This module consists of the following lessons:

 Definition of Entrepreneurship, Philosophy

and Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur
 Entrepreneurial Process
 The Conceptual Relationship Between
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
 Stages in the Innovation Process
 The first module will essentially lay the
foundation for the innovation management
course.
 You will gain an understanding of the
concept of innovation management and the
building blocks of innovation.
 Innovation is needed within existing
organizations and to new-found
organizations.
 Learning to change the rules of the game by
creating innovative value propositions and
discovering new market positions for
sustained competitive advantage are some of
the actionable lessons in this module.
 Upon the successful completion of this module,
you will be able to:
 Understand the importance of
entrepreneurship.
 Identify the different stages in the
entrepreneurial process.
§ Describe how innovation and entrepreneurship
are interrelated concepts.
 Differentiate categories of innovation. Are you
ready? Then start the lessons now.
 OBJECTIVES:
 Define Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur and
its Philosophy
 Discuss the entrepreneur‘s role in economic
development
 Identify the Characteristics of a Successful
Entrepreneur
INTRODUCTION
 Welcome to lesson 1 of this module.
 This lesson will help you understand that
Entrepreneurs are the major power houses
of a business or the social sectors, who play a
vital role in the economic development of a
country.
 Without entrepreneurs, there would be no
business or social development.
 Entrepreneurs are the ones who distinguish
gaps in the market and then turn these gaps
into business opportunities.
 Entrepreneurs recognize the needs of
customers and discover approaches to fill
those needs.
 Entrepreneurship is the symbol of business
strength and achievement.
 Entrepreneurs are the founders of the business
world – their sense of grabbing an opportunity,
their drive to innovate and their capacity for
accomplishment have become the standard by
which free enterprise is measured.
 Entrepreneurs will continue to become
critical contributors to the economic growth
through their innovation, research and
development effectiveness, job creation,
competitiveness, productivity and formation
of new industry.
DEFINITION OF ENTREPRENEURHSIP AND
PHILOSOPHY
 Fundamentally, Entrepreneurship is a human
creative act, involved in building a team of people
with complementary skills and talents.
 The philosophy of the entrepreneur is to make an
individual to create his own business/industry for
the benefit of his own and to provide job
opportunity to various persons by spending his own
money or by collecting finance from financial
corporations or from various sources.
 Entrepreneurship, according to Onuoha
(2007), ―is the practice of starting new
organizations or revitalizing mature
organizations, particularly new businesses
generally in response to identified
opportunities.

 Entrepreneurship can be described as a

process of action an entrepreneur
undertakes to establish his enterprise.
 For Peter Drucker (1970) entrepreneurship is
about taking risk, a systematic innovation,
which consists in the purposeful and
organized search for changes, and it is the
systematic analysis of the opportunities such
changes might offer for economic and social
innovation.
 Entrepreneurship is a process.
 It is not a combination of some stray incidents.
 It is the purposeful and organized search for
change, conducted after systematic analysis of
opportunities in the environment.
 Entrepreneurship is a philosophy- it is the way
one thinks, one acts and therefore it can exist in
any situation be it business or government or in
the field of education, science and technology
or poverty alleviation or any others.
 Entrepreneurship is mostly about risks,
innovation, creative thinking, and
entrepreneur is the one who creates and
innovates something recognized around
perceived opportunities by accepting risks
and failures.
DEFINITIONS OF ENTREPRENEUR
 There have been hundreds of definitions
provided by different scholars in dozens of books,
but “Entrepreneur‘ has no universally accepted
single definition. Some definitions of
Entrepreneur are listed below: An entrepreneur is
a person who pays a certain price for a product to
resell it at an uncertain price, thereby making
decisions about obtaining and using the
resources while consequently admitting the risk
of enterprise.
-Richard Cantillon
 An entrepreneur is an economic agent who
unites all means of production- land of one,
the labor of another and the capital of yet
another and thus produces a product. By
selling the product in the market he pays rent
of land, wages to labor, interest on capital and
what remains is his profit. He shifts economic
resources out of an area of lower and into an
area of higher productivity and greater yield.
-J.B. Say
 Entrepreneurs are innovators who use a
process of shattering the status quo of the
existing products and services, to set up new
products, new services.
-Schumpeter
 An entrepreneur is a person with a high need
for achievement . He is energetic and a
moderate risk taker.

-David McClelland
 An entrepreneur searches for change,
responds to it and exploits opportunities.
Innovation is a specific tool of an
entrepreneur hence an effective
entrepreneur converts a source into a
resource.

-Peter F. Drucker
  Entrepreneurs take initiative, accept risk of
failure, and have an internal locus of control. -
Albert Shapero

 Entrepreneur as “a person habitually creates
and innovates to build something of recognized
value around perceived opportunities”.

-Bolton and Thompson

 An entrepreneur is characterized as
“someone who demonstrates initiative and
creative thinking, is able to organize social
and economic mechanisms to turn resources
and situations to practical account and
accepts risk and failure”.

-Hisrich
ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
 The industrial health of a society depends on
the level of entrepreneurship existing in it.
 A country might remain backward not
because of lack of natural resources or
dearth (the state of not having enough) of
capital [as it is many times believed] but
because of lack of entrepreneurial talents or
the inability to tap the latent entrepreneurial
talents existing in that society.
 Entrepreneurship is basically concerned with
creating wealth through production of goods
and services.
 Thus, entrepreneurial development is the
key to economic development. In fact, it is
one of the most critical inputs in the
economic development of a region.
 It speeds up the process of activating factors
of production leading to a higher rate of
economic growth, dispersal of economic
activities and development of backward
regions.

 If a region is unable to throw up enough

entrepreneurs, then alien entrepreneurs
usually step in to provide goods and services
needed by the people.
 However, the profits earned by these
entrepreneurs are usually not ploughed back
but repatriated to their place of origin.
 For a market-based economy to work well,
efficiently, and prosperously, it requires
entrepreneurs – those creative men and women
who can identify what the market needs and
wants and can find an efficient way to meet the
demand.
 Entrepreneurs make the economic system work
and make life better for everyone by creating new
products, developing new and efficient methods,
and offering lower prices through effective
competition.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF A
SUCCESFUL ENTREPRENEUR
 While entrepreneurs have in common certain
characteristics and skills, there is a wide
range of individuality among them.
 There is no recipe for becoming a successful
entrepreneur, certain characteristics are
associated with entrepreneurial success.
 Here are several important ones:
 According to research, one of the most
important qualities associated with
successful entrepreneurship is PASSION.
 When people feel commit-ted to what they
are doing and when they care deeply about
it, they stand the best chance of being
successful at it.
 The heart must become an ally of the mind.
 Another key quality of the successful
entrepreneur is SELF-CONFIDENCE.
 If you are thinking that you would like to be
an entrepreneur, do you have confidence in
your ability to succeed?
 Every entrepreneur encounter problem, and
you must believe you can overcome them.
 Successful entrepreneurs believe not only
that they are capable of success but also
believe that they are worthy of success.
 Entrepreneurs are SELF-RELIANT.
 They do not wait for others to tell them
what to do.
 They are self-starters and feel confident
making decisions.
 Entrepreneurs have other qualities as well.
 To accomplish their goals and make their
vision a reality, successful entrepreneurs
must have DRIVE,
PERSISTENCE,
THE ABILITY TO COMPLETE THE
TASK, and be WILLING TO WORK
HARD.
 Additionally, they are OPPORTUNITY-
FOCUSED and FORWARD-LOOKING.
 They can set both short- and long-term
goals.
 They create a vision of what they want their
future to be, and then they work to achieve
it.
 These are some of the qualities that help
them see problems as opportunities.
 Entrepreneurs tend to THRIVE ON
COMPETITION.
 While they may actively compete with
others, they are more likely to compete
against themselves.
 In other words, they are constantly trying to
improve their own performance regardless of
what others may be doing.
 Although they may not realize it, most
entrepreneurs are CREATIVE.
 This does not mean they paint pictures or
write poetry (though it can); rather, it means
they find innovative ways to problem solve.
 They always look for new and better ways to
do things—ways that have not occurred to
others.
 Believe in your ability to be creative.

 Experts tell us that the biggest block to

creativity is thinking you are not creative.
 Finally, entrepreneurs are WILLING TO
LEARN.
 They are INFORMATION SEEKERS.
 They may already know a great deal, yet they
recognize that no one knows everything, and
that they can learn valuable information
from others.
 Entrepreneurs who are not open to learning
often compromise the degree of success they
will be able to achieve.