Personal Traits of an entrepreneur

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 Entrepreneur – what does it take one to be

They are exceptional learners

some
❖ They learn from customers
common traits ❖ They learn from suppliers
that ❖ They learn from competitors
successful ❖ They learn from employees and associates
entrepreneurs ❖ They learn by doing
Have #1 ❖ They learn from what works
❖ They learn from what doesn’t work

Successful entrepreneurs know, as their

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methods that allow them to learn rapidly
 Entrepreneur – what does it take one to be

Grow width and depth enterprise’s competence

some genomics Entrepreneur must have a

common traits Artificial
intelligence
Tissue
culture
clear understanding of how
that multiple disciplines aid
innovation and growth in his
successful Biological
sector. This understanding
electronics helps him build a team with
sciences
entrepreneurs competent leaders for these
Have #2 functions. The organization
acquires not just deep
knowledge but also in a wide
Chemical Cloud
sciences Pharma computing range of interconnected
disciplines

Knowledge based innovation is the

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 Entrepreneur – what does it take one to be

Persistently improving product and innovating

(Recycling plastic)

some Recycled Removes Better SC efficiencies Engaging

with NGO’s
common traits plastic contaminants segregation to lower costs
that
Plastic Plastic Plastic
successful pellets pellets pellets
Entrepreneur is engaged in a
entrepreneurs process of continual product
Poor Better Quality
Have #3 quality but still good
improvement sometimes
not good addressing quality issues, at
other times cost issues, process
Price higher than efficiencies and so on.
virgin pellets

The best businesses are those that

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 Entrepreneur – what does it take one to be

Convert challenges into opportunities

(Prosthetic arm)

The product The challenge The solution

The arms are custom
some
built and like in most
common traits products involve
that material science,
medical sciences,
successful electronics, 3D printing,
entrepreneurs design, robotics, AI and
so on. These arms have
Have #4 high functionality
The good entrepreneur searches
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out opportunity and exploits it
Hiring competent team Top up training programs in
tech schools and engg
members with good
core engg skills and colleges to train students
and hire them for captive
computational
use
knowledge
These training programs
were in aspirational
areas like robotics, 3D The
modelling, 3D printing, opportunity
AI and so on
Today this thought has led Realised this could be an
to this activity evolving independent revenue
into an independent stream. Skills in these areas
training platform are in short supply
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 Entrepreneur – what does it take one to be

There are other traits too

some other ❖ They seek recognition, financial gain, influence

❖ They have a strong dislike for bureaucratic style of working
common traits ❖ They are extremely focused (discussions keep bouncing back to
that
their area of activity)
successful ❖ They are hard working (our survey showed they worked average
entrepreneurs of 74.4 hours a week)
Have ❖ They are extreme risk takers
❖ They think they have a serious responsibility to their employees,
customers and other stakeholders

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 Entrepreneur – what does it take one to be

There are innumerable nuances and factors at interplay in the life cycle of a
business enterprise, like money, timing, technology, policy changes and so on which
are external to the enterprise. The successful entrepreneur is largely in control with
internal factors and anticipates to some extent these external factors too.

Thank you

My personal thanks to associates Vidya, Abhijeet, Rajashekar &

Satish for their support in collating the data, talking to the
entrepreneurs and feeding me with some useful inferences that have
enriched this presentation.

G.Venugopal Entrepreneurship development for FABS, Hyderabad Center for High Impact Social Interventions