Understanding the Characteristics of an Entrepreneur: Insights and Innovations

[Music] we are on for our gns

entrepreneurial lecture series and this is third in the series of such lectures and our topic for today is

characteristics of an enterpreneur or characteristics of the enterpreneur before going to

explain these basic characteristics that an enterpreneur

processes I will first want us to know who is an entrepreneur or what really is entrepreneurship

entrepreneurship as we are told in our ordinary level days is the person

who organizes an enterpreneur is somebody who organizes other resources for

productive use land labor and capital are put into effective use by somebody who is called

an enterpreneur so such a person is saded with the responsibility of mixing and blending

all these resources in various proportions to give rise to a given output so the way it is saying at

that level is that entrepreneurship is all about organizing and assembling resources or inputs to bring forth a

given output and these resources in real terms can be mixed or Blended in varying proportions to give

rise to varying outputs as well and that is to say that an entrepreneur can mix say about 10% of

land blended with about 8% of Labor and some Quantum say about 7% of capital in form of equipment and

machineries to give rise to a given output the same enterpreneur can still

reblend these same inputs to now use about 20% of land some 15% of Labor and some 12 or 11% of capital

items to still give rise to another level of out and that is why the enterpreneur is seen as an organizer he

seen as a manager of resources to give rise to a given output having said all that nowadays entrepreneurship goes

beyond just assembling resources putting together inputs to give rise to a given output in

real terms or in the actual sense entrepreneurship now is a process and when we say a process we are talking of

something that goes through several stages it is not a One-Stop thing entrepreneurship is a process of several

activities involving several stages one stage then thereafter other

then having said that there are several definitions or several meanings that have been

ascribed to the concept of Entrepreneurship in fact one can say that there are

meanings and definition of Entrepreneurship as their are authors or as their are

textbooks in the ordinary sense the way it is seen by an economist is that an entrepreneur just as I've explained is

an assembler or an organizer of various inputs to give rise to an output but another person has defined it as a

process or a dynamic process created and managed by individuals meaning that entrepreneurship is something that is

ongoing it's not a static thing it's a dynamic process it keeps evolving it keeps changing even as we speak the

enterpreneurial process keeps evolving another Authority explains it as a

process of creating value a process of creating value or a process of creating something new with

value by deploying several resources in terms of money in terms of time in terms of

psychic and other other resources and thereafter

getting Independence and Financial Freedom and that definition was given by a person called Robert estrich in the

year 2002 and his own explanation of Entrepreneurship is that

entrepreneurship is really a process of creating something new not just creating a product or a service or a commodity

but really a process of adding value to an existing thing and that is why it defines it as a process of creating

something new with value so there must be a value addition but that value addition is not

just obtained without the enterpreneur putting several resources into that process and this resources of course

includes time his own energy money and several other resources to to equally include psychic resources his thinking

ability all embedded in that process of trying to create something new and that of course means that in the

entrepreneurial process the entrepreneur adds value to an existing thing and it is thereafter he now gains financial

freedom and Independence and that means that haven been able to come up with a creativity haven't been able to innovate

haven't been able to make a discovery the entrepreneur now sits back and he now gets a financial reward he equally

gets Independence he now becomes an employer of Labor he's now a job Creator then he's able to gain independence he

doesn't have to look for any job he becomes an employer of Labor the employe other people to help him in his

enterpreneurial process so with that one can now summarize what really is entrepreneurship all about

entrepreneurship is about five major things and the first is ideation

entrepreneurship involves ideation coming up with new ideas anything that one does that you can come up with new

ideas new ways of doing things then you are an entrepreneur entrepreneur you know entrepreneurship also is about

Innovation an enterpreneur is somebody who innovates coming up with something new something new something that had not

been in existence before so if anybody is engage in any activity and you are innovating in that process then you are

call an entrepreneur the third one is that entrepreneurship deals with creativity

creativity involves trying to come up with a new way of doing things if you

are doing that also you are an entrepreneur if you are creative the creative process is the entrepreneurial

process so creativity is another way of explaining what entrepreneurship itself also means then

also is the fourth one and that is Discovery the discovery process is also the enterpreneurial

process if anybody has been able to make a discovery something that is entirely new something just evolving something

that had not been in existence before then you can be described to be an enterpreneur in all his entirety and in

all his ramification so a Discoverer is an enterpreneur a Creator is an enterpreneur an innovator is an

entrepreneur somebody that comes up with a new idea is an enterpreneur then also the

fifth one is if one is able to invent an inventor is an enterpreneur the inventive process

as well involves a lot of steps and stages so an inventor is also an enterpreneur so having said that and

having explained the five major pillars upon which entrepreneurship as a concept entrepreneurship as a vocation

entrepreneurship as a way of life Rel stands on which of course again is ideation Innovation invention creativity

and Discovery anybody who's explaining entrepreneurship must of course explain it to revolve around these five basic

concepts of ideation of innovation of creativity of invention and Discovery so having known that we now

move into discussing the characteristics of the enterpr and when we say the

characteristics we are actually talking about the attributes of an ENT and by attribute also is meant the traits of

the ENT we can as well call it the qualities of the ENT so whichever of those synonyms that one PS we are still

talking about the characteristics of the enterpreneur so these

characteristics I'm going to approach it via two different perspective or two different approaches and the first one

is called the tra approach to explaining the characteristics of the enterpreneur and the second one is the

Innovative stroke organizer approach Innovative slash organizer approach to explaining or to discussing the

characteristics of the ENT so starting with the first one the first one of course as I said is

the trait the trait approach and this trait approach sees the enter premum as somebody who possesses certain

qualities as somebody body who possesses certain innate attributes which non enterpreneur do not

process what do we mean by processing certain attributes or certain traits or certain features or certain

characteristics which non enterpreneurs do not possess that means that the enterpreneurs are special people they

are special beings entrepreneurs are special Creations that are born with certain innate traits and

characteristics that the ordinary person may not possess so that of course also goes with a theory in leadership called

the genetic theory of leadership and that also explains the fact that that theory

prends that leaders are born are not made the genetic theory of leadership says that

leaders are born leaders are God created leaders are god-given that leaders are not made but

their leaders are born but that CH again is contented or is negated by several other theor of

leadership like the followership theory that says that people are the ones that will elect or appoint their own leaders

that is what the followership theory says but I'm just trying to provide a Synergy between the genetic theory of

leadership and the trait approach to explaining the characteristics of an

enterpreneur and that genetic theory just as explained says that leaders are born and not made that

leaders right from the time they are in their mother's womb God has deposited certain innate

characteristics certain innate entrepreneural qualities in them the thing just man

as they continue to grow into adulthood in the same way the trade approach to

explaining the characteristics of the enterpreneur pertains that entrepreneurs are born are not made that the end that

the entrepreneurship qualities are not something that can be learned but rather

they are God given that God has deposited it in the being or in every human being who are

enterpreneurs and that is why that theory explains that

enterpreneurs are born and not made that enterpreneurs possess

certain innate qualities and characteristics that non enter opinions do not process so having said that what

are these uh qualities under the tra

approach I will go step by step and one after the other there are basically six of these qualities that the trade

approach outlines and the first one is self-confidence self selfconfidence and this of course says that the

enterpreneur anywhere you find them there are people who are self-confidence there are people who are

self-confident entrepreneurs have self-confidence there are people who on their own are not afraid to take

positions entrepreneurs are not people who are not confident anything they set out to do

they move all machinaries towards achieving such things entrepreneurs are not people who are not

ready to take the B by the own anywhere you find them they lead others will follow they are always

self-confident individuals so this is one of the politics or traits that the trade approach brings out that anybody

wants to be an enterer is always selfconfidence there are not people who are timid they are not afraid but in

life there are some people who are timid but entrepreneurs are not ID and that is why the tra approach believes

that such a quality of being self-confident is not some you know it's not something that can be leared it's

not something that can be acquired but but rather it is something that is god-given that it is God himself who

deposits it in every human being right from the time they are like fos in their mother's home number two is that

entrepreneurs are task and result oriented and when we say entrepreneurs are task and results

oriented what we mean there is that an entrepreneur will not just move

out without setting goals to be achieved either on daily basis or either on weekly basis or perhaps on forly or

monthly basis so entrepreneurs are task oriented entrepreneurs are people who are task

and result oriented before them back on any activity they will have defined the task

step by step to be achieved such task are not just set they equally map out strategies and Alternatives with a view

to achieving such task that they have set for themsel the enterpreneur is somebody who

is result oriented before putting up a task they have defined

the results to be achieved some of us we just set goals or task without defining in clear terms how

to achieve the set goals or how to achieve a result in the task that we have defined so enterpreneurs are not

people like that enterpreneurs are people who on their own will set task either daily or weekly or

fortnightly or culturally and the task are set with the purpose of coming up with the finded results or outputs

number three in that straight approach also is that the entrepreneur is a risk taker The

entrepreneurs are Risk Takers entrepreneurs are people who take risk entrepr URS are not risk adversed people

entrepreneurs are not risk advisors entrepreneurs are ready to take several risk several risk I mean both measurable

as well as immeasurable risk equally risk that are calculable as well as

incalculable ones ENT are ready to delve into as many as possible of this risk entrepreneurs are equally

ready to take risk that are somehow

very uh incalculable you know as I've said risk that you cannot accurately measure why equally assuming several

measur ons so enterpreneurs are not rkers in fact

another name for the enterpreneur is to call them a RIS taker will be aely right if we say

enterpreneur are Risk Takers we can take that phrase as a synonym to standing for an ENT RIS taking is the Cornerstone is

the role that every enterpreneur must be ready to assume the case of dangote is a very

good casing Point around us he doubled he took a risk into investing well over 22

billion into a refinery in Ley and today ding has been completed and it has reached a state of frion is

now reaping his own reward so entrepreneurs are not people who are not ready to take risk dang before

completing that refy in Ley he has assumed several measurable as well as immeasurable risk he has doubled into

calculable and risk that cannot be calculated as well so an enterpreneur must be somebody who is ready to assume

several dimension of risk and that is why under this straight

approach to explaining the characteristics of the enterpreneur the trait approach sees that function of

taking as god-given that it cannot be possessed by anybody or by non Happ us but people whom God

has given the ability to be able to assume risk of innumerable dimensions number four is

leadership under this straight approach another basic quality is that an entrepreneur anywhere they are they are

leaders entrepreneurs are not followers entrepreneurs are people who will lead While others will always follow by the

time one becomes an innovator by the time one is able to come up with an invention by the time a

person is able to make a discovery and you become an enterpreneur whether your Innovation or your invention is prented

or not or whether you decide to now go into exemplify trying or practical iing your Innovative process by putting up a

FM or an industry trying to showcase the product of the outcome of your Innovation or or your invention in all

this you are a leader you have to explain even the process of your Innovation or the process of your coming

up with a discovery to others through that alone you are a leader you have to be a leader you know

a good communicator and in that process the entrepreneur is believed to be leading

While others are the ones that of course follow so if an entrepreneur again now doubles as a manager of an Enterprise

after coming up with an innovation and he now decided to now exemplify the outcome of his Innovation

or his invention by setting up either a small scale industry or a small scale film then again he has to organize

several resources he put together input in form of land label and capital he Blends them to come up with an output in

that process is performing the leadership quality and that is why under this straight

approach entrepreneurs are again seen as Leaders number five is

originality another quality of the enterpreneur is that enterpreneurs are original in whatever they do in whatever

the enterpreneur does the enterpreneur is believed to be an original

person entrepreneurs are not copycats although at times or seldomly they may have to emulate and add value

to whatever they have emulated but you can never see a true entrepreneur copying something

ver entrepreneurs are original in whatever they lay their hands upon AB Bates at times they may have to

emulate what has been in existence somewhere and the now extend this by adding value and once there is a value

addition the enterpreneurial process is believed to have been completed so enterpreneurs are original and that is

one of the basic qualities that the trade approach believes that an enterpreneur must of course process and

the last one which is the cist quality under the tra approach is that entrepreneurs are future oriented

entrepreneurs are future oriented and by this we mean that entrepreneurs are not just goal

Setters they are not just go and result oriented or they are not just task and result oriented but they are equally

future oriented in their perspectives enterpreneur are future oriented in their thinking entrepreneurs

are future oriented in their mindset the entrepreneurial mindset is such that entrepreneurs are good dreamers they are

able to forell what may likely happen in the next one minute enterpreneurs are good

forecasters they can forecast what will happen by 7 p.m. today based on what is happening now and what had happened in

the past say yesterday with their experience and knowledge of what has transpired in the

Yer period and what is currently Happening Now enterpreneurs can forel what you

expect 8:00 p.m. today or even early morning tomorrow so entrepreneurs are future

oriented and many of them are able to Exel because of their fure oriented quality which of course is

one of the basic traits under the trait approach to explaining or discussing the characteristics of the enterpr so having

said that under the trade approach the second approach is the one called the

Innovative or organizer approach and this approach explains that the

enterpreneur is an organizer the enterpreneur is a manager of resources the

entrepreneur as seen by Sha Peter as seen by Joseph allo sha Peter one of the greatest

Economist of this Century SE and entrepreneurship as a process of

organizing several resources or putting inputs together blending them in varing proportion to bring forth varying

outputs so this second approach to explaining the characteristics of an enterpreneur the enterpreneur is

seen as an assembler of several inputs that is used in the production process

which in economics is called the factors of production and these resources are land labor and capital and

the fourth factor is the enterpreneur himself and that enterpreneur is called the organizer so

it is the organizer that will organize the several other factors of production for Effective and

efficient productive use and it is in that process that the enterpreneur can blend these

resources in several proportions he can decide to combine 20% Quantum of Labor and mix it with

about 10% Quantum of land and and just add about 5% Quantum of capital items and that

definitely will result in a given output no doubt the enterpreneur again can decide to re

blend by remixing these three different inputs in another proportion they can now decide to use 20% Quantum of land

15% quantum of Labor and some 8% or some 9% Quantum of capital items in form of either

financial resources or equipment or even in form of machineries and that definitely again will yield a

given output and that is why this second approach sees the entrepreneur as an organizer and

a manager of several resources that creates Capital formation which of course leads to economic

growth in the economy and by doing this the enterpreneur is believed to perform

several manari functions which the orinary manager performs

but for the f that the enterpreneur can double one as an innovator and also as an inventor or a Discoverer and as well

as a manager of men and materials in an organization it's not enough to now conclude or to now say that every

manager is an enterpreneur or is not enough to conclude that every entrepreneur will be a good manager what

an entrepreneur can be a manager a manager may not be an entrepreneur at this jure I even like to distinguish

between what is called entrepreneurship and what is called entrepreneurship because at times people

take this to mean the same thing but in naturual facts they are different in the same form

entrepreneurship cannot be taken to mean business formation the two concepts are clearly different as well

entrepreneurship is not same or is not the same thing as business formation and I want to go one

after the other what is entrepreneurship that of course I've explained in detail in the process of this lecture and I've

said that enter preneurship is best explained via five different concepts and they are

ideation Innovation creativity invention and the fifth one

is Discovery what then is intrapreneurship i n t r a preneurship intrapreneurship

intrapreneurship is similar to entrepreneurship but it's not the same thing with

entrepreneurship an entrepreneur is someone who is engaged by an

enterpreneur The enterpreneur Works in an organization for an

entrepreneur and he performs all the entrepreneurial functions of ideation of innovation

invention even Discovery the entrepreneur is also a leader just like the entrepreneur but the

entrepreneur is distinguished from the entrepreneur because of One Singular factor or Reason and that is that the

entrepreneur is not the one that provides the Venture Capital The Venture Capital that is used up in the

Innovative process which also we can call the seed capital is Pro provided by the

enterpreneur so that is the only distinguishing trait or factor between an enterpreneur and an intrapreneur and

let me give an example a local example A Familiar example to draw home my

analysis let's take the example around us dangote the richest man in AF a great

entrepreneur of our time he's an entrepreneur who has chains of Industries he

has dangote Refinery he has dangote salt he has dangote

cement dangote transport and several other dangote

ancillaries in each of these establishments say dangote cement or dangote salt there is a managing

director that managing director himself is an enterpreneur you know is an entrapreneur he takes all the

entrepreneurial thoughts and thinking and functions on behalf of his principal who is the main

enterpreneur but he not the one that provided the SE Capital to establish Amish dangote cement or the dangote

sauce dangote himself still takes reports from all these various

entrepreneurs who manages his several entities the dangote salt the dangote refinery and he gives advices he gives

his own entrepreneurial advices it gives them controls it tells them what to do on

critical situations on daily or on routine basis so what distinguishes the entrepreneur

from the entrepreneur is the SE Capital which is provided by the entrepreneur because if there is a need

to establish another plant of dang cement the entrepreneur the MD of D cement cannot take that decision alone

because it involves the seat capital or the venture capital and that of course the owner of the business the

enterpreneurial main person who is dang himself of course must be put at the round table

for discussion having a explain that now what is the difference between entrepreneurship and business

formation because people still use or still mistake these two concepts and they use them interchangeably but in

actual fact they are different entrepreneurship is about ideation Innovation creativity it's about

Discovery but forming a business is not equal to the ability to innovate

is not same with the ability to invent is not the same with the ability to make a disc

Discovery so a manager can manage his business but it may not be the

enterpreneur but the enterpreneur can decide to double as an innovator or an inventor and at the same

time a businessman or a manager of a business if he decides to

exemplify is innovation by putting up a small scale Enterprise to practical lie the process

of his Innovation then he becomes an enterpreneur and also a manager of an Enterprise and that now takes us to what

are these roles that the enterpreneur again will perform if he doubles as an entrepreneur and a manager

of an Enterprise he now performs the various managerial functions that the manager performs in every

organization and these functions or roles are one they

now performs the function of planning planning is a major managerial function so anybody who has doubled as a

manager of an Enterprise and as an innovator he has to perform the function of planning so he plans all his

activities he plans his production he plans who to employ he plans who to train he he plans who to send the wh who

to fire he plans all the managerial activities he's now a manager of men and materials he's now a manager of men and

machines so the first function he performs in the organization is that of Planning number two is

organizing as an organizer have explained in the course of this Le that enterpreneur ordinarily Blends and

organizes several inputs or factors of production in the productive process in the same way the manager

as a manager in an organization must be ready to organize his

resources organization of an Enterprise deals with

organizing resources in their right proportions and perspective he deals with organizing

human resources in a way that they will bring forth fruitful outputs so the manager in

an organization is somebody who must be to perform the organizing function in

such Enterprise number three is communicating any enterpreneur who has doubled as a manager in an Enterprise

must also be ready to be a good communicator he must be able to communicate in

clear and understandable terms he must be able to communicate with people around him

his superiors his subordinates and is superordinate as well in a language that

they must understand in an organization if a manager will best

communicate with his driver in his local language say in yua or in IO language or in his

AA for language or in a particular dialect that will make that driver to understand what the manager is

communicating it is better that such a manager uses such a local language or a local dialect rather than speaking

English or speaking French or German to make him appear or look International that may not achieve his

desired goal and result for that purpose also number four is that a good manager must

be a good coordinator so coordinating function is another important characteristics or another attribute

that the enterpreneur who doubles as a manager must be ready to perform and coordinating deals with ability of a

manager to be able to coordinate or bring together ability to bring together several resources in the

organization ability to bring together men and materials personnel and

machines to be able to achieve the desired goals and objectives of the organization then number five is

leading leading is another major characteristics or another major function that the manager performs in an

organization so leadership is a particular characteristics that the enterpreneur who has

doubled as one an enterpreneur and two as a manager of his own business must of course be ready to perform he must lead

While others must follow by having the ability to come up with an innovation to come up with an invention

or even making a discovery then definitely the enterpreneur is already a leader in his own right so putting up an

entity an Enterprise now again if fact doubles him as a leader and a manager of that

organization another important characteristics or another important function that the entrepreneur performs

as a manager is delegation a good manager must have the ability to delegate and the reason is

not farf as a manager in an Enterprise it is not expected that you do all even at a

point a so proprietor canot do everything in his so proprietorship

business we as to perhaps at times delegates and rely

on the Judgment of people around him so ability to delegate will make the managerial

function seamless and extremely simpler then that equal will allow the manager to achieve

his desired goals and objectives timely so delegation delegation is one of the

principal functions or characteristics that the enterpreneur must of course process as a

manager in an organization and another important function which the ENT also must perform

is that of directing ability to direct human and nonhuman resources in

an organization as an entrepreneur is very very Prime is very very important and it is

gerain because human beings being what we have are very difficult to direct they are very difficult to

direct human beings because of whom we are are very difficult to direct as well

difficult to lead as well difficult to manage so good enterpreneurs who are managers and camps of Industries must

involve a means of directing

people as well as materials in the organization in a way to achieve his desired goals as well as his desired

objectives and last last L is controlling controlling is another important function or another important

attribute that an enterpreneur must equally process if he now doubles as an enterpreneur and as the manager of an

Enterprise he must be ready to assume the responsibility of controlling men and machines in that

organization as are pointed out people are difficult to Le they are equally difficult to control there are times

when subordinates will even refuse instructions and orders except in the military where

nobody looks at the eye of his superior but in several organizations we have seen cases where subordinates will even

not go by the others or instructions or controls of his superiors and managers so a good manager must evolve his own

way of making his subordinates to be amenable to be amenable to his control so on that note we come to the end of

our discussions on the characteristics of the enter premum and I've discussed this

topic today via two different approaches I discussed

it via the trait approach as well as the organizer approach but before doing that I

explained in clear times who an enterpreneur is and as well as en able to distinct it or distinguish

it from an entrapreneur so on that note we have come to the end of our

discussions on the topic the characteristics of the enterpreneur so thank you for

listening and God bless [Music]