Business Innovation

1- According to Anderson (1995) ' role models' play an important part in the promotion of Entrepreneurship. Critically evaluate this statement including references to regional/state initiatives to further develop and sustain an ' enterprise culture'.

It is largely true that businesses are able to grow and expand more when they are in a position to draw from other existing businesses (Bruin 2003). This is more or less like human beings are able to take after certain people characterwise if such people are their models. Businesses are able to grow to almost exponential proportions when they receive the impetus they need to grow. However, the kind of modeling that is practiced here is that which comes from the availability not only of other businesses but of the required infrastructural and financial support (Krueger 2002).

If the government, both at regional and national level, is able to provide these conditions or a general favorable atmosphere for business enterprises to flourish, then such nations and/or regions will experience a real tremendous growth in business. This is unlike where there is no such a move (Bruin 2003).

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Enterprise cultures are, therefore, only able to be promoted in the country and its many regions if there are in place mechanisms which encourage entrepreneurs to set up enterprises. The baseline here is favorable conditions. If the conditions are right then, like a plant, enterprises will spring up and flourish. However, if there are not favorable conditions, then regardless of the desire entrepreneurs have to set up businesses, their efforts will not be as fruitful.

Therefore, if there is to be a real enterprising culture, the involved governments ought to be ready to initiate it and to help it grow. That is the essence of modeling – the model models others by actions that can be emulated (Bruin 2003). In addition to this, the very presence of other entrepreneurs in a country operating in a given line of business will encourage others to follow suit. The key is, therefore, to have as many active entrepreneurs in a region and the others will be encouraged to follow in their steps.

Inherent within mankind is a natural tendency to emulate others in both good and bad acts. Current leading entrepreneurs are not products of their own making but people who have copied or inherited the entrepreneurial culture from others. This can be partly used to explain the common observation of business running down family lines for very many generations (Fayolle & Klandt 2006). It is a passing down of the culture – a modeling of next-of-kins to be ready to take up the business at one time or another.

While an enterprising culture can be cultivated amongst individuals successfully, it is usually very difficult to make the culture sustainable unless there is constant drawing from others who have already gone through the experience (Krueger 2002). Therefore, it is true that role modeling plays a critical role in enhancing a culture of entrepreneurship in a country or a region.

2- Much of the entrepreneurial literature suggests that entrepreneurs are significantly more creative than others (Timmons 1989, Whiting 1988). Critically evaluate the validity of their claim using appropriate references to academic literature.

In order to make any justifiable assertion on this statement as afar as its validity is concerned, it is critical to have an understanding of what an entrepreneur is and what such a person is characterized of (Krueger 2002). A notable point to start is to understand that although many have tended to associate entrepreneurship with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this definition has remained a gross underestimation of what the actual issue is. Instead, entrepreneurs are people who possess the innate capability of doing things that can otherwise never be dared by other people.

And it is on the basis of this point that this statement can be tested and proved to be valid. For an entrepreneur is always at the point where one is constantly thinking of how to make things happen (Krueger 2002). One is always scheming, devising, and drawing upon possible ways. An entrepreneur will not sit by and seek to use a shortcut to as problem as many other people, including other businessmen, will readily do. Rather, they dig through piles of thoughts to come up with ways where there seems to be no way and with solutions to problems that are deemed to be without a solution.

Fayolle & Klandt (2006) writing in their book International entrepreneurship education: issues and newness suggests that one of the most unique attributes of the entrepreneur is that they are creative and opportunistic. Creativity and opportunism are a setoff attributes one will hardly find in an ordinary person. Entrepreneurs are readily scheming and taking advantage of even the slightest opportunities they get to accomplish great business ventures. Their having the resources they need to set up businesses is not really what drives them to engage in business but rather their resolve to accomplish a certain goal in a given time frame.

Fayolle & Klandt add to this list the other attributes which make entrepreneurs very unique beings. One is intuition. These people are more intuitive in their approach to problem-solving than the other people who more readily use the rational approach. Entrepreneurs will tend to follow their own, usually random methods to solve problems while other people will tend to prefer following tested, proven, and natural ways.

Entrepreneurs are not good at following traditional ways of dong things. They always seem to have a newer method to do something and every time they do come out with new results. They are prone to deviance and desire autonomy. They dislike being controlled – that is why they would rather break some rules (Bruin 2003). Entrepreneurs hardly accept anything as being without a solution. They have no impossibilities in life!

3- Whilst most organizations realize that they need to be more innovative and more flexible to meet the ever changing market arena, there are many obstacles to the development of corporate Entrepreneurship (Intrapreneurship). Critically evaluate and discuss in detail likely/typical managerial obstacles and outline methods by which the corporate culture could be beneficially changed within an organization.

Obstacles to the desire by organizations to become entrepreneurial vary. The first one is that of funding. Corporate entrepreneurship cannot be carried out unless there are funds to do this as it entails incorporating newer ways of doing things, introduction to the organization of many changes, and a general restructuring (Efring 2005). All these need funding which is not always available. The second obstacle is that many organizations underestimate the value of corporate entrepreneurship. As such, they make little or not effort to work towards it.

Those that do it never make it a priority. So by the time corporate entrepreneurship is considered as something to be undertaken or pursued, there is hardly any mechanism or resources available to support it. The third hindrance is usually the clash between organizational goals and those of the management. Unless leaders or managers can align their goals with those of their organization, the organization can never get to a point of attaining corporate entrepreneurship. Instead, there will be differences in priorities and such divisions will curtail any worthwhile progress toward any goal. The organization will stagnate (Sathe 2003).

That said, however, it is untrue that organizations are actually in need of getting more innovative and fail. If indeed there is a resolve to become innovative, then nothing can really stop such a move. What they call a desire to be innovative is actually just a feeling fueled by the suppositions that innovation is critical to organizational development. If they really wanted to innovate then nothing can really stop them (Kuratko 2007). The following are methods through which corporate culture could be beneficially changed within an organization:

1. Aligning leadership aims and goals with those of the organization.
2. Instilling a discipline of innovation and creativity in all employees through rewarding innovation, creativity, and initiative.
3. Enhance communications between staff and management and among staff, so that everyone is clear about the expectations of the organization on them.
4. Reduce organizational bureaucracies so that there is enhanced interaction between employees and the senior management.
5. Ensuring that there is a clear communication of the key organizational strategies is also a real move towards attainment of organizational innovation. In certain cases, employees have failed to understand what they are supposed to do because they have never been told. Even those with individual entrepreneurship within them have it killed for lying unused.
6. Training and general human resource development can go a long way in enhancing the innovation of the organization.

4- Evaluate from a critical perspective, the major reasons for the impressive financial and marketing results of the mainly European entrepreneurial "low=cost" airline that have been operating from the UK and Ireland, from the mid-1990's. Consider, providing rationale, potential marketing strategies to counter any restrictions and/or additional taxes that could be imposed by the host nations where they operate.

Low-cost airlines operating from the United Kingdom and Ireland have proved to be successful in both marketing strategies and finances for a number of reasons (Button 2004). On of them is that these airlines have almost broken from common beliefs in the industry. A good example here is the Irish low-cost company Ryanair. This airline is sometimes wrongly branded as using unethical and unconventional methods in its operations (Hoffmann 2007). It has been, on many occasions, faulted for breaching ethical terms of service. But the company has essentially been doing what entrepreneurs do – being different and seeking autonomy. For instance the airline does not offer its customers any meals on board which has enabled it to cut its costs of its tickets and so attract even more customers.

Another reason is that these airlines have resorted to moving away from main airports that charge exorbitant fees and are very competitive secondary airports located in smaller cities where airport charges are much reduced and most of the customers there are people who desire such services but cannot get them locally. As such, these airlines have been giving customers what they want and in the way they want it. Their marketing has been successful because they focus on the needs of the short-distance traveler. Finally, deregulation in the industry allowed for freer operations and stiffer competition, combined factors which have made the airlines to be more innovative.

In the event that host nations will impose restrictions of any kind, the potential marketing strategies to counter them can be in different forms, considering that these are highly innovative airlines. One can be the use of modern technology to advertise. For instance, instead of depending on direct ticket sales, the airlines can develop online ticketing systems which can minimize time losses and save costs. Advertising could be done in the cabin instead of being carried in newsprint media or at airports (Mayer 2008).

This is a cost-saving measure which will help mitigate losses due to tax impositions. For the cost of advertising is usually high for the airlines. Another potential marketing strategy would be to introduce special tickets for standing passengers especially on domestic flights that last only a few minutes.  This strategy, although highly controversial, has been successfully applied in several low cost airlines in Asia, particularly in China. Such a move will attract more customers and increase the sales revenue of the airlines (Shaw 2007). Read about Timmons model

References

Bruin, A 2003. Entrepreneurship: new perspectives in a global age. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Button, K 2004. Wings across Europe: towards an efficient European air transport system.

 Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Efring, T 2005. Corporate entrepreneurship and venturing. Springer

Fayolle, A ; Klandt, H 2006. International entrepreneurship education: issues and newness.

 Edward Elgar Publishing

Hoffmann, S 2007. The Low-cost Airline Ryanair: A Critical Evaluation of the Ryanair

Phenomenon and Its Future Prospects with Taking the European Airline Industry Into Consideration. GRIN Verlag

Krueger, N 2002. Entrepreneurship: critical perspectives on business and management, Volume

4. Taylor ; Francis

Kuratko, D 2007. Corporate Entrepreneurship. Now Publishers Inc

Mayer, S 2008. Ryanair and Its Low Cost Flights in Europe: Marketing Plan. GRIN Verlag

Sathe, V 2003. Corporate entrepreneurship: top managers and new business creation.

 Cambridge University Press

Shaw, S 2007. Airline marketing and management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

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