Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Resources and Skills for Success

This article explores the resources and skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur. It covers financial, human, and educational resources, as well as skills in money management, interpersonal communication, and critical thinking. The article also discusses the application of IT in decision making and the importance of creating a sustainable environment for entrepreneurs. References are included.

Entrepreneurship and innovation
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Part 1
An entrepreneur is a person who establish business and takes an initiative by taking several risks
with a motive to earn profit. He is responsible for managing all the business activities. There are
several resources and skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur like management, capital,
marketing product and many more (Bridge, 2012).
Resources required are mentioned below
 Financial resources
Funding is one of the most important resources which is required to set a business. Today every
small business needs startup costs. These financial resources can be generated using huge
number of sources. One of the easiest way to generate fund is to use personal bank accounts. An
individual if wishes to start up a new business can also take loans and grants from friends,
relatives and investors (Entrepreneur, 2011).
 Human resources
Human resource here denotes the employees in an organization who will help an organization to
fulfil the mission and vision of the company. The employees must be experienced and well
trained (Furgison, 2014).
 Educational resources
An entrepreneur can gain education by establishing a new business. According to me,
understanding the competitive market and taking smarter decision is only possible when one has
a deep knowledge about the particular industry (Kuratko, 2016).
Skills required are listed below
 Skills to Manage money
It is very important to manage fund in order to start a business. One must struggle a lot to
manage the budget of the business (Patel, 2015).
 Skills to raise money
Once the fund is managed, then it should be invested in such place where will generate profits.

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 Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills include communicating skills, negotiation skills and leadership and
motivation skills which plays a major role to start any business. An entrepreneur must know how
to communicate well in order to set the vision of the company and solve all the problems in an
efficient and positive way (Doyle, 2017).
 Practical skills
Practical skills is comprised of goal setting, planning and organizing, decision making and
knowledge regarding business, entrepreneurship, venture capital and many more. An
entrepreneur must have skills and abilities to achieve the desired goals (Drucker, 2014).
 Creative and critical thinking skills
An entrepreneur must think and get fresh and new ideas in order to make best decisions and also
create better opportunities. He/she must be able to look the situations with every perspective and
come up with new ideas. He/she must also be able to solve the problem with the sound solutions
and evaluate the causes and effects of the specific problems. Recognizing opportunities can also
be an advantage and an opportunity as well (Doyle, 2018).
 Personal characteristics
All the personal traits must be examined wisely in order to become a successful entrepreneur.
Some personal traits that are required to be entrepreneur are optimism, vision, initiative, desire
for goal and ability to tolerate the risk i.e. risk bearing capacity. An entrepreneur must be self-
motivated and able to take the risk which will make his/her business run successfully. He/she
must think in a positive way and also have a clear vision and picture if the goals, objectives and
targets set by the company (Kim, 2014).
Part B

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Gibbs reflective cycle
Graham Gibbs proposed this reflective cycle in 1998 in book named “Learning by Doing”. This
model helps people to learn from every situations that people experience on daily basis. In this
cycle, it includes five different stages like description, feelings, evaluation, conclusion and
action. All the stages are interlinked with each other for which a problem or situation is analyzed
and then evaluated.
With the help of Gibbs reflective model, one can develop the some major skills like:
 Understanding of core topics during the module
With the help of this model, an individual will be able to know every details in brief about the
subjective knowledge of the module. Simulation is widely used basically by the managers to run
a business. It is an imitation that copies the real world. In terms of business and management
area, simulation is used in a mathematical term. Since this process is flexible and easy, I
personally believe that is helps me to solve my real problems by providing huge number of
solution based on the real life and also helps to analyze complex and large problems. Moreover,
analyzing problems using simulation technique helps me to manipulate several parameters like
cost and revenue and also create plenty of opportunities to improve the same (Schaper, 2014). In
case of starting of a new business, cost and revenue plays a major role in the business. This
model helps to give the graphical display of all the information which can easily be edited. If
also shows the action along with the information which shows what might happen of this takes
place. Thus, it helps to make best choices and understand the concepts briefly.

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 Decision making skills
This model also helps to develop the skills where we can make a better decision or choose the
best option among many. For an example, earlier I worked in a regional medical center for few
months. The center aims at providing the air ambulances services to trauma and burn victims. So
there used to exist come problems like how many air ambulance will be required and which air
ambulance will be the best and where those ambulances will be placed. So, it was really a big
question for me as well as other staffs to decide it. Other issues were regarding the speed and the
payload which are uncontrollable variables. So, I basically used to take the help of this model to
decide several factors and take the decision accordingly based on different parameters
(Robinson, 2018).
 Analytical skills
This model also helps to develop an analytical skills in an individual which one can use in
different situations. Analytical skills is the ability to collect, visualize and analyze every
information in details. It also aims to visualize a single problem with many perspective (Cottrell,
2017). It provides several solution to a single problem, analyze each of them and then choose the
best option available. It also aims at making decisions for the complex problems in effective and
most efficient way. I have also faced a problem where this model helped me to analyze several
possible outcomes, analyze the solution and choose the best one (Kirzner, 2015).
Let us take an example of a business, a management developer working there will be responsible
to develop business opportunities in terms of growth and sales. The main goal of the
management will be to develop the strategies required to increase the sales and boost the profit.
To achieve the desired goals, one must be able to collect all the necessary information and
analyze it. All the information includes the information regarding the current position and other
business strategies. So if one cannot develop analytical skills, then it would not be possible to
achieve the desired mission and vision of the company.
 Problem solving skills
Decision making skills is also one of the important factor in which one evaluate all the possible
outcomes and choose the best one. Every employers in an organization look different things but

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decision making skills varies according to the positions. One must identify all the options and
compare the options with each other and then choose best one. Comparison must be done in
terms of costs and effectiveness because higher will be the effectiveness, higher will be the
advantage and lower will be the effectiveness, lower will be the advantages. While making the
decision, it must be involved in the given process (Caple, 2012).
Define the problem and generate the possible outcomes and solutions, evaluate pros and cons for
all the alternatives, select one solution out of all, implement the selected solution and Feedback.
I have faced a real life problem (Kaner, 2014). I had to choose among the family and career. I got
admission in a well reputed school which was far from my home town. I had to leave my family
and choose to stay at hostel with my friends instead of living with my family. It was very hard to
decide. I analyzed every situation and thought of several ways so that I can continue my study
and live my family as well. But it was not possible, so I decided to study living in hostel and
meet my family on weekends. That was the best possible option I can opt for because it helped
me to choose my career and study well and stay with my parents on weekends as well.
 Application of IT
IT helps us in different sector playing a major role in our life. The role of IT are mentioned
below.
Data processing capabilities: Technology helps to take business decision and also gives an ability
to think and analyze by providing huge amount of information. Data warehouse can be used to
make decisions with the help of several mining tools. Data warehouse refers to the place where
one can get plenty number of information and extract the information which is required.
IT helps to make group decision: A GDSS is used in an organization by team employees. GDSS
is group Decision Support System which helps to formulate the problems and provide the
possible solutions. GDSS helps to make team decision by integrating, groupware and
telecommunications. If the task is more complex then less structured design is made because the
more a GDSS will assist.
A community is the area or the place where one leads a healthy life and contribute to the earth in
making a safe environment. Growing up as a child, my parents taught me the importance of

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community environment and how to serve the people and create a helping hand for the poor and
needy. There are three major components of the environment that the community leaders need to
focus on.
Culture: Culture is defined as the importance of values which are followed by the community in
order to aware the importance of entrepreneurs and their willingness to encourage and support
the society.
Infrastructure: Infrastructures are one of the major factor of the environment which must be
addressed properly. Infrastructure includes transportation, roads and buildings which must be
taken care of. The major issue of infrastructure are seen in the community.
Entrepreneurial support elements: Several programs has been conducted in the community that
supports the entrepreneurs. Programs include several services like small business development
centers, finance and development programs and mentoring and coaching.
Creating a sustainable environment for the success of entrepreneurs aims at highlighting the
major environmental dimensions. The workplace environment must be improved applying
several conditions to help the entrepreneurs and it also increases the potential of the
entrepreneurs to build incentives (Ledwith, 2011). It also aims at generating the competition in
the environment. Several policies and regulations must be reformed to encourage and advice
entrepreneurs and create a healthy environment as well. Entrepreneurs creates innovations and
transformation by increasing the number of opportunities and unleashing the initiative of local
citizens (Matarrita-Cascante, 2012). Entrepreneurs are the one who is responsible to build
reputed community that promises to deliver huge number of opportunities to others. In many
developing economies, problems which takes place in the business environment often decreases
the opportunities for the entrepreneurs. For an example, in Lebanon, almost 65% of the small and
medium sized firms must pay bribe to conduct government procedures which is illegal and
against the law (Nelsen, 2011). They pay heavy amount to the government in order to fulfil all
the legal procedures on time.

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References
Bridge, S. and O'Neill, K., 2012. Understanding enterprise: Entrepreneurship and small
business. Palgrave Macmillan.
Caple, C., 2012. Conservation skills: judgment, method and decision making. Routledge.
Cottrell, S., 2017. Critical thinking skills. Macmillan Education.
Doyle, A., 2017, List of Skills Entrepreneurs Need, viewed on 9th February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.thebalance.com/list-of-skills-entrepreneurs-need-2062391
Doyle, A., 2018, Decision Making Skills with Examples, viewed on 9th February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.thebalance.com/decision-making-skills-with-examples-2063748
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Entrepreneur, 2011, Essential Entrepreneur Resources, viewed on 9th February, 2018. Available
on: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219967
Furgison, L., 2014, Business Resources Every Entrepreneur Should Know About, viewed on 9th
February, 2018. Available on: https://articles.bplans.com/14-business-resources-every-
entrepreneur-should-know-about/
Kaner, S., 2014. Facilitator's guide to participatory decision-making. John Wiley & Sons.
Kim, L., 2014, Entrepreneurship and Business Leadership Articles of the Year, viewed on 9th
February, 2018. Available on: https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/17-best-entrepreneurship-and-
business-leadership-articles-of-the-year.html
Kirzner, I.M., 2015. Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press.
Kuratko, D.F., 2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Ledwith, M., 2011. Community development: A critical approach. Policy Press.
Matarrita-Cascante, D. and Brennan, M.A., 2012. Conceptualizing community development in
the twenty-first century. Community Development, 43(3), pp.293-305.

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Nelsen, J., 2011. Positive discipline: The classic guide to helping children develop self-
discipline, responsibility, cooperation, and problem-solving skills. Ballantine Books.
Patel, S., 2015, Skills Required to Succeed as an Entrepreneur, viewed on 9th February, 2018.
Available on: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242327
Robinson, R., 2018, Every Entrepreneur Needs to Master in 2018, viewed on 9th February, 2018.
Available on: https://www.thebalance.com/skills-every-entrepreneur-needs-to-master-4123858
Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. and Gibson, B., 2014. Entrepreneurship and small
business.

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