The dogmas of Entrepreneurship: Part II

Are you an entrepreneur or a businessperson?  
Benjamin Lyngdoh 

Email – benjamin21in@yahoo.co.in 

In many cases there is lack of clarity on the difference between an entrepreneur and a businessperson. It is important to differentiate between the two as it impinges upon the entire subject-matter of entrepreneurship development. This is also because it is seen across the globe that economic development largely depends upon entrepreneurship progress. As a result, it is commonly referred that entrepreneurs are a key to socio-economic growth, inclusiveness and holistic development.  

1. Entrepreneur is a broad concept – The word entrepreneur is generally taken to be synonymous with business activities alone. An entrepreneur is viewed as someone who is strictly attached to some economic trade. In actuality, an entrepreneur can be anyone who brings about change and development. Its scope stretches far beyond the limits of business activity alone. The important phrase here is ‘change and development’. It basically implies engaging in all types of activities that would help the masses, solve their problems, give them a positive outlook towards life, chart a plan for their overall wellbeing through employment and capacity building, care for the environment, etc. As such, an entrepreneur can be a locality leader such as a rangbah shnong, a church leader, politician, social worker, teacher, doctor, nurse, etc. In fact, even our parents are entrepreneurs as they work hard every day to make our lives better and help us develop both in terms of health and education. Hence, it is critical that we picture entrepreneurship for what it truly is.           

2. Entrepreneurs do three things – In the process of bringing change and development there are three elements. In their absence, we would be doing business alone and not entrepreneurship. The elements are innovation, alertness and risk-taking. An entrepreneur must be an innovator. There is no other way. All entrepreneurship thinkers do say that if one does not innovate then he/she is not fit to be called an entrepreneur. Innovation means to come up with new ways and means of doing things and providing a better product/service. It makes the lives of the people better. Alertness is another element. Entrepreneurs are those who are alert to the happenings around them. They are aware as to how the demands of the consumers are changing. They respond to it accordingly by innovating new and better products/services. The last element is risk-taking. Entrepreneurs are people who take risks by offering their innovative products/services to the consumers. The reward for the risk taken is a profit that shall be earned in due course of time. Point being, no matter how innovative and alert an entrepreneur is, risk-taking is the ultimate factor that decides upon profitability.                

3. Being an entrepreneur is not difficult – If we look at the three elements, it might seem that becoming an entrepreneur is intimidating. In truth, it is not. This is because alertness can be developed through training and being well versed with the happenings around us through critical observation, reading and discussion with friends, etc. Risk-taking is not exactly a concern as the more information we have about the consumers, the lesser is its potency. The idea is to convert a risk into a calculated one. This is done by collecting information as in the case of alertness. Innovation is what we are scared of the most. Mostly because it involves the creation of a new product/service. Although, ‘newness innovation’ is an important component; it is not the only one. Innovation can also happen in terms of processes and combinations. A person does not have to come up with something absolutely new to become an entrepreneur; rather he/she can just innovate on the processes of designing a product and/or providing a service. This is also known as ‘process innovation’. By the way, the majority of entrepreneurial innovation around the world is process innovation only. The same applies in our localised context.        

Let us look at an example to understand better. In our localities there are grocery shops. There will be at least three grocery shop owners. Let us call them John, Jack and Mary. Now, are all the three entrepreneurs? Or are they just businesspersons? The answer is that the grocery shop owner who is innovative, alert and risk-taking is an entrepreneur. Say that person is John. If Jack and Mary just copies what John does then they are not entrepreneurs. Rather, they are just businesspersons. To become entrepreneurs, Jack and Mary will have to do their own bit of innovation, alertness and risk-taking. This can happen by selling new/different types of products or offer new type of service such as home delivery, etc being a case of process innovation. Else, they will continue to be known just as businesspeople. Hence, the saying that all entrepreneurs are businesspersons but all businesspersons may or may not be entrepreneurs.         

So, are you an entrepreneur or a businessperson? Assess yourself!