How is Entrepreneur different from intrapreneur
Whereas an entrepreneur is a person who creates a venture or starts up a business and nurtures it, takes risks of bringing together the factors of production to meet the society’s need at a profit, an intrapreneur works within an existing organization to pursue the exploitation of business opportunities.
Characteristics of Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur must have certain traits in order to reach its full potentials. Some of the characteristics are:
Motivation: Entrepreneurs are usually passionate, buoyant and highly self-motivated. They have very high energy levels and are always willing to take initiatives. They are usually concerned about their business and how to increase the market share, how to improve their existing processes.
Risk Tolerance: The establishment of any entrepreneurial venture is risky and the entrepreneur has to assume risk. As risk and rewards are inseparable, in order to grow, the entrepreneur should have large appetite for assuming risk. Entrepreneurship is a very risky venture; entrepreneurial decisions can have far-reaching impact on the organization, people in the organization and even the economy. These decisions are critical, enormous and cannot be easily reverted.
Vision: The entrepreneur is a visionary. One of the major responsibilities of an entrepreneur decides the direction the business should go. It requires a strong vision on the part of an entrepreneur to ensure his/her business reach maturity.
Mental ability and Creativity: The entrepreneur should anticipate changes and must be able to study the various situations under which decisions have to be made. Successful entrepreneurs have the creative ability to recognize and pursue opportunities. They are always on a look out for new ways of doing things such as launching new products, rebranding existing products, providing new services etc.
Clear Objectives: An entrepreneur has clarity about the objectives to be achieved in the business, the nature of goods to be produced and subsidiary activities to be undertaken. This clarity in objectives helps them to translate their business idea into reality and gives the business a sense of direction.
Good Communication Skills: This basically pertains to communicate effectively. An entrepreneur who can effectively communicate with customers, employees, suppliers and creditors will be more likely to succeed than the entrepreneur who does not. An entrepreneur must have a good feedback system.
Human Skills: An entrepreneur must have good human relations. The most important personality factors contributing to the success of any entrepreneur include emotional stability, good inter- personal relations, consideration and tactfulness. An entrepreneur has to maintain good relations with his customers so as to encourage them to continue to patronize his business. He must also maintain good relations with his employees so as to motivate them to perform their jobs with a high level of efficiency.
Technical skills: An entrepreneur must have the competence and proficiency in the knowledge of the business. It is the possession of specialized knowledge and understanding in methods, processes, procedures and techniques in carrying out day-to-day activities. Examples are; coaching, organizing, monitoring environment amongst others.
Self Confidence and Multi-Skilled: The entrepreneur must have self-confidence and believe in him/herself. Selfconfidence is an important characteristic that enables individuals to handle any situation without having inferiority or any other type of complex. The entrepreneur also has to be a jack of all trade and master of all. He/she must possess different skills unlike other individuals. For instance, assuming an entrepreneur is a marketer, the entrepreneur should not only possess marketing skills and interpersonal skills but also language skills i.e. ability to speak more than one language. This definitely will be an added advantage! Confidence in the Face of Difficulties and Discouraging Circumstances: The entrepreneur must be steadfast and resolute and be ready to move on even in the face of adversity. He/she should be a ‘never say never’ kind of person; everything is possible for the entrepreneur.
Innovative skills: The entrepreneur may not necessarily be an ‘inventor’ but the one that can make a difference; he/she should be able to see what others cannot see and be able to carve out a new niche in the market place.
Results-Orientated:The entrepreneur is one who knows how to get results under any circumstances either with others or through others. The entrepreneur does this by setting goals and ensuring that such goals are doggedly pursued by all concerned willingly and with joy.
Risk-Taker:The business environment is dynamic and filled with uncertainties and risk. In order to succeed the entrepreneur has to take risk. Successful entrepreneurs take calculated risks and in some cases shift the risks to others.
Total Commitment: Starting /creating a new business is a serious exercise that requires a lot of commitment and hard work. It is like bringing a child into the world and nurturing the child to adulthood. This requires commitment, dedication, hard work, energy and single-mindedness otherwise the ‘child’ (i.e. business) may die prematurely (Di-Masi, 2010).
Calm:Entrepreneurs need to be cool, calm and collected. They have to remain calm even when exposed to stress, emergency or crisis situations.
Focused: In getting things done and starting and maintaining a business attention has to be paid to a lot of details. Small things when not handled properly or noticed on time may lead to disastrous outcomes.
Tolerance:The entrepreneur has to relate with people. People vary in terms of their perceptions, personality, motivations and attitudes amongst other things. The entrepreneur needs to be tolerant while not being weak, in order to get things done.
Balance:Though, the entrepreneur is a human being, he/she has to be like a super human being in order for him to succeed. To this effect, he/she has to be able to balance all.
Rockstar (2008) recognized the characteristics of entrepreneurship to include:
Creativity:Entrepreneurship entails innovations. It deals with product innovation, production techniques innovation while bearing in mind the market.
Dynamism:Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process that has to bear in mind the dynamic business environment.
Purposefulness:Entrepreneurship is an activity embarked upon for a specific purpose. This could be for profit making purposes, for humanitarian purposes or to bring a difference to the market.
DiMasi (2010), on the other hand, regards the major characteristics of entrepreneurs as:
• Self-confidence and being multi-skill,
• Confidence in the face of difficulties and discouraging circumstances, • Results-orientation and total commitment.
• Stephenson (2010) believes that entrepreneurial characteristics are:
• Seriousness, planning ability, prudence, and team wo
