ME3608 Technopreneurship

Week 1

Mashal Tariq
 Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship seeks to understand

how opportunities to create something
new arise and are discovered or created
by specific persons who then use various
means to develop them, thus producing a
wide range of effects.
The potential to create something new (new products or
services, new markets, new production processes, new raw
materials, new ways of organizing existing technologies, etc.)
that has emerged from a complex pattern of changing
conditions-changes in knowledge, technology, or economic,
political, social, and demographic conditions.
2
 Entrepreneur
• Somebody who shifts economic resources out 
of an area of lower and into an area of higher
productivity and yield” J.B Say quotes by
Drucker.
• Emphasis on doing something different, moving
from a low productive environment to higher
one.
• The key to entrepreneurship is doing that “thing”
differently which moves you up the value chain.
(Peter Drucker)

3
 Why us rather than someone else?
What are our differentiating factors?
• Price?
• Flexibility?
• Meeting customer needs?
• Innovative in solutions?
• Being able to value-add?
 Issues
• Who is technopreneur?
• Why become a technopreneur?
• Technopreneurial motivation.
• Technopreneurial Traits, Characteristics
and Skills.
 Technopreneurship

• Technopreneurship is not just about

technology alone; but is about how to manage
that technology in order to achieve superior
value for the customer (how to use technology
to improve value).

6
 Technopreneur
• Technopreneur can be defined as “ an
entrepreneur with the skills and mindsets to deal
with a knowledge economy”
• Technopreneur - people who shift economic
resources up the value chain.
• This Value Chain is customer focused, the focus
is not in developing complex products or
technology but on developing a product or
service that offer higher value to the customer.
• knowledge to produce economic benefits
• a way of referring to the manner in which various high-technology businesses,
especially computer software, telecommunications and virtual services, as well as
educational and research institutions, can contribute to a country's 7
 Value Chain
• Automation of manual processes. E.g. payroll
• Improving a value chain is eliminating the
middle-man that incurred the cost of product
higher to the end customer.
• Going up the value chain does not mean that the
product or service has to be complicated but that
the customer sees real benefit!
• Inventors and innovators.

8
 What is invention? 
• A new or improved product (material, component,
device, machine, system) or process (synthesis,
treatment, fabrication, method of manufacturing)
discovered as a result of study or
experimentation. 
• Inventions that are novel (unique), useful and
non-obvious to someone skilled in the art can be
patented as compositions of matter, process of
making, or field of use.
• Invention is a completely new product or service,
a patent, or a breakthrough.
/
9
 What is innovation?
• The act or process of commercializing an invention
or introducing something new or improved that
creates value in the form of a commercial product. 
• Innovation requires people using new knowledge and
understanding to experiment with new possibilities
and using sound collaborative decision making tools
in order to choose and implement new ideas.
• Innovation is the turning of all ideas, big and small,
into successful outcomes. It's the implementation of
ideas generated as a result of the creativity-
supporting culture.

10
 What is creativity?
• Creativity is having ideas, the spotting of
an opportunity or inspiration.
• This definition includes both incremental
(small) change and breakthrough thinking.

11
 Intrepreneurs
Persons who
create something
new, but inside
an existing
company rather
than through a
new venture.

12
13
Economy-Entrepreneur as a agents of
progress

14
The Firm

15
16
17
18
19
 Key Activities
1. Identifying an opportunity
2. Exploiting or developing this
opportunity
3. Running a new business
successfully

20
 What is business idea?
• Ideas – the indispensable start-up ingredient all
inventions and innovations need.
• Ideation – the process of forming and relating
ideas that invariably have a bearing on the
identification and resolution of a problem.
• Opportunities for making money.
Ideation is a process of:
- Deriving ideas through free-association and
analogies
- Challenging conventional ideas
- Combining  simple elements into new ideas 21
 Coming up with business ideas

Factors to consider…..
INTERNAL FACTORS EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Personal interest -government support
• Knowledge/talent & assistance
• Training/work experience -tax incentives
• Other considerations like -financing
income, employment - business growth rate
service, etc other factors

22
 Choosing the Line of Business
Product Industries
Manufactured products intended either
for mass market or individual customers
demand. Examples are garments, toys,
shoes, canned goods, (for mass
market); precision instruments for
industrial use, made to order furniture
(as specialized products)
Sub Contracting Industries
Manufacture of product components or
parts for other bigger companies.
Bigger companies find it faster &
cheaper to sub contract. Drawback is
if small company is totally dependent on
one big principal or contracting
company
Process Industries
Manufactured products intended either
for mass market or individual customers
demand. Examples are garments, toys,
shoes, canned goods, (for mass
market); precision instruments for
industrial use, made to order furniture
(as specialized products)
Service Industries
Service enterprises include repair and
maintenance shops, printing & machine
shops, food catering, Beauty parlors, dress
and tailoring shops, recreation estabs. (like
bowling alleys and billiard halls), and
entertainment enterprises (such as
theaters, disco and pub house). Retail &
trading is one of the most common type of
service business 23
24
25
 Entrepreneurial Mindset:
• What is an Entrepreneurial Mindset?
• Entrepreneurial mindset is the combination of beliefs,
focus and attitude that collectively constitute a way of
thinking, reacting and feeling in an entrepreneurial way.

26
 How to Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset?

Entrepreneur Mindset How to Develop

Focus and Vision Imagine and visualize the big picture, create SMART
goals

Accepting Uncertainty Clearly understand and evaluate risk return trade-off,

probabilistic thinking

Resilience and Perseverance Don’t be ashamed of your failures, talk to people you
trust

Adaptability Know when to change, look for consistent feedback,

analysis from multiple data sources

Curiosity and Creativity Ask why and why not, Use observation and
combinatorics thinking

Bias for Action and Decisiveness Develop MECE thinking and become data oriented

Positivity Focus on things you can control

27
 Elements of Entrepreneurial Culture and How to
Incorporate them into the Social Sector
Peter Drucker said, “An entrepreneur always searches for change,
responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity.”
•An Entrepreneurial Culture Assessment 
•Openness: A willingness to share information and lessons learned widely
•Adaptability: A commitment to monitoring your organization’s internal
environment through measurement and your external environment through
research and using the results to identify possibilities for change and
improvement
•Results and Rewards: A dedication to tracking outcomes and impact, but
also rewarding the right behaviors, including organizational citizenship
•Learning Organization: A promise to employees to support a learning
organization that will encourage them to grow and learn without fear

28
 Entrepreneurship and Large
Corporations
• Apple and Microsoft have forever changed the face of IBM and put
Digital Equipment Corporation out of business.
• Walmart has decimated Sears and Kmart. MCI and Verizon have
forever changed the original AT&T.
• On the flipside, classic corporations like The New York Times have
reinvented themselves to become one of the most popular news
sources in the country.
• Startups as the New Corporations
• Fortunately, for many giant firms, the entrepreneurial
• revolution continues to be a source for growth.
• Researchers document how large firms are applying entrepreneurial
thinking to enhance their futures in companies like GE, Corning, and
Motorola etc

29
 Getting the Odds in Your

1. Threshold Concept Favor

30
2. Promise of Growth
Studies also found that survival rates more than double for firms that
grow, and the earlier in the life of the business that growth occurs, the
higher the chance of survival.
3. Venture Capital Backing
4. Private Investors Join Venture Capitalists
•harvested entrepreneurs have become “angel investors” or “angels”
as private investors in the next generation of entrepreneurs.
•Many of the more successful entrepreneurs have created their own
investment pools and are competing directly with venture capitalists for
deals.

31
5. Find Investors Who Add Value
•One of the most distinguishing disciplines of these higher-
potential ventures is how the founders identify financial
partners and key team members.
•They insist on backers and partners who do more than
bring just money, commitment, and motivation to the
venture.
•They surround themselves with backers who can add
value to the venture through their experience, know-how,
networks, and wisdom.

32
The Timmons Model: Where Theory
and Practice Meet in the Real World

33
34
35
 VENTURE CHALLENGE
• Select a high-potential opportunity that interests you
1. Describe the opportunity that attracts you and why you think it is a
new venture opportunity.
2. Describe the competencies and skills you and your team members
possess.
3. What important stakeholders will you need to be successful?
4. Describe the passion and commitment you have for the opportunity.
5. Is this a good opportunity for you?

36
 How can an entrepreneur identify and select
a valuable opportunity?

• Good opportunities address important market needs.

• Examining social, technological, and economic trends can
lead to the identification of emerging needs.
Types of Opportunities
• In the demand-pull case, the entrepreneur begins with a
market need. That need may be filled with several
potential products, which may (or may not) have special
technological capabilities.
• In the technology-push case, the entrepreneur begins with
a technological capability, which is often a new technology
or a new application of an existing technology.
37
38
39
Market Engagement and Design Thinking

40
41
 Types and Sources of
Innovation
• Innovation is based on teamwork and creativity, and is defined as
invention that has produced economic value in the marketplace.
• Incremental innovation is characterized by faster, better, and/or
cheaper versions of existing products.
• To be successful, the incremental innovator must understand
specific customer needs that are unmet
• by current offerings.
• For example, portable, battery-driven radios have been used since
the 1950s. But, Trevor Bayles saw an opportunity to bring
information to remote Africa by creating a wind-up spring- and
dynamo-powered radio.
• Twenty-five seconds of winding gives the user one hour of listening.

42
• Architectural innovation changes the way in which components of a
product are linked together.
• Thus, the components remain unchanged, but the architecture of module
connection is the innovation.
• The essence of an architectural innovation is the reconfiguration
• of an established system to link together existing components in a new way
• Modular innovation is focused on the innovation of new components and
modules. But, it does not disrupt the linkages between modules.
• Radical innovation or disruptive innovation uses new modules and new
architecture to create new products. The Internet is an example of a network
system with new modules and new architecture
• Disruptive innovation transforms the relationship between customer and
supplier, restructures markets, displaces current products, and often creates
new product categories

43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
 Published Sources
The first step is a complete search of materials in libraries and on the Internet.
•Guides and Company Information
Bloomberg Businessweek,
Forbes, INC.,
The Economist,
Fast Company, andFortune ; and online at the following:
· Hoovers.com.
· ProQuest.com.
· Bloomberg.com.
· Harrisinfo.com.
•Journal Articles via Computerized Indexes
•Statistics
•Consumer Expenditures
· New Strategist Publications.
· Consumer Expenditure Survey.
· Euromonitor.

54
• Projections and Forecasts
· ProQuest.
· InfoTech Trends.
• Market Studies
· LifeStyle Market Analyst.
· MarketResearch.com.
· Scarborough Research.
· Simmons Market Research Bureau
• Other Sources
· Wall Street Transcript.
· Brokerage house reports from Investext, Multex, and so forth.
· Company annual reports and websites.
• Other Intelligence
• Everything entrepreneurs need to know will not be found in libraries
because this information needs to be highly specific and current.
• This information is most likely available from people—industry experts,
suppliers, and the like (see the nearby box)..

55
• Trade Associations
• Trade associations, especially the editors of their publications and
information
officers, are good sources of information.
• Trade shows and conferences are prime places to discover the latest
activities of competitors.
• Employees
• Employees who have left a competitor’s company often can provide
information about the competitor and be hired by competing firms.
• Consideration of ethics in this situation is important, the number of
experienced people in any industry is limited, and competitors must prove
that a company hired a person intentionally to get specific trade secrets in
order to challenge any hiring legally.
• Consulting Firms
• Consulting firms frequently conductin dustry studies and then make this
information available.
• Frequently, in such fields as computers or software, competitors use the
same design consultants, and these consultants can be sources of
information.
• Market Research Firms
• Firms doing market studies, such as those listed under published sources
above, can be sources of intelligence.
56
• Key Customers, Manufacturers, Suppliers, Distributors, and Buyers
• These groups are often a prime source of information.
• Public Filings
• Federal, state, and local filings, such as filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC), Patent and Trademark Office, or
Freedom of Information Act filings, can reveal a surprising amount of
information.
• There are companies that process inquiries of this type.
• Reverse Engineering
• Reverse engineering can be used to determine costs of production and
sometimes even manufacturing methods.
• Networks
• The networks can be sources of competitor intelligence.
• Other
• Classified ads, buyers guides, labor unions, real estate agents, courts,
local reporters, and so on can all provide clues.

57
 Competitive Strategy
• Every new venture has a strategy or approach to achieve its goals.
• This strategy is in response to its plan to implement a solution to an
important problem or opportunity.
• Venture Strategy
• A strategy is a plan or road map of the actions that a firm or organization
will take to achieve its mission and goals.
• Strategies help to set a firm on a course and then focus their efforts on it.

58
59
60
 Core Competencies
• Of a firm are its unique capabilities and resources that enable it to
implement its business model and thus deliver a valuable product or
service to its customers.
• To be competitive, a firm must have:
(1) unique and valuable resources and the capability to exploit these
resources, or
(2) a unique capability to manage common resources.
(1) Ryanair and Southwest possess common resources – aircraft and
aircraft equipment – but have unique capabilities to manage these
resources.
(2) Disney has unique resources in its film library, brand, and theme
parks but a mixed record of managing them well.

61
• Core competencies are the critical asset of a technology venture.
• Unlike physical assets, core competencies do not deteriorate as
they are applied and shared.
• In fact, they can grow as a firm learns to build its competencies. For
example, the core competency of Intel is the ability to design and
manufacture integrated circuits for computers and communication
systems.
• It is very important that the core competencies of a firm match the
requirements of its business.
• Firms with core competencies that match those necessary to
effectively implement their business model have the best chance to
succeed.

62
 The Industry and Context for a Firm
• A full description of the customer and the industry will help the
entrepreneur build a sound strategic plan.

63
64
• A competitive analysis explains how you will do better
than your rivals.
• Organizations achieve superior performance when they
are unique, when they do something no other business
does in ways that no other business can duplicate.
• Complementors are companies that sell complements
to the enterprise’s own product offerings.
• A complement is a product that improves or perfects
another product.

65
• The bargaining power of the suppliers depends, in part,
on the number of suppliers and buyers.
• When the supplier industry is composed of many small
companies and the buyers are few and large, the buyers
tend to dominate the supply companies.
• An example is the automotive component supply
industry, in which the buyers are few and large and
dominate the many small suppliers.
• The entrepreneurial firm is likely to be a new entrant to
the industry. Thus, the new venture should describe the
barriers to entry, the threat of substitutes,

66
SWOT Analysis

67
Barriers to Entry

68
Achieving a Sustainable
Competitive Advantage

69
70
71
Alliances

72
73
74
Matching Tactics to Markets

75
76
77
78
79