Dr. Paresh Joshi, (M.Phil, Ph.

D)
Senior Assistant Professor
Department of English
Christ college, Rajkot

I have been working as senior assistant professor in Department of English, Christ

College, Rajkot, since June 2001. I have done my M.Phil research on ‘Teaching
pronunciation to English Major Students at UG Level’ and my doctoral research on
‘Strategies for Reducing MTI in Guajarati Learners of English for Attaining International
Intelligibility.’

TITLE: THE ROLE OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN

ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS

ABSTRACT: Present research paper endeavours to critically investigate how

communication as a whole plays a decisive role in entrepreneurial success. The paper points
out how our education in general and management education in particular, is tailor-made to
produce job-seekers. This research paper recommends that when job creation is a global
challenge, there is a dire need for policy makers and educators across world to focus on
preparing ‘job creators’ with entrepreneurial zest by providing academic environment
conducive for the development of entrepreneurship. The paper then substantiates how
effective communication is a principal means whereby entrepreneurs achieve the desired
levels of excellence in the development of their organizations. The paper states that effective
communication is indispensable at all stages of entrepreneurial success, such as to generate
an innovative idea; to communicate it to rest of the world; to organize a team and to
materialize it in successful profitable business venture among others. The paper concludes by
making some recommendation for the ‘management education’ considering the emerging
identity of India in the global context.

__________
THE ROLE OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN ENTREPRENEURIAL
SUCCESS

It is rightly said that our education is tailor-made to produce job seekers; not job creators.
However painful this may sound, the fact remains that education as a whole seems to have
failed to nurture the spirit of entrepreneurship among the youth globally, particularly in India.
UNESCO’s World Declaration on Higher Education for The Twenty-First Century: Vision
and Action endorsing the fact states:

“Developing entrepreneurial skills and initiative should become major

concerns of higher education, in order to facilitate employability of
graduates who will increasingly be called upon to be not only job seekers
but also and above all to become job creators. Higher education
institutions should give the opportunity to students to fully develop their
own abilities with a sense of social responsibility, educating them to
become full participants in democratic society and promoters of changes
that will foster equity and justice (UNESCO: n. pg.).”

According to Einstein insanity is “doing same thing over and over again and expecting
different results.” Education in India has not changed for years now barring reluctant efforts
in different quarters of the system. When job creation is a global challenge, there is a dire
need for policy makers and educators across world to focus on preparing ‘job creators’ with
entrepreneurial zest by providing academic environment conducive for the development of
entrepreneurship. For solution of global employment crisis, entrepreneurs hold the key.

According to Peter Drucker “the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and
exploits it as an opportunity (Drucker 28). Entrepreneurs’ thirst for change, finding out
something new, lead them to socio-economic innovations. To make an innovative idea a
reality, they take risks. They believe in their idea and overwhelmingly persuade others to
believe in their story. Of the many attributes of entrepreneurs, an inevitable attribute is their
ability to communicate. It is very crucial to mention that an entrepreneur cannot succeed
without communicating with human elements surrounding him/her. Entrepreneurs need
communication strings that link people together in day-to-day business activities.
Entrepreneurs may have a brilliant idea, finest financial plans and a market ready to adopt
their offer but if they fail to tell their story, to communicate their vision, there is hardly any
chance of success.

‘Communication is what transforms an idea into a vision, defines how it’s different, explains
why it will work, and engages people in helping to make it a reality (Heller n. pg.)’.
Communication is what keeps the vision alive in entrepreneur’s communication with others
and himself. Until and unless an idea is given a tangible body, it remains in its abstract form
and there are chances that it may vanish. It is in its communication that an idea gets
envisioned. The moment the idea starts crystallising into a concrete shape in its
communication, an entrepreneur starts visualizing the complete picture about how a particular
idea would turn into a reality. An entrepreneur starts visualizing and anticipating possible
future events and developments. Possibly, this is how an idea transforms itself into a vision.

Effective communication is a primary means whereby entrepreneurs achieve the desired

levels of excellence in the development of their organizations. (Darling and Beebe 76-93).
Entrepreneurs should be charismatic leaders and through their ability to communicate their
vision unequivocally, they should be able to organise a team. A charismatic leader will
positively have an inspiring effect on both organizational and follower outcomes. There is
sufficient research evidence to suggest that charismatic or transformational leadership has the
direct effect on perceptions, performance and attitudes of followers. Baum et al. claims that
an important aspect of charismatic leadership is being able to effectively communicate the
vision (43–54). The vision needs to be communicated to qualifying set of people through
written or oral means in order to synergise them in an efficient team or teams for various
purposes. These teams may comprise investors or VPs, workers or followers and other
stakeholders. Peter Drucker and other Entrepreneurship theorists designate utmost importance
to the communication of the entrepreneur’s vision to new venture teams. Hackman &
Johnson maintains that communicating vision to followers well is the most important act of
the transformational leader. Compelling visions provide people with a sense of purpose and
encourage commitment if it is communicated properly (n. pag.).

Communication plays a pivotal role in entrepreneurship and venture seeking. Moreover, it is

essential to identify the decisive role that a language plays in conceptualizing venture
opportunities and persuading stakeholders about the feasibility of a venture. It is pertinent to
note here that communication uses language both verbally and non-verbally. Needless to say,
that the term language goes beyond its limited linguistic verbal use and extends to non-verbal
domains of communication. Communication here would mean an individual’s ability to
effectively use both verbal and non-verbal codes in both written and oral expressions. This
being the case, entrepreneurs will have to master communication as whole and use it to their
advantage. It is through the rigorous rounds of communication and negotiation with partners
and other stakeholders that an entrepreneur would correct the flaw in the conceptualization of
his/her vision. Communication allows both entrepreneurs and stakeholders to arrive at a
common ground for negotiation of pros and cons of the venture. It is necessary for the
stakeholders to get complete understanding of forthcoming venture in its totality. This allows
an entrepreneur to get a stakeholder’s feedback which will allow him/her to understand
whether or not they accept potential of the venture. Further it allows the entrepreneur to
validate that understanding or to correct it, and this, in turn, will decide the outcome of the
relationship and that of venture.

There are three main areas in which the role of communication can be seen in deciding the
entrepreneurial success i.e. convincing investors, effective leadership and attracting new
clients. Undoubtedly, for turning an innovative idea into business venture, the prerequisite is
capital. According to entrepreneurship theorist convincing the investors to invest is like
asking for a pound of their flesh. To be able to convince the investors, an entrepreneur needs
to communicate clearly the scope and relevance of venture and his/her vision regarding the
profitability of the venture. In short s/he needs to convince the investors that they are
investing in a profitable venture. Secondly s/he would need to elevate himself/herself to the
level of being a charismatic leader to be able to organize a team. People take part in a
particular venture only if they develop faith in the idea and the vision. One of the most
essential traits of a charismatic leader is his/her ability to communicate without which
organizing a team is an impossibility. Finally for a success, sustenance and the growth of a
business venture an ever expanding clientele is indispensable. An entrepreneur needs to learn
to communicate with market. S/he would be required to employ innovative strategies to be
able to communicate with market and ensure consistent influx of new clients/buyers. For each
area stated above an entrepreneur would require to learn various methods and skills of
effective communication which goes beyond language and its use.

Management institutes and B-Schools that are duty bound to nurture entrepreneurship have
seemingly failed. It is surprizing to find that the management syllabus prepared by All India
Council of Technical Education (AICTE), if looked at closely, reveals that communication
skill is given the least importance at both graduation and post-graduation levels. Surprisingly,
Communication is taught as a subject at the first and the second year or in the first four
semesters only. What is astonishing is that the major portion of the syllabus is focused at
teaching language rather than communication. The condition is no different at post-
graduation level. In Master of Business Administration (MBA) there is only one paper of
communication skills in the first semester and in Master of Applied Management (MAM)
there is a paper in the first two semesters. Realizing the mistake, AICTE/ Gujarat Technical
University (GTU) introduced employability skills which include communication skills which
has some credit attached to it. This is one of the major reasons why most of student coming
out of management institutes are weak in their communication. Perhaps on account of this
limitation they neither become good managers nor entrepreneurs because communication
stands as one of the key skills in both.

India is poised at a critical juncture at the moment. We take pride in saying that ‘India is the
young country in this aging world (Nilekani n. pag.).’ Shashi Tharoor in a recent TED talk
said that the average age in India is 28 years and next year it is going to be 29 years. On one
side, India is riding on the wave of her biggest demographic dividend and on the other,
according to a survey collectively conducted by World Bank and NASSCOM 10% of general
graduates and 15% of graduates in vocational education, are readily employable. If we cannot
leverage this demographic dividend by providing proper education and professional skills to
the youth, it can result in a worst demographic disaster because the youth without proper
education would turn out to be a big national liability. To save this country from demographic
disaster of employability crisis, our education should focus at nurturing entrepreneurship. We
need job-creators not job-seekers.

In conclusion it can be said that entrepreneurial success heavily relies on one’s ability to
effectively communicate or lack of it. On one side our education system is customized to
manufacture job seeker, on the other there is hardly any provision for nurturing
communicative competence of those who are born with innate entrepreneurial zeal within the
same system. Surveys after survey reveal shocking statistics indicating monstrous
employment crisis looming large worsening with each passing second. In the back drop of
this, ‘management education’ as whole will have to wake up to the need of nurturing
entrepreneurship in the first place and in the second, communication skills should occupy the
central place in connection to other skills which are essential for entrepreneurial success. In
the absence of the ability to effectively communicate, there are some entrepreneurs who are
struggling to convert their innovative ideas in the business ventures and there are others who
struggle to make their venture into profitable ones. In short, to be able to nurture young
entrepreneurs with charismatic leadership and fascinating communication skills, management
education requires a complete paradigm shift.

REFERENCE:

UNESCO. World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty-First Century:

Vision And Action.
http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/wche/declaration_eng.htm

Drucker, P. F., (1995). Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Newyork: HarperCollins.

P.28 Print
Darling, J. R. and Beebe, S A. (2007). Effective Entrepreneurial Communication in
Organization Development: Achieving Excellence Based on Leadership Strategies
and Values. Organization Development Journal. Spring, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p76-93. Web
Heller, Cheryl. (2011). A Few Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know About
Communication.www.sheepless.org. Web.
http://www.sheepless.org/magazine/features/few-things-every-entrepreneur-should-
know-about-communication
Baum, Robert J.; Locke, Edwin A., Kirkpatrick, Shelley A., (1998). "A longitudinal
study of the relation of vision and vision communication to venture growth in
entrepreneurial firms." Journal of Applied Psychology 83 (1): 43–54. Web.
www.wikipedia.org
Hackman, M.Z. and Johnson, C.E., (2009). Leadership: A communication perspective
(5th ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland. Web
www.wikipedia.org
Nilekani, Nandan. (2009). Ideas for India's future. Filmed. www.ted.com
Tharoor, Shashi. (2013) Why nations should pursue "soft" power. www.ted.com

_______________________