Entrepreneurial Thinking is Learnable by Everyone
In my career of teaching and entrepreneurship, I have come to understand a principle: the knowledge and practice of entrepreneurship are not only useful for those who intend to start a business, but also for other employees. However, many people misunderstand it, thinking that entrepreneurship simply means becoming a boss; they believe that those content with working for others need not spend time on it, following the maxim “if it doesn’t concern me, I need not worry about it.”
In fact, the study of entrepreneurship is equally relevant to employees; the most direct connection is that it helps them understand the company they belong to and the founder who runs it. Isn’t a boss essentially an entrepreneur? How did he get started? How did he grow the company to its current size? What are his views on the market, industry, and the company’s future? All of these factors influence the welfare of his management team and subordinates, and shape how they build their own identity.
When Apple, Facebook, Google, and Tencent first started, they were just small companies; today they are technology leaders that shape industry development and profoundly influence how we live. Look at the company you work for and whether your boss has a clear positioning and paints a vivid vision for employees. Fresh graduates stepping into the workforce often want to know: “Does this job have a future?” Joining a company is like boarding a ship: where is it headed? Does it have enough supplies? Will there be storms ahead? Does the captain have a contingency plan? Determining whether you have boarded the wrong ship or joined a company you shouldn’t have requires knowledge and judgment. Indeed, exploring entrepreneurship provides that knowledge and judgment, deepening one’s understanding of organizational structure, brand development, business operations, and market formation, and allowing one to appreciate how trends in technology, policy, economics, natural environment, demographics, society, and culture affect business. In short, “entrepreneurial thinking” is seeing things from an entrepreneur’s perspective.
Many people think entrepreneurship only applies to newly founded or early‑stage companies and never consider that large corporations can also continuously innovate. Yet research, new products, and new market development all require entrepreneurial spirit. Steve Jobs once boasted that Apple was the world’s largest startup, but what is visible to others is merely the company’s continuous innovation. Conversely, complacent large companies will one day be replaced or even eliminated by the market. Former giants Sony and Nokia—once leaders in global audio products and gaming consoles, and the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer—have now been surpassed. HP, a former powerhouse in the personal computer market, suffered a severe setback when its new generation of tablets (TouchPad) was launched a few years ago, and its market share gradually slipped away. Kodak, once synonymous with film, had to file for bankruptcy protection, a lamentable sight. Survival of the fittest. Entrepreneurship and innovation are two sides of the same coin. Entrepreneurship is the spirit; innovation is the means. Together they are a pair of wings that help humanity soar beyond future survival challenges.
Some also believe that entrepreneurship belongs to the business world, and NGOs and government agencies need not worry about it. They focus more on employment and forget the close relationship between entrepreneurship and employment. In fact, those who hold this view are already behind the times. The recent surge of social enterprises and social innovation reflects past shortcomings and now requires corrective action. In the past, when market failures caused social injustice, private and public sectors often set boundaries and adhered to the status quo. They addressed social problems only with a single approach—raising funds and providing welfare—to redistribute social resources. The Grameen Bank, founded by economist Muhammad Yunus (who received the Nobel Peace Prize for this work), demonstrates that poverty alleviation is not about receiving handouts but about empowerment. With the right methods, the wealth at the bottom of the pyramid and the market development space have limitless potential. Those who aspire to work in NGOs and government should consider learning this tool.
Students and teachers still in school will also find inspiration in entrepreneurial knowledge. In our era, things are becoming increasingly complex, and the pace of change is astonishing; the scope of involvement is continually expanding. The old division among humanities, sciences, social sciences, and business is no longer timely. Today, students and teachers, in addition to mastering their undergraduate majors, must understand how their knowledge connects with other fields and matters. To meet future challenges and maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness, our society needs a group of citizens who can construct knowledge from multiple perspectives and across disciplines, and who hold independent and critical thinking about things. This is why our education system must strengthen the philosophy behind general education.
However, management thinker Peter Drucker believed that a lack of focus in knowledge makes it difficult for people to perform, so in terms of individual performance, specialized knowledge is more important than general education. Yet intellectuals who only know their own profession and cannot collaborate with others will make society chaotic. To allow organizations and individuals to obtain what they need, society must have people who take on the role of creating organizations, shaping environments, and fostering identity, enabling other specialists to unleash their creativity and potential. The knowledge and skills most needed by these people are entrepreneurship and innovation. General education becomes richer and more practical when it incorporates entrepreneurial and innovative elements. The essence of general education lies not only in a deep mind but also in the value created collectively by people through organization and creativity. That is the true meaning of entrepreneurship.
Stanford University and design firm IDEO have jointly established the D‑School, which tirelessly promotes a human‑centered approach: Design Thinking. They believe the ideal personality archetype should be T‑shaped. The vertical axis of the T represents specialized knowledge and skills, while the horizontal axis represents the ability to collaborate and innovate with other fields—design thinking. They hope to make Design Thinking a discipline that everyone can learn. The author hopes that entrepreneurial thinking will one day become a discipline that everyone can learn as well.
Author: Suen Yiu-sin
Original article published in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, Sunday, February 2, 2012.
