What is the right way to become an entrepreneurial innovator? Is there a theory?

Here is my ‘take’ on this issue, derived from a case study by U. of Virginia Darden School of Business Asst. Prof. Saras Sarasvathy, titled “The Entrepreneurial Spirit”.   

The entrepreneurial process is show below, in the Figure. 

• In the upper loop, you transform yourself, by looking inward and defining for yourself your dreams and your passions, and your skills, and how you must change in order to achieve them. And entrepreneurs always must change and adapt if they are to succeed.  

• In the bottom loop, you look outward, and examine the business environment, and global social economic and lifestyle trends, along with technology enablers. Successful entrepreneurship always combines the two loops.  

Identify key social needs that you feel passionate about and feel you can meet.

Identify competencies, skills and capabilities within yourself, identify flaws and gaps with yourself, and build your personal development path (PDP) to close them, while constantly looking outward to track the global environment.  

The key is the PDP. Intel has its employees build one yearly. Pretend you are Intel. Build yourself a PDP. What path shall I seek, that will help me achieve my dream? A key to the PDP: Always choose jobs that offer powerful learning experiences, rather than just paychecks. If you do not learn and grow, continually, it is not worth it. The gain in your human capital value through learning will be far greater, in a learning job, than any salary differential. 

 

The Entrepreneurial Spirit: The Double Loop. Look Outward, Look Inward

Source: S. Sarasvathy, U. of Virginia Darden School