Entrepreneurs are passionate innovators with a desire to change the world. However, they can be found in any industry and their visions and aspirations vary from one person to the next. Indeed, some entrepreneurs are motivated by the lure of money while others are motivated by social good. Some entrepreneurs start small companies and believe in sustained hard work to achieve success while others are a part of corporations that use capital to reach their goals.
Social entrepreneurship
The main goal of social entrepreneurship is to improve society in some shape or form. While some of these companies exist to make money, there are also non-profits and B Corps that balance social purpose with profit.
Warby Parker is one example of social entrepreneurship, with the company donating more than eight million pairs of glasses to disadvantaged citizens who are vision-impaired.
Innovation entrepreneurship
Innovation entrepreneurship is the transformation of an invention or idea into a business venture. This entrepreneurship type seeks to change the way people live in a manner that no other company has managed to do.
Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates are all examples of motivated, passionate innovation entrepreneurs whose companies redefined what was thought possible.
Small business entrepreneurship
Small business entrepreneurship describes modest innovation that tends to be the result of adding a new twist to an existing product or service. Profits from these innovations are used to meet payroll or support basic living expenses. In other words, they are not reinvested to expand the business.
As the name suggests, small business entrepreneurship is found in many mom-and-pop businesses such as hairdressers, butchers, grocery stores, florists, and consultants.
Hustler entrepreneurship
Hustlers are those who believe in the power of hard work sustained over a long period. They have grand visions to grow the company into something more substantial and are not afraid to take risks.
One example of hustler entrepreneurship is Mary Kay Ash, founder of the beauty company Mary Kay Cosmetics. Ash used a combination of confidence, conscientiousness, extroversion, and superior networking skills to make her dream a reality.
Imitator entrepreneurship
In a similar way to small business entrepreneurs, imitators consider what is already working and then develop a product, service, or business model that is innovative or iterative. They can spot the mistakes others have made and improve on them with self-confidence and conviction.
Many believe imitator entrepreneurship to be a blend of innovators and hustlers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is one such example.
Researcher entrepreneurship
Researcher entrepreneurs favor practicality over innovation and will spend vast amounts of time analyzing data to reduce the chances of a venture failing. Researchers possess exemplary critical thinking and problem-solving skills and have a strong desire for order. They make sure they understand every aspect of a business and a driven by logic rather than emotion.
Larry Ellison, a businessman, and co-founder of Oracle Corporation is a good example of researcher entrepreneurship.
Key takeaways:
Entrepreneurs are passionate innovators with a desire to change the world. They can be found in almost any industry and the visions and aspirations vary from one entrepreneur to the next.
Social entrepreneurship seeks to improve society in some way, while innovation entrepreneurship takes a new idea and makes it viable.
Small business entrepreneurship is commonly found in mom-and-pop stores where the primary goal is to support a basic but comfortable existence. Hustler entrepreneurs believe success is down to sustained hard work, while researcher entrepreneurship is practical, analytical, and driven by logic instead of emotion.
The ADKAR model is a management tool designed to assist employees and businesses in transitioning through organizational change. To maximize the chances of employees embracing change, the ADKAR model was developed by author and engineer Jeff Hiatt in 2003. The model seeks to guide people through the change process and importantly, ensure that people do not revert to habitual ways of operating after some time has passed.
You can use the Ansoff Matrix as a strategic framework to understand what growthstrategy is more suited based on the market context. Developed by mathematician and business manager Igor Ansoff, it assumes a growthstrategy can be derived from whether the market is new or existing, and whether the product is new or existing.
The business model canvas is a framework proposed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur in Busines Model Generation enabling the design of business models through nine building blocks comprising: key partners, key activities, value propositions, customer relationships, customer segments, critical resources, channels, cost structure, and revenue streams.
The lean startup canvas is an adaptation by Ash Maurya of the business model canvas by Alexander Osterwalder, which adds a layer that focuses on problems, solutions, key metrics, unfair advantage based, and a unique value proposition. Thus, starting from mastering the problem rather than the solution.
The Blitzscaling business model canvas is a model based on the concept of Blitzscaling, which is a particular process of massive growth under uncertainty, and that prioritizes speed over efficiency and focuses on market domination to create a first-scaler advantage in a scenario of uncertainty.
A blue ocean is a strategy where the boundaries of existing markets are redefined, and new uncontested markets are created. At its core, there is valueinnovation, for which uncontested markets are created, where competition is made irrelevant. And the cost-value trade-off is broken. Thus, companies following a blue ocean strategy offer much more value at a lower cost for the end customers.
Business analysis is a research discipline that helps driving change within an organization by identifying the key elements and processes that drive value. Business analysis can also be used in Identifying new business opportunities or how to take advantage of existing business opportunities to grow your business in the marketplace.
In the 1970s, Bruce D. Henderson, founder of the Boston Consulting Group, came up with The Product Portfolio (aka BCG Matrix, or Growth-share Matrix), which would look at a successful business product portfolio based on potential growth and market shares. It divided products into four main categories: cash cows, pets (dogs), question marks, and stars.
First proposed by accounting academic Robert Kaplan, the balanced scorecard is a management system that allows an organization to focus on big-picture strategic goals. The four perspectives of the balanced scorecard include financial, customer, business process, and organizational capacity. From there, according to the balanced scorecard, it’s possible to have a holistic view of the business.
A blue ocean is a strategy where the boundaries of existing markets are redefined, and new uncontested markets are created. At its core, there is valueinnovation, for which uncontested markets are created, where competition is made irrelevant. And the cost-value trade-off is broken. Thus, companies following a blue ocean strategy offer much more value at a lower cost for the end customers.
A gap analysis helps an organization assess its alignment with strategic objectives to determine whether the current execution is in line with the company’s mission and long-term vision. Gap analyses then help reach a target performance by assisting organizations to use their resources better. A good gap analysis is a powerful tool to improve execution.
The GE McKinsey Matrix was developed in the 1970s after General Electric asked its consultant McKinsey to develop a portfolio managementmodel. This matrix is a strategy tool that provides guidance on how a corporation should prioritize its investments among its business units, leading to three possible scenarios: invest, protect, harvest, and divest.
The McKinsey 7-S Model was developed in the late 1970s by Robert Waterman and Thomas Peters, who were consultants at McKinsey & Company. Waterman and Peters created seven key internal elements that inform a business of how well positioned it is to achieve its goals, based on three hard elements and four soft elements.
McKinsey’s Seven Degrees of Freedom for Growth is a strategy tool. Developed by partners at McKinsey and Company, the tool helps businesses understand which opportunities will contribute to expansion, and therefore it helps to prioritize those initiatives.
The McKinsey Horizon Model helps a business focus on innovation and growth. The model is a strategy framework divided into three broad categories, otherwise known as horizons. Thus, the framework is sometimes referred to as McKinsey’s Three Horizons of Growth.
Porter’s Five Forces is a model that helps organizations to gain a better understanding of their industries and competition. Published for the first time by Professor Michael Porter in his book “Competitive Strategy” in the 1980s. The model breaks down industries and markets by analyzing them through five forces.
According to Michael Porter, a competitive advantage, in a given industry could be pursued in two key ways: low cost (cost leadership), or differentiation. A third generic strategy is focus. According to Porter a failure to do so would end up stuck in the middle scenario, where the company will not retain a long-term competitive advantage.
In his 1985 book Competitive Advantage, Porter explains that a value chain is a collection of processes that a company performs to create value for its consumers. As a result, he asserts that value chain analysis is directly linked to competitive advantage. Porter’s Value Chain Model is a strategic management tool developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter. The tool analyses a company’s value chain – defined as the combination of processes that the company uses to make money.
Porter’s Diamond Model is a diamond-shaped framework that explains why specific industries in a nation become internationally competitive while those in other nations do not. The model was first published in Michael Porter’s 1990 book The Competitive Advantage of Nations. This framework looks at the firm strategy, structure/rivalry, factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries.
A SWOT Analysis is a framework used for evaluating the business‘s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It can aid in identifying the problematic areas of your business so that you can maximize your opportunities. It will also alert you to the challenges your organization might face in the future.
Businesses use scenario planning to make assumptions on future events and how their respective business environments may change in response to those future events. Therefore, scenario planning identifies specific uncertainties – or different realities and how they might affect future business operations. Scenario planning attempts at better strategic decision making by avoiding two pitfalls: underprediction, and overprediction.
The STEEPLE analysis is a variation of the STEEP analysis. Where the step analysis comprises socio-cultural, technological, economic, environmental/ecological, and political factors as the base of the analysis. The STEEPLE analysis adds other two factors such as Legal and Ethical.
A SWOT Analysis is a framework used for evaluating the business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It can aid in identifying the problematic areas of your business so that you can maximize your opportunities. It will also alert you to the challenges your organization might face in the future.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
