an entrepreneur is, in the beginning it was the trait approach, who said that entrepreneurs are born and there are skills that others can't achieve, for this purpose study was based on traits like independence, self acualization and risk taking propensity. Alas after 35 years, the trait based approach wasn't considered insufficient because it did not have a process, was subjective and encourage a breed of elite entrepreneurs.
Many literatures tried to define who an entrepreneur is, in the beginning it was the trait approach, who said that entrepreneurs are born and there are skills that others can't achieve, for this purpose study was based on traits like independence, self acualization and risk taking propensity. Alas after 35 years, the trait based approach wasn't considered insufficient because it did not have a process, was subjective and encourage a breed of elite entrepreneurs.
Then followed the skills approach who believed that entrepreneurs skill can be achieved. They formed on three main areas: technical, human and conceptual. Then came the style approach, which based on the concept that the leader could be defined with how he leads a team. This approach followed from the research done by University of Michigan studies and the Ohio university. Their output can be seen from the Blake & Mouton model.
After them there was the situational approach, which focused on the situations building the entrepreneurs, they also developed a matrix based on the directive and supportive which was further built in the different styles the entrepreneur took,listed as directing, coaching, suppporting and delegating. Later the contigency theory came which focused on matching the leader with the situation as shown below and the last is the path goal theory, which states that the job of a leader was to remove the hurdles from the path leading to the aim by being supportive.
However according to (Busenitz, & Barney, 1997) its states that the cognitive theory is more practical, because it solves the problem as to why some entrepreneurs are successfully able to take advantage of their opportunities and while others are not are able to do so and it is also useful in understanding why this may be the reason entrepreneurs don't make good managers.
The theory that they propose is based on biases and heuristics, which in other term is also known as a 'muddle' approach strategy.Biases and Heuristic is a strategy used by most entrepreneur that focuses on day-to day solving of problem, where the decisions are based on approaches that have been successfully implented in the past and the main goal is to survive.
Without these biases and heuristics, many decisions would never be made. In entrepreneurial ventures, in particular, the window of opportunity would often be gone by the
time all the necessary information became available for more rational decision-making.
Additionally, successfully starting a new business usually involves overcoming multiple
hurdles. Using biases and heuristics as simplifying mechanisms for dealing with these
multiple problems may be crucial. To face hurdles from a strict econometric approach would not only postpone decisions, but would in all likelihood make them overwhelming.
time all the necessary information became available for more rational decision-making.
Additionally, successfully starting a new business usually involves overcoming multiple
hurdles. Using biases and heuristics as simplifying mechanisms for dealing with these
multiple problems may be crucial. To face hurdles from a strict econometric approach would not only postpone decisions, but would in all likelihood make them overwhelming.
Point of departure (what I have learned):
These theories support the definition of the leader defined below:
The leader’s role is to determine the desired future state (direction of growth), identify
the kind of formal structures and systems needed to support that vision, and guide the implementation process.
The leader’s role is to determine the desired future state (direction of growth), identify
the kind of formal structures and systems needed to support that vision, and guide the implementation process.
However, ironically and quite interesting is that I agree with the cognitive theory and contradict with the definition a leader/ entrepreneur. I agree with (Nicholls-Nixon, 2005), which according to the complexity science prefer the definition of the leader below:
"Instead of determining direction and creating organization fit, the primary task of the leader is to develop a knowledge creation process that will generate the innovations needed to enhance future performance."
As we all know that as the organizations grow, an entrepreneur has to learn to be the manager and adopt an outward focus, if he/she wants the business to grow further. However literature and pratical examples illustrate that its the most difficult time for them, but the theoires are sure to explain how a leader/entreprenuer can behave to make sure that the ball remains in his court!!!
Reference:
Busenitz, L. W., & Barney, J. B. (1997). Differences between entrepreneurs and
managers in large organizations: biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making.
Journal of Business Venturing, 12(1), 9-30.
Carland, J. W., Hoy, F., & Carland, J. A. C. (1988). "Who is an entrepreneur?" is aquestion worth asking. American Journal of Small Business, 12(4).
Nicholls-Nixon, C. (2005), Rapid growth and high performance: The entrepreneur’s
“impossible dream?” Academy of Management Executive, 19 (1), 77-89.
“impossible dream?” Academy of Management Executive, 19 (1), 77-89.
As organizations climb the ladder of success, the time comes when they become the rapid organization; the owner's role begins to change, beside the fact that he/she has to become more 'professional' than the ''entrepreneurial', he/she goes through many emotional phase especially when the time to make decisions and to take on the opportunity decreases at a fast level. As the organizations with each crises gets exposed one at a time, the owner begins to face depression and reacts with arrogance towards his/her employees and as the external factors invade, which is when the stakeholders starts to question, the owner starts to panic and thence leading to even more worse scenario. The end as we all know is that the organizations become bankrupted even though how much he/she must have tried to make the organizations work, better put the ship has already sinked.
In times like this my former boss words ring in my ear, Sir Owais as we all called him told me that you had to have a big heart in business, because there are many many setbacks, but you have to get up and pick up from the start. That was his way of thinking which also was supposed to be adopted by his partner Sir Mansur. It so easy to say things but its very difficult to actually do it and why must I say, well that's how our background training has been.
Both these bosses had delivered different kind of behaviour, motivated by the first one. I don't think its easy to become a leader or to be able to quickly adapt. There are many factors that affect our personality and our approach to the future. For the entrepreneur who is the owner and manager, he/she will probably be using the multidetermined strategy, a concept in the psychodynamic approach defined as the gratification of a number of wishes at the same time. An efficient approach towards a whole set of life issues.(Kisfalvi, 2002) But then what does other people who don't use this approach use to their life's problem? I leave that open ended.
Ironically, the same story by both the bosses are converyed differently, fun with one and serious and boredoom with the other. What's in for me is the question that the employee's ask, if you don't have the money then better sell the organization with an organizational culture. However for the individual this would need a lot of strategic thinking, also known as "controlled boldness", but rest assured if pulled wisely can have great results.
To sum it up, owner managers as the literature states have to pick the strategy that works for them because their business size, revenue and earning vary compared to others. People are always negative towards something new because it has the degree of uncertainity attached to it but then there are always many decisions that are taken place like those everyday. We can only hope as future entrepreneurs that we can take our knowledge and working experience and build something on it which will be strong and ready for any sort of change.
Kisfalvi, V. (2002), The entrepreneur’s character, life issues, and strategy making. A field
study. Journal of Business Venturing, 17, 489-518.
In times like this my former boss words ring in my ear, Sir Owais as we all called him told me that you had to have a big heart in business, because there are many many setbacks, but you have to get up and pick up from the start. That was his way of thinking which also was supposed to be adopted by his partner Sir Mansur. It so easy to say things but its very difficult to actually do it and why must I say, well that's how our background training has been.
Both these bosses had delivered different kind of behaviour, motivated by the first one. I don't think its easy to become a leader or to be able to quickly adapt. There are many factors that affect our personality and our approach to the future. For the entrepreneur who is the owner and manager, he/she will probably be using the multidetermined strategy, a concept in the psychodynamic approach defined as the gratification of a number of wishes at the same time. An efficient approach towards a whole set of life issues.(Kisfalvi, 2002) But then what does other people who don't use this approach use to their life's problem? I leave that open ended.
Ironically, the same story by both the bosses are converyed differently, fun with one and serious and boredoom with the other. What's in for me is the question that the employee's ask, if you don't have the money then better sell the organization with an organizational culture. However for the individual this would need a lot of strategic thinking, also known as "controlled boldness", but rest assured if pulled wisely can have great results.
To sum it up, owner managers as the literature states have to pick the strategy that works for them because their business size, revenue and earning vary compared to others. People are always negative towards something new because it has the degree of uncertainity attached to it but then there are always many decisions that are taken place like those everyday. We can only hope as future entrepreneurs that we can take our knowledge and working experience and build something on it which will be strong and ready for any sort of change.
Kisfalvi, V. (2002), The entrepreneur’s character, life issues, and strategy making. A field
study. Journal of Business Venturing, 17, 489-518.
