To answer the question, "what does it take to be an entrepreneur?" we first need to ask the question- why focus on entrepreneurs, what do they do differently?
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In a resource constrained society, entrepreneurs are extraordinarily evolved |
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They start with aspirations that lie outside the resource base. |
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And, it's true that in a resource constrained society, entrepreneurs find, multiply and leverage resources and create wealth. |
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They change the game and fight and unseat incumbents. |
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They find the world different- to shape the future you must first imagine the future. |
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Good entrepreneurs do not benchmark against the best practices; they create the next practices |
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Fundamentally entrepreneurship is about discovery of wealth. It's not taking what is available, but creating and discovering wealth. |
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It's about courage, passion, humility and humanity. |
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It creates a social legitimacy to wealth creation and the role of business |
The role and responsibility of entrepreneurs is changing as India changes. This is an important issue to think about, because the nature of entrepreneurship is different in India- it is more complex, complicated and more granular than the West.
In India there are a lot of family-inspired businesses-almost 45% of the top 500 businesses in this country belong to these categories-that is a significant portion of India's wealth creating opportunity.
As a country, we have to learn to celebrate honest wealth creation. The kind of entrepreneurship India has- in pockets of excellence, honest, meritocracy-oriented- is exactly the kind of entrepreneurship that will make wealth creation a socially legitimate activity.
We have to create awareness and advocacy for honest people who want to make a difference, who want to express themselves and for whom business and institution building is not necessarily for personal glory.
- C.K. Prahalad
Professor of Strategy, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, U.S.A
- Courtesy: The Hindu, Business Line
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