Entrepreneurship: Concepts, Mindset, and Design Thinking (Lecture Notes)

Definition and Concept of Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurship is a vital component of economic growth and development.

• Etymology: entrepreneur from the French verb enterprendre meaning "to undertake"; refers to those who undertake risk.

• Entrepreneurship is the process of creating an enterprise; the enterprise is created by an entrepreneur.

• Entrepreneurs are innovators who take risks and generate new ideas to provide unique and profitable solutions to present-day problems.

• Peter F. Drucker: an entrepreneur searches for changes, responds to them, and exploits them as opportunities.

• Innovation: a tool used by entrepreneurs to exploit opportunities and create value.

Core Competencies in Entrepreneurship

• Decisiveness: firmness in decision-making.

• Communication: clear, persuasive communication.

• Leadership: ability to guide and influence others.

• Opportunity-seeking: ability to spot business chances first.

• Proactivity: taking control of situations and preparing for future problems.

• Risk-taking: willingness to pursue ventures despite uncertainty.

• Innovation: generating and applying new, worthwhile ideas.

Types of Entrepreneurs

• Innovative Entrepreneurs: create new things and ideas; seek better/economical solutions.

• Imitating Entrepreneurs: follow ideas of others rather than creating new ones.

• Fabian Entrepreneurs: skeptical of change; follow after others have initiated.

• Drone Entrepreneurs: depend on others’ labor; highly conservative.

• Social Entrepreneurs: drive social innovation and transformation in education, health, human rights, environment, and enterprise development.

Successful Entrepreneurs in the Philippines

• Manny Villar: real estate magnate; Vista Land.

• Ramon Ang: president and vice chairman of San Miguel Corporation.

• Andrew Tan: Alliance Global Group, Megaworld, Emperador Distillers.

• Tony Tan Caktiong: founder of Jollibee.

• George Ty: founder of Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company.

• David Consunji: founder of DMCI Holdings.

• Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala: chairman and CEO of Ayala Corporation.

• Enrique Razon Jr.: ports entrepreneur.

• John Gokongwei: Cebu Pacific, Robinsons.

• Henry Sy: founder of SM and shoe retail lineage.

Mindset: Growth vs Fixed

• Mindset: belief about whether qualities like intelligence and talents are fixed or can be developed.

• Fixed Mindset: believes talents are fixed; tends to avoid challenges; when frustrated, gives up; when failing, feels not good; seeks praise for being smart.

• Growth Mindset: believes abilities can be developed; embraces challenges; persists after setbacks; learns from failure.

Characteristics of an Entrepreneurial Mindset

• Curiosity: asks questions to uncover opportunities.

• Commitment: persistence through challenges.

• Optimism: hopeful about outcomes.

• Flexibility: adaptable to changing circumstances.

• Ownership: takes responsibility for outcomes.

• Leadership: inspires and guides a team.

• Connection: builds networks and collaborations.

• Self-Respect: cares for oneself via rest, exercise, and balance.

Essentials of the Entrepreneurial Mindset

• Passion first: pursue what matters deeply.

• Everything is possible: belief in achieving results beyond current limits.

• 100% Accountable: own responses and choices.

• We are connected: success is supported by networks, not alone.

• Live life to give: emphasis on corporate and social responsibility.

• Attitude of gratefulness: acknowledge positives and express thanks.

• The time is now: seize opportunities in the moment.

Entrepreneurship as a Habit

• Habit: an unconscious behavior repeated regularly.

• Habit loop: brain’s process of deciding to store or repeat behavior.

• Rewarded behavior is most likely repeated.

• Three habits to nurture for entrepreneurial mindset:

  • Self-leadership habit

  • Creativity habit

  • Improvisation habit

The Self-Leadership Habit

• Self-leadership: influencing and controlling one’s behavior, actions, thoughts, and feelings from the inside out.

• Related to optimism, happiness, consciousness, and emotional intelligence.

• Key strategies:

  • Behavior-focused: increase self-awareness to manage behavior, especially for challenging tasks.

  • Self-observation: monitor how and why entrepreneurial behaviors occur.

  • Self-goal setting: plan and set goals.

  • Self-reward: reward progress after achieving goals.

  • Self-punishment: evaluate and reform behaviors after shortcomings.

  • Self-coaching/Narratives: maintain motivation with notes or posters.

  • Motivational reminders: use posters or lists to stay focused.

The Creativity Habit

• Creativity: turning fresh ideas into useful, valuable products or solutions.

• Problems in practicing creativity:

  • Fear of failure

  • Lack of desire for variety

  • Tendency to judge ideas prematurely

  • Distaste for nurturing ideas

  • Perceived lack of challenge

  • Difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy

The Improvisation Habit

• Improvisation: unstructured, spontaneous creation when planning is absent.

• Skill: ability to sense changes and shift direction quickly.

Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Opportunity Recognition

• Entrepreneurial self-efficacy: belief in the ability to start a new business; a vital element of entrepreneurial mindset.

• Opportunity: the chance to generate profits by creating unique, innovative, and sustainable products/services not yet in the market.

• Social value: addressing a social need.

• Environmental consideration: sustainability in opportunity development.

• Opportunity recognition: applying mindset to establish new businesses.

How to Start with Ideas

• Analytical: break a problem into details to improve or innovate.

• Search: link personal experiences to problems; leverage resources and connections.

• Imaginative-based: reinterpret doubts and remove restrictions to imagine possibilities.

• Habit-breaking: consider opposite perspectives to reveal new angles.

• Relationship seeking: connect related concepts.

• Development: modify existing concepts to improve solutions.

Pathways to Opportunity Identification

• First Pathway: opportunities exist independently of the entrepreneur.

• Search Pathway: opportunities are not clearly defined; discovery through exploration.

• Effectuate Pathway: leverage the entrepreneur’s skills and networks to create opportunities.

• Design Pathway: design-driven approach; often the most challenging but valuable.

Design Thinking

• Design thinking: a discipline that uses designer sensibility to match user needs with what is technologically feasible and viable business models.

• Characteristics:

  • Human-centricity and empathy

  • Collaboration

  • Ideation

  • Experimentation and iteration

  • Bias toward action

• Design thinking process (five steps):

  • Empathize

  • Define

  • Ideate

  • Prototype

  • Test

The Design Thinking Process: Empathize to Test

• Empathize: research user needs; put yourself in others’ shoes; collect observations.

• Define: state user needs and problems; craft a clear problem statement.

• Ideate: generate a wide range of ideas; challenge assumptions.

• Prototype: create tangible representations of ideas.

• Test: gather feedback and iterate.

Empathy Map

• Components: Say, Think, Do, Feel

• Define stage: articulate user needs and problems; derive insights for problem statements.

• Guidelines for empathy work:

  • Strengthen the good aspects of customer needs

  • Eliminate the bad aspects

  • Explore opposites to transform problems into opportunities

  • Question assumptions

  • Identify unanticipated resources

  • Form analogies to relate problems to other contexts

  • Break down the problem into pieces for analysis

Ideation Techniques

• Brainstorm: generate original, creative ideas freely.

• Brainwriting (Brain write): participants write ideas on papers for discussion.

• Worst possible idea: deliberately propose the worst ideas to reveal hidden assumptions and new angles.

• SCAMPER: a structured technique to modify existing concepts:

  • Substitute

  • Combine

  • Adapt

  • Modify

  • Put to another use

  • Eliminate

  • Reverse