Nature of Entrepreneurs

So what is the nature of an Entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs are simply individuals who believe and have a passion towards some new idea that is different, innovative or completely new, and take the initiative and risk to substantiate this vision and put it into practice as a means of achieving economic success and in recent times, political or social advancement or difference. For example, development of a new political party and the latter, coming up with solutions for current social problems. In our modern society, the possibilities of enacting your self held values and ideas are endless and open; we are provided with knowledge bases, financial assistance, the environment is neutral and we in the western world are not oppressed or harassed if we wanted to express ourselves and ultimately I believe this nurtures aspiring or current entrepreneurs.The greatest entrepreneurs are those who revolutionize business, open opportunities for others and change the way we behave and think.Their impact usually resonates for generations to come. When you read this you probably think of people like Steve Jobs;notably one of the best entrepreneurs of our time, Mark Zuckerberg; the creator of Facebook, Henry Ford; the founder of Ford motor company and also King Croesus who founded the worlds first ever coinage creating the lifeblood of every business. These individuals had a deep held vision and idea and acted upon it without any foundations that would aid if the were to fall miserably, however what they would soon realize, perhaps not what they had initially intended for, is that they changed the scope of life across the globe. We use Facebook on a daily basis to connect with our distant friends or family, Ford has revolutionized the mass production of vehicles that allowed people to travel the plains and 51% of all households in the US have apple's devices to use for an array of reasons; business, games, social interaction and navigation to say a few and infact most people could not live without it. We can all agree that our lives have definitely benefited as a result.

Watch this short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCwL7mGSKCw

Digital Entrepreneurship - Digital Divide Data

 Digital entrepreneurship embraces new businesses and the transformation of current enterprises that drive economic and social advancement by coming up with new and innovative technologies that can be used as a means to  sharpen business intelligence, create new businesses. improve the knowledge of employees both current and prospective and foster a new generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. Essentially they create jobs and growth opportunities for the future through their innovative, enriching and empowering nature. A challenge for current market leaders and small enterprises alike is to anticipate the changes that they will be facing in the years to come and how they can exploit the full potential of digital technologies. Technology in the 21st century is not progressively changing but is doing so at an exponential rate. Businesses and even countries that fail to get digitally connected will be simply left behind in the global market and environment which is hugely influenced by technology.

One enterprise, known as Digital Divide Data, an internationally recognized success in Digital entrepreneurship, has an agenda of creating jobs for talented young men and women in order to deliver high-quality content business process outsourcing services to client internationally. The business empowers staff with the skills and experience they need to lift themselves out of poverty in obviously 3rd world countries where knowledge upon computer, internet and overall technology literacy is very minimal. This involves training and employing these individuals at fair wage while offering them scholarships to attend universities in the hope that they go onto high-skilled positions in which they earn more than the average regional wage and break the well known cycle of poverty that has encapsulated their families and communities. They can send family members to school and raise their household's standard of living, increasing their social impact on their communities. Employing over 1000 people across Asia and Africa,  DDD has stated that "Every client project directly contributes to the impact we have on our staff and economic development in their communities". So this cycle empowers the people and provides them with assistance to transgress their current state of poverty and illiteracy.

AIESEC, a platform to develop entrepreneurship

AIESEC History

AIESEC is the largest not-for-profit student run organisation in the world. AIESEC was founded in 1948, just after world war two, with the purpose to negate any further disharmony. The term AIESEC is in french, which is the acronym for Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales (English: International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences). However, this is no longer in used and it is now only referred to as AIESEC. AIESEC was found by six students who came together It is a platform that provides international volunteer exchange and internship through 120 countries with assistance and participation of 86,000 members.

AIESEC Internal Structure and opportunities

A breakdown of AIESEC within the nation composes of Member Committee, who provides the directions for Local Commitee/Local Chapter throughout different universities. Currently there are 12 local committee throughout Australia. Within the local committee, members has the opportunity to learn, develop, network and understand different areas such as finance, marketing, talent management, external relations, university relations, incoming exchange and outgoing exchange functions. Each of these functions consists of three to eight members that is led by a director of that particular functions. Members and directors are then given ownership in delivering the exchange service to student and other stakeholders either through hosting university social events, or interacting with corporate organisations in order to establish a relationship for partnership.

International Volunteer Exchange and Internship

Each member who has joined AIESEC are given numerous opportunities to grow in their own area of passion and to explore themselves as a person. They are constantly challenged physically, mentally and professionally. Apart from the internal aspects that AIESEC provides to its members, the exchange also facilitates a global mindset for those who have participated. Exchange program are offered throughout the year and they allow students to easily and flexibly schedule their time. Through this exchange process, students are given the opportunity to live with other exchange participantes from different countries in order to work on a project that adds value and impact to the society. Some of these exchange programs includes, but not limited to, teaching, social awareness and cultural awareness.

With this platform, students have the opportunity to network with other students in different university, region and country through exchange, state conferences, national conferences and international conferences. Other events also includes Youth to Business forum, which allows members to interact and attend workshops that are conducted by corporate professionals. In essence, AIESEC is the platform that provides youth leadership and the opportunity of entrepreneurships by providing ownership in what they do through a platform that promotes and empower young people. 

General introduction to entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the term utilised to define the quality of being an entrepreneur (a person who undertakes an enterprise). The term places large emphasis on the efforts and risks which burden individuals who own and manage businesses.

The most common and obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of staring a new business. This notion is now referred to as ‘Startup Company’ and it has recently been extended to encompass social and political forms of entrepreneurial movements.

There is a myriad of types of entrepreneurial activities; they differ significantly according to the type of organisation and creativity involved.

Entrepreneurship also ranges in scale. It can be something like a small solo project where the entrepreneur may only be required on a part-time basis or it can be something like a major business undertaking that creates and facilitates many job opportunities.

In the 20th century,  Joseph Schumpeter who was an Austrian American economist and political scientist studied and largely contributed to the definition and meaning of the notion of entrepreneurship. 

In his studies he contended that an entrepreneur is a person that is willing and capable of converting new ideas or inventions into successful innovations. To him Entrepreneurship employs “the gale of creative destruction" to replace inferior innovations across markets, and in turn to create new products including new business models. Thus to him, entrepreneurship and creative destruction are largely responsible for the long-run economic growth.

Today many people affiliate entrepreneurship with risks, however without this notion, the world would be a much less sophisticated and advanced place.

Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

Quartz: LINK

I have never seen or heard about this matter before, and I find it quite unique and innovative in terms of how Google operate and manage their business. This article refers to Google’s 20% time, which allows employees to take one day a week to work on their side project. When Google went public in 2004, the founder’s letter from co-founders Larry page and Sergey Brin cited 20% time as instrumental to the company’s ability to innovate, leading to “many of our most significant advances,’ including Adsense, which now accounts for about 25% of the company’s $50+ billion in annual revenue; some other projects also include Gmail, Google Transit, Google Talk and Google News.

There is no doubt that this 20% time has made a significant contribution to Google’s products and services. However, in terms of expenses and cost for granting 20% time to side project may require close tracking and monitoring to ensure that the time is used effectively. Although I do not know much about internal management and operations, I understand that certain projects are set with KPIs and if no effective drivers, such as the performance of workers, are performed to a certain standard, that KPI may not be achieved. There are many factors that can impact the performance of workers, and I think that one of the most important elements would be the Culture of Google.

The determination, commitment and passion Googlers have towards their job and project is one of the biggest influential factor in performance of workers.

The article also asks whether the company has lost something by making innovation the province of elite few, rather than part of every engineer’s weekly routine? Should performance and productivity of a person be the judgement of whether they can or cannot be the great innovator of 21^st century? For me, I think it is a matter of believing in your employees that creates and promotes the passion and courage of members to continuously challenge their own perspectives and ideas in order to be innovative and thinking out side the box, at the same time, sufficient resources also needs to be provided in order to make side projects feasible. Lastly, this perk that Google offers may be one of the most attractive platform for innovators who has a simple idea and are willing to pursue to the world's end because sometimes being realistic may only restrict your imagination.
 

Entrepreneurship Story Board

The purpose of this blog is to provide a brief outline of the story board, which will be containing our blog topics that we will be writing and then posting it to share. These blogs are created by a group of 4 university students which will be focusing on the topic entrepreneurship. We believe that entrepreneurship would be a good topic for us to focus on because it is a very big demand in today's industry, and will definitely increase in the near future. This was not a topic that we originally thought of focusing, rather, it is a topic which we believe each person within the group has through listening and discussing our own field of passion. In addition, we believe that this would be a great topic because it does not completely restrict everyone within a certain topic, but promotes and sparks each member to discuss on his or her experience and passion to give that sense of ownership.

Our main objective is to bring to readers the mindset and perception we have in regards to entrepreneurship, at the same time, making use of this opportunity to explore and understand what and how we can be entrepreneurs. Each member may wish to write a blog in his or her own area of interest and then ultimately relating it back to entrepreneurship. By doing this, it will also allow members to assist in searching for relevant pictures and videos for the blog. We have come to some general consensus that our group will be writing on the following topics, and much more will be provided once the group has consolidated our future plans.

Blog 1 - Google 20% time
Blog 2 - 'Digital Entrepreneurship' - Digital Divide Data

Blog 3 - General introduction to entrepreneurship
Blog 4 - AIESEC, its relevance to Entrepreneurship 

Blog 5 - The necessity of Entrepreneurship

Blog 6- How management styles influence entrepreneurship
Blog 7 - Entrepreneurship in China
Blog 8 - Nature of Entrepreneurs
Blog 9 - The beginnings of Entrepreneurship - part 1
Blog 9 - The beginnings of Entrepreneurship - part 2
Blog 10 - The ends of Entrepreneurship
Blog 11-  Celebrities and Entrepreneurship
Blog 12-  3 Entrepreneurship failures.
Blog 13 - Inspiration for Entrepreneurs.

In addition, since this is unit is an information technology unit, the IT aspect should not be neglected. It is critical for members to frequently discuss on how the design of the blog can be tailored and improve to meet the theme of the topic presented. The use of other social media will also be integrated to allow the article reach a larger audience. Twitter account has been created for group assignment purposes and we will closely monitor and make use of it where necessary. Lastly, our group will make use of wikispace to allow virtual collaboration for this assignment. This will be our space to share ideas, plan our blogs, discuss and provide suggestions for improvements and so forth. 

We will be constantly changing and updating the format of our blog to meet the topic's theme. This is also an important learning process and we wish to efficiently collaborate together to manage this blog. We thank you for your time in reading this as this is our first time using such a power piece of tool, and we hope that we can bring some sort of value to our readers.

We have suggested that keeping the layout of the blog as simple as possible will best complement the overall theme and topic. Colours like Blue, White and Grey or even Orange, White and Grey, with very simple photographs and columns to keep information easily accessible and readable may be used. The logo will also be something very small and catchy that doesn't take the attention of the readers away from the important content of our blogs. Gadgets that make the blog easier to read and more entertaining to read will be used to ensure that our readers have a really enjoyable and pleasant experience on our blog.

Amanda Azzi 42469775
Yousaf Khan 43285260
Charlie El-Azzi 42469473
Hao-Juei Lai 42411122

Happy reading!