EXPERT VIEW
By John Mullins, associate professor of management practice at London Business School I
f you are in the process of launching a start-up, or if you are just one of the millions of people across the UK who
fancy themselves as an entrepreneur, you might stop for a moment and consider the counter-conventional ways entrepreneurial minds work. As Associate Professor of
Management Practice in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School I have perhaps seen more entrepreneurial minds in action than most. Often the way these people think is at the very heart of their entrepreneurial endeavours, and I have found there are six common behaviours that they often share:
1
Beg, steal or borrow
Often there is an assumption that any new
product or market
initiative should require resources that are not only rare, valuable and inimitable, but should also be owned and
controlled, rather
than borrowed. When online hair
extension seller Luxy 24 SME
Hair launched, founders Alex and Mimi Ikonn simply “borrowed” virtually every resource they needed. From factory to warehouse to shipper to cash and more, this borrowing approach allowed them to start their business, and they continue to do so as they grow their now thriving business today.
2
The “Yes, we can” mindset
There is a famous phrase in conventional managerial wisdom that one should “stick to one’s knitting” – that is, to only pursue those opportunities
that you already have necessary
competencies for. Saying “Yes, we can” to new opportunities goes against that, yet entrepreneurs like Brazil’s Arnold Correia continue to keep reinventing his business by simply saying “Yes, we can” and then figuring out the how.
3
Problem-first logic Prominent venture capital investor
Vinod Khosla famously remarked, “To me, any big problem is a big opportunity. It’s very simple. Nobody will pay you to solve a non-problem.” True entrepreneurs understand this. For example, Simon
Cohen grew his company, Henco Logistics, to become one of Mexico’s largest freight forwarders simply by solving importers’ and exporters’ problems of poor service – he spotted the problem, then marketed the solution.
4
Think narrow, not broad
If you were to look inside many of the world’s biggest organisations, you would see market opportunities regularly dismissed on the grounds that the market is too narrow – “Too small; won’t move the needle,” they say. Entrepreneurs, however, may think differently. Look at Airbnb –
❝
FOR TODAY’S BEST ENTREPRENEURS, BREAKING THE RULES OF ‘HOW THINGS ARE NORMALLY DONE’ IS PART OF
THE LANDSCAPE AND “NO” IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE ANSWER
www.smeweb.com
SPOT THE
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