Five Essential Qualities

for
Entrepreneurial Leadership
MAS
 1. Vision and
Dissatisfaction with the present.

• Leading a change on a well defined dissatisfaction

with the present,
• a vision for how things should be,
• and a clear idea of the first steps that need to be
taken.  
 2. Taking advantage of your unfair advantages. 

Dr. Saras Sarasvathy has coined the term

“effectuation” on how entrepreneurs use their
unfair advantages to build their enterprise.  
A cooking analogy explains the concept—you can
cook from a recipe by buying the ingredients and
making the dish; or you can cook by looking at what
you have in the cupboard and determining what
can be made with what you have.  
Effectuation is the later.
 3. Get people on board

The ability to get people on board and add to

the vision
• Good entrepreneurs are always recruiting —
talent, advisors, investors and customers.   
 4. Flexibility to adapt,
Openness to feedback, & Ability to learn

Flexibility to adapt, openness to feedback, and

the ability to learn
• Entrepreneurs are not arrogant enough to feel
like they have all the answers; they are open to
feedback, and use it as a way to develop and
learn.  
• Bill Gates showed the ultimate in adaptability
by being open to supplying an operating system
to IBM. 
 5. Persistence and execution

Persistence and execution

• Entrepreneurs have a long term vision,
• But are also relentlessly focused on the
activities that get them to their vision in the
here and now.
Thank You

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