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What is this mysterious activity we call
entrepreneurship? What exactly do entrepreneurs do? Does
success require special traits and skills or just luck?
Can large companies follow their example? What role does
venture capital play?
In a field dominated by anecdote and folklore,
this landmark study integrates more than ten years of intensive
research and modern theories of business and economics.
The result is a comprehensive framework for understanding
entrepreneurship that provides new and penetrating insights.
Examining hundreds of successful ventures, the author finds
that the typical business has humble, improvised origins.
Well-planned start-ups, backed by substantial venture capital,
are exceptional. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Sam Walton
initially pursue small, uncertain opportunities, without
much capital, market research, or breakthrough technologies.
Coping with ambiguity and surprises, face-to-face selling,
and making do with second tier employees is more important
than foresight, deal-making, or recruiting top-notch teams.
Transforming improvised start-ups into noteworthy
enterprises requires a radical shift, from "opportunistic
adaptation" in niche markets to the pursuit of ambitious
strategies. This requires traits such as ambition and risk-taking
that are initially unimportant. Mature corporations have
to pursue entrepreneurial activity in a much more disciplined
way. Companies like Intel and Merck focus their resources
on large-scale initiatives that scrappy entrepreneurs cannot
undertake. Their success requires carefully chosen bets,
meticulous planning, and the smooth coordination of many
employees rather than the talents of a driven few.
This clearly and concisely written book
is essential for anyone who wants to start a business, for
the entrepreneur or executive who wants to grow a company,
and for the scholar who wants to understand this crucial
economic activity.
Amar Bhidé, an associate professor
on leave from the Harvard Business School, is teaching at
the University of Chicago. A former consultant at McKinsey
& Company and proprietary trader at E.F. Hutton, Bhidé
received a doctorate and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business
School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a B.Tech. from
the Indian Institute of Technology. He has written eight
Harvard Business Review articles, papers on corporate
governance in the Journal of Financial Economics
and the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, and
the book Of Politics and Economic Reality.
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