EDS121

ENTREPRENEURIAL
THINKING
BY
DR BORISHADE TAIYE
 ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING

• Entrepreneurial thinking is all about harnessing

passions, skills, experience, knowledge and insights,
resources and networks to spot and take advantage
of opportunities at the right time and in the right
way.
• Entrepreneurial thinking is a mindset to be a solution provider, a
trail blazer, a path finder, a creator of wealth.

• It is a mindset to provide employment or to be an employer of

labour

• A growth mentality, a logical thinker.

• Is a skill relatively easy to learn

 ENTREPRENEUR
• An individual who organizes and operates a business
and at the same time taking on financial risk in doing
so!

• An entrepreneur is an individual who has a new or

innovative and creative ideas to offer the society.

• Entrepreneurship starts with a creative idea and then

tries to find a market for it.
 MY DEFINITION
• An entrepreneur is an inventor who creates business
opportunities for managers to run.

• The passion comes from basking other people gladly

experiencing her or his invention…. The business is
measured by fast growth.

• Everyone possesses the ability to be an entrepreneur

 BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEURIAL
THINKER…..

• Becoming an entrepreneurial thinker can be

seen in three ways
• 1. Mindset = Mind-Body-Spirit
• 2. Time
• 3. Start with the why
 1. MINDSET FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
• An entrepreneurial mindset is the ability to quickly sense, take
action, and get organized under certain conditions. This also
includes the ability to persevere, accept and learn from failure,
and get comfortable with a certain level of cognitive strategies

• Cognitive strategies are the ways in which people solve problems

such as reasoning, analyzing experimenting and so forth.

• Metacognition is the way in which we understand our own

performance or the process of “thinking about thinking”.
 2 TYPES OF MINDSET
• The established set of attitudes held by someone. It is a good
description of how our mindset operates. Depending on our
mindset we will choose one path
• 2 types of mindset
• Fixed mindset
• Growth mindset
• Fixed mindset
• In fixed mindset, people perceive their talents and abilities as
set traits. They believe that brains and talent alone are
enough for success and go through life with the goal of
looking smart all the way

• They take any constructive criticism of their capabilities very

personally and tend to attribute others success to luck or
some sort of unfair advantage. People with a fixed mindset
will tell themselves they are no good at something to avoid
challenge or failure.
• Growth mindset
• People believe that their abilities can be developed through
dedication, effort and hard work. They think brains and talent
are not the key to lifelong success, but merely the starting
point
• People with growth mindset are eager to enhance their
qualities through lifelong learning, training and practice.
• They see failure as an opportunity to improve their
performance, and to learn from their mistakes
• Individuals who believe their talents can be developed
(through hard work, good strategies, and input from
others) have a growth mindset.
• They tend to achieve more than those with a more
fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are
innate gifts)
 2. TIME

• To train yourself to use your talents and

experience to see opportunities
 3. START WITH THE WHY

• A way of thinking, feeling, acting and communicating….

• Inspire others to help you advance your ideas and your

vision!!!

• Become a servant of passion to people who want to

grow…. To transform their passion into a living
 THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

• Start with the why!

• Why do you do what you do?

• How do you do what you do?
• What do you do?
 WHY I TRAIN AND I COACH PEOPLE?
• Because I get a ‘kick’… my heart pulse increases
when I see people smiling and be able to do things
they thought it was impossible to do before…..
Creating new experience for people

• Breaking the impossibility!

 APPLE
• Why
• Everything we do we challenge the status quo!
• We believe in thinking differently
• How
• The way we do it ….is by making our products beautifully designed,
simple to use and user friendly
• What
• We make great computers and telephones, iPods and iPads etc
 LEADS TO

• CLARITY OF WHY

• DISCIPLINE OF HOW

• CONSISTENCY OF WHAT
 SOOOOOOO?

• THE WHY IS THE BELIEF

• THE HOW IS THE ACTIONS

• THE WHAT IS THE RESULT OR OUTCOME OF THOSE ACTIONS

 THE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

• Critical thinking is the ability to apply reasoning and logic to new or unfailing ideas, opinion and
situations
• These skills involve
• Open-minded approach: being open-minded is a large part of critical thinking, allowing person to
not seek out all possible answer to a problem and to also accept answer that is different from
what was originally expected.
• Rational consideration: Rationality is the process of analyzing all known information and making
judgment on the analyses based on fact or evidence rather than opinion or emotion
• Empathy: Empathizing with a person usually involves a thinker trying to put himself or herself in
the place of something else
 ASSIGNMENT

• How to apply it?

• Critical thinking skills of an entrepreneur
• Write in1/2 sheet of paper your experience wherein you, apply the critical
thinking skills of an entrepreneur
 STEPS IN CRITICAL THINKING

• Observation
• Analysis
• Reasoning
• Judgement
• Decision making
 HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING

• Ask Questions
• A typical 4-year-old asks an average of 100 questions every day. They are naturally
curious about the world, and entrepreneurs are too. There is never a fear of asking a
‘stupid’ question.

• Improvise
• Entrepreneurs are excellent at improvisation. They thrive at being put on the spot and
adapting to the situation as it unfolds. Find opportunities to come out of your comfort
zone and put yourself in unfamiliar situations from time to time.
• Be Open to Risk
• Entrepreneurs fly the “OODA Loop,” i.e. “Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.” They make
decisions quickly based on the best information they have at the time. This means risk
is part of their day-to-day work. Speed up your decision time in non-critical areas.
• ‘Everyone can tell you the risk. An entrepreneur can see the reward’ – Robert Kiyosaki

• Rest Your Brain

• The unconscious brain makes connections that our conscious brain can’t. When we
rest, or switch our focus to something else, the unconscious brain sets to work making
random links between thoughts and experiences. That’s why we have so many ideas
or solve so many problems when we are out walking the dog or taking a bath etc.
• Be Ready To Fail
• Not only do entrepreneurs accept failure, they expect failure, plan for failure, and learn
from failure. They believe making mistakes is healthy and normal. They acknowledge
mistakes, figure out what they can do to make up for them, and move on.

• Exercise and Be Healthy

• To maximise entrepreneurial thinking our brain needs to be in good working order.
Eating healthily gives it the nutrition it needs. In addition, we need to exercise. When
we exercise we release endorphins which (amongst other things) increase creativity
and problem solving.
• Don’t Do It Alone
• Entrepreneurs are not an island. They do not work alone. Whether it’s business
partners, investors, networking, or competition, successful entrepreneurs are never
alone. They use other people to bounce ideas off, compensate for any gaps they
have and to develop themselves. Actively develop and nurture your own network.
•
• Be Self-Driven
• Successful entrepreneurs seek to be their own boss, set their own schedule, and be
accountable to themselves. They also have a sense of self-driven discipline, and
set clear and challenging goals for themselves.
• Expose Yourself to New Situations
• The more experience and stimulus we can give our brains, the rawer material it has for
identifying opportunities, making connections and solving problems.
•
• Take an Interest in Others
• Entrepreneurs are always keen to hear other people’s stories and experiences. They
know that their personal experience of the world is limited and the more perspectives
they have on a situation/idea/problem the better they understand it. After all, knowledge
is power.
 CONCLUSION

• ‘Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life’s too
short to think small’ – Tim Ferriss
• Entrepreneurial Thinking is just one training solution within our business skills
offering to really inspire personal growth. Take a look now!
WEEK 12: ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP

• Entrepreneurial leadership can be defined as a leader, who has the skills of

entrepreneurship. In other words, entrepreneurial leadership refers to the
managers who can take risks, seize opportunities, pursue innovation and be
innovative, producing, interchanging and strategic.
• Entrepreneurial leadership is a type of leadership that consists of actions
towards establishment of a business at the individual Level, actions towards
following the innovations at the organizational level and actions towards
benefiting from the opportunities that are distinguished at the market level
(Altuntas, 2014).
• Entrepreneurial leadership is a concept that appeared by blending the
Leadership potential with entrepreneurial spirit.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP

• There are six main characteristics of the entrepreneurial leadership.

• 1. Supporting entrepreneurial skills: Effective entrepreneurial leaders
consider the
• human element as the source of entrepreneurial behavior and support
• development of these behaviors.
• 2. Interpretation of the opportunities: Entrepreneurial leaders can
transmit the value of an opportunity to general goals of an organization or a
person benefiting from the opportunity.
• 3. Protecting the innovations threatening the current business
model: Individuals perceive disruptive innovation as a personal and
organizational threat. An entrepreneurial leader can inform others about
potential benefit of the disruptive innovation
• 4. Questioning the current business logic: Entrepreneurial leadership
requires continuous questioning of the assumptions underlying the dominant
logic in order to identify a new value-creating opportunity and make sure that
the organization is positioned in a successful way.
• 5. Reviewing the simple questions: Entrepreneurial leaders review the
questions about identification of the opportunities and employment of the
resources needed to sustain the life of the organization, definition type of
organizational goals and achievements and relationships developed with the
stakeholders in a continuous manner.
• 6. Associating entrepreneurship with strategic management: Effective
entrepreneurial leaders believe that an organization should have the skills of
entrepreneurship strategically in order to create the highest value.
• Karcioglu and Yucel (2004) have conducted a study in order to identify
personality characteristics of entrepreneurial leaders and suggested that
there are nine dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership. These dimensions
are as follows
• Being a team player,
• Vision,
• Innovation,
• Problem solving,
• Being persistent,
• Taking risks,
• Adapting to changes,
• Knowing the consumer needs and
• Decisiveness.
 CONCLUSION

• Entrepreneurial leadership is one of the factors that are critical for companies
in enabling the success of reaching their business objectives. Therefore,
entrepreneurial leadership characteristics of people in the leading position
affect performance, continuity, effectiveness and productivity of the
companies. These people should have entrepreneurial leadership
characteristics in order to gain competitiveness advantages, grow and
develop their companies and survive in this competitive environment.
• In addition to leadership qualities, having an entrepreneurial spirit shows that
the person in the leading position is an entrepreneurial leader.
Entrepreneurial leader characteristics such as influencing others, vision,
originality and courage as well as entrepreneurial characteristics such as risk
taking, seizing opportunities, pursuing innovations, being innovative,
productive, interchanging and strategic.
• Entrepreneurial leaders know themselves and their environment very well
and find new opportunities creating value for businesses, stakeholders and
society. The main motivation of leaders is their desire to create social,
environmental and economic opportunities. The lack of resources or
uncertainties don’t discourage them, instead these problems motivate them
and lead them to search for new solutions to overcome these problems.
• Entrepreneurial leaders don’t sink into skepticism and they don’t remain
under pressure of problems. They direct people to fight against problems that
seem impossible to solve by making analyses and finding solutions with their
productive thinking skills.
• Entrepreneurial leadership is considered as referring to entrepreneurship. It is one of
the new and modern leadership types. Entrepreneurship is about establishing a new
• business. On the other hand, entrepreneurial leadership is creating new products,
• processes and expansion opportunities in the companies, working in social institutions
• and stepping into participating in neglected social problems, social and political
• movements, contributing to the transformation of existing services and policies of
non-
• governmental organizations and governments.
• As a result; the need for entrepreneurial leaders in today’s companies is
increasing day by day. Therefore, applied trainings, seminars, conferences
can be organized and projects can be implemented in companies in order to
increase the number of entrepreneurial leaders.