ENT1/5: INTRA – PRENEURSHIP

Intra-Preneurship

Is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organisation. An Intra-preneur is a person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture by operating within the organizational environment

Or is a person who does not own a business but uses the entrepreneurial skills in an existing business where he/she works to identify opportunities and create profits for the business from the opportunity.

Understanding of Intra-preneurship in a business

The features of an Intra-preneur
 Works in an existing business
 Is hired to manage the business
 Creative and uses ability / insight to market / produce / finance a service / product
 Identifies new products / services for an existing business
 Organizes and controls resources to ensure profit for the existing business
 Prefers benefits of an existing business such as salary and available resources.

An enterprising person is someone who takes on imaginative and risky projects. He is a person who is ambitious; they take initiative in order to be successful.

Characteristics of an enterprising person
 Always hardworking
 Always see the future in the present.
 Always find the way to take advantage of situation. They are not burdened by it
 They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them, they go after opportunities
 Always keep his mind open and active.

ENTERPRISE
Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working towards your ambition. Enterprise means two things ie creativity and the courage to be creative.

• Creativity. This is the ability to generate new and unique ideas. Creativity is needed
  to.
  see what is out there and to shape it to your advantage
  look at the world a little differently
  Take a different approach to be different.
  Courage to be creative. This is needed to
  see things differently
  go against the crowd
  take a different approach
  stand-alone if you have to Choose an activity over inactivity.

Entrepreneurial competences
There are three major competences for successful entrepreneurship. These include
 A body of knowledge
 A set of skills
 Cluster of traits

Knowledge, this is a set / body of information stored by a person which may be recalled at an appropriate time to enable a person do what is needed to achieve a purpose.

Examples of knowledge include:
 Information about the market for goods and services.
 Information about customers like who they are, where they are, their age bracket, their tastes and preferences etc
 Information relating to business opportunity identified after doing market
research.
 Information about production process like knowing which materials to use, knowing how to transform the materials into finished goods.
 Information on business management like how to manage workers successfully.
 Information about technical matters like how to operate the machines.
 Information about competitors like knowing their strength, weaknesses, opportunities and weaknesses.
 Information about the sources of capital.
 Information about sources of various inputs like machinery, labour, raw materials etc
 Information about government policies that affect business activities.

Skills, this is the ability to apply knowledge and can be acquired through practice. In business context it is possible to distinguish between skills of technical and managerial in nature, some example are listed below.

Technical skills
 Engineering
 Computing
 Sewing
 Carpentry
 Painting
 Mechanics
 Catering
 Video coverage and editing
 Hair dressing
 Pottery

Managerial skills
 Marketing (including selling). An ability to see past the firm’s offerings and their features, to be able to see how they satisfy the customer’s needs and why the customers find them attractive.

 Time management. An ability to use time productive, to be able to prioritize important jobs and to get things done to schedule.

 Financial management. An ability to manage money, to be able not only to keep expenditure and to monitor cash flow, but also to assess investments in terms of potential and their skills.

 Organisation skills. An ability to mobilize and direct different resources to a right direct for the success of a venture

 Planning skill, an ability to consider what the future might offer, how it will impact the business and what needs to be done to prepare for it now.

 Leadership. An ability to inspire people to work in a specific way and to understand the tasks that are necessary for the success of the venture.

 Delegation skills. An ability to allocate tasks to different people. It demands understanding of the skills that people possess, how they use them and how they might develop to fulfill future needs.

 Communication skills. Ability to use spoken and written language to express ideas and inform others.
 Negotiation skills. An ability to understand what is wanted from a situation, what is motivating others in that situation and recognize the possibilities of maximizing outcomes for all parties.

Traits, these are the aggregate/total of peculiar qualities that constitute personal individuality. Traits take time to develop and are not easily changed or acquired. E.g

 Passionate, highly successful entrepreneurs choose to do what they love to do or what they are passionate about.
 They are disciplined, highly successful entrepreneur have the quality of high self control and have the habits of obedience to effectively manage their time and other resources to achieve success.

 They are effective planners; highly successful entrepreneurs do proper planning. They know what their businesses will be in the next 5 years because they are always planning and they are ready to give it their best.
 They are persistent, successful entrepreneurs are highly consistent in their endeavours.

 They are professional, successful entrepreneurs highly believe in the power of being professional or the importance of proper packaging of the business. They know how to present their business or idea in a way that will attract the right people who need them.
 They are aggressive; this is the ability to have confidence to move forward without fearing any resistance.
 They are ambitious; this is the ability to have strong desire towards something.

NB: It is mostly likely that a person who does not have all the three competences in his/her business will encounter difficulties in operating the venture successfully.

TRAITS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

These are the aggregate of peculiar characteristics that constitutes personal individuality. Traits take time to develop and are not easily changed or acquire. These are qualities than an entrepreneur needs to have and develop in order to successful start – up nurture and grow an enterprise.

Self-confidence: This is having a strong belief in one self and his/ her ability to achieve the set goals regardless of the challenges.
Hard working: This is putting in extra effort, commitment, resources and times in order to achieve the set goals in the set period of time.

Goal oriented: This is the ability to set goals that are SMART ie specific measurable, achievable given the available resources, realistic and time bound and also to work with determination towards achieving them.

Persistent: This is the strong desire to do something consistently and continuously until the set goals are achieved despite the various problems and disappointments in business.

Profit oriented; this means having a strong interest and direction towards operating profits in business. This can be achieved through maximizing sales and minimizing costs of operation.

Builds for the future: Most successful entrepreneurs aim at creating long term enterprises that can even outline them and hence provide a secure job and income for themselves and improved welfare and wealth for their families.
Commitment ;Success in business demand total commitment by the entrepreneur in terms of time , money and lifestyle and the business has to be the major priority in the entrepreneur’s life.

Reliability and integrity; Success in business requires honesty, fairness and reliability in terms of doing what the entrepreneur has promised, fulfilling contracts with customers.

Risk taking; Successful entrepreneurs are those who assess risks before committing their resources to identified business ventures and then take calculated risks which can be foreseen by shifting them to insurance companies.

Copes with failure; Successful entrepreneurs are those who recognize their failures, learn from them and seek new opportunities.

Willingness to listen; Success in business requires one to be willing to seek and listen to advise and information from others e.g. customers, bankers, business advisors etc.

Demonstrate initiative; Successful entrepreneurs take initiative and put themselves in positions of being responsible for success or failure.

Setting own standards; success in business requires setting standards i.e. about sale, quality, income and output and working to achieve them.

Responding to feed back; Successful entrepreneurs constantly monitor how well they are doing and keeping track of their performance and then constructively use the feedback obtained to improve performance.

Coping with uncertainty; Entrepreneurship and self-employment involve more uncertainty than wage employment e.g. about sales, profit, prices, support services etc.

Coping with changes; Success in business requires ability to understand, appreciate and adopt or cope with change because change is inevitable in every organization.

Innovation. This is an entrepreneur’s ability to tackle the unknown and do things in a new and better way or different way, change old ideas into new ideas etc.

Opportunity oriented. This enables and entrepreneur to see and identify new business opportunities, seizes them and convert them into realistic achievable goals e.g opportunities for obtaining the necessary resources like equipment , land etc which will enable him/her implement his/her business ideas.

Creativity. Entrepreneurs need creativity to deal with their everyday situation that involves creating new products, services and processes. Even when they imitate others, creativity is needed to adapt the imitations to the markets.

Build on strengths. Successful business people base their work upon the strength(s) they have, such as manual skills, interpersonal skills, selling skills, Organizational skills, writing skills, knowledge of a particular product or service etc.
Reliable and has Integrity. This involve honesty, fair dealing and reliability in terms of doing what one has promised to do.

BARRIERS TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Barriers to entrepreneurship are factors that hinder the development of the entrepreneurship; they hinder people from acquiring and practicing entrepreneurial skills, but also prevent practicing entrepreneurs from achieving the full benefits that entrepreneurship has to offer.

Poor entrepreneurial skills. Most entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs are short on entrepreneurial skills. They are risk averse, lack creativity, innovation, endurance, flexibility and other entrepreneurial characteristics.
Lack of role models in entrepreneurship. Uganda is seriously short of role models in the field of entrepreneurship, which limits the number of people who willingly aspire for a career in entrepreneurship.

Lack of business ethics. Unpaid loans, unpaid or highly exploited employees, unpaid suppliers, substandard goods, tax evasion, corruption, smuggling etc. Characterize many business ventures in Uganda today. While such tendencies may sometimes result in a quick profit, many times these ill come back to haunt the entrepreneur, many time crippling them completely.

Low mobility and exposure. Mobility and exposure normally offers the biggest revelation for new ideas that shape creativity and innovations to entrepreneurship. However, Ugandans, generally do not travel widely, do not read widely and do not explore, ask or investigate.

Lack of business and technical skills. Business skills in marketing, accounting, management, planning are required by all practicing entrepreneurs to effectively manage their entrepreneurial ventures.

Career dependency. Ugandans especially the educated have long been dependent on their careers to provide for their livelihoods. Entrepreneurship has for long been regarded as a last resort effort mainly reserved for the under educated.

Lack of continuity. Very few firms in Uganda are known to survive the death of their founders. Very few entrepreneurs have the opportunity to pass on their enterprises to new generations and watch from a side as the enterprise continues to prosper.

Lack of motivation. Because of lack of role models and limited exposure, entrepreneurs in Uganda tend to be satisfied with relatively small and modest achievements.

Political instability. This state of affairs has robbed Uganda of many entrepreneurs and many more entrepreneurs have lost life time savings and business assets, while others have been forced by instability to close.

Business administrative procedures. In many cases, the business environment is dominated by complex and burdensome regulations, favoritism, corruption and weak enforcement mechanism.
Insensitive government institutions and departments. Entrepreneurs blame government institutions for having little qualification and a poor understanding of the importance of business and entrepreneurial processes.

Excessive, complex and arbitrary taxation. The tax administration is arbitrary and many times misunderstood, resulting in adoc tax administrative solution which foster rampant corruption, very many taxes also serve to discourage potential entrepreneurs.

Lack of access to finance. Banking system and practices in Uganda impose impossible demands on entrepreneurs’ banks have little incentives to extend credits. The term of credit are unreasonable, requiring difficult collateral and guarantees to secure the loan.

Low purchasing power. Low incomes and high rate of unemployment limit the purchasing power of relatively small Ugandan population. This makes it hard for businesses in general and entrepreneurs in particular to acquire the necessary economies of scale.

Under developed infrastructure. Uganda is still played with very poor physical and social infrastructures in terms of roads, electricity, water, bridges, schools and hospitals. These hinder business development in many parts of the country, and acts as barriers to entrepreneurs.

Economic instability. Due to over reliance on donor assistance borrowing, the import bill that far outweighs the export earnings, and over reliance on imports, the Ugandan economy is very fragile and easily destabilized by any small shocks in the international environment.

CAUSES OF EARLY FAILURE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES

 Death of an entrepreneur
 Poor timing
 Poor management or poor managerial skills
 Heavy taxes that are charged by the government.
 Some people start business without a business plan or total lack of business planning
 Lack of sufficient capital
 Competition from existing companies especially with globalization
 Uncertainties like weather, wars which at times destroys the entrepreneurs’ businesses.
 Inadequate market
 Poor financial management, planning e.g some business don’t keep financial
records, over investment in fixed assets, poor inventory control, poor financial control
 Government policies many have negative impact on economy e.g increased taxes on second hand clothes
 Poor location of business
 Arrogance of entrepreneurs with their new products and don’t accept new bright ideas

Measures have been under taken to boost entrepreneurship in Uganda

 Carrying out adequate market research
 setting up credit societies, reducing interest rate and increasing loan repayment periods
 training Capable local advisers or making them available to handle issues like project viability
 providing Technical education and support
 Referring to successful role models constantly to solved social stigma
 using Market contacts and updates
 setting up local companies for research and come up with viable ventures
 ensuring that the nation is politically stable to encourage investment
 improving on the infrastructures to ease flexibility of flow of goods and services

Functions of an entrepreneur

An entrepreneur performs a series of functions necessary right from the genesis of an idea, up-to the establishment and effective operation of an enterprise. He carries out the whole set of activities of the business for its success. In summary an entrepreneur is responsible for
 Identifying his /her needs, analyses them in relation to what he /she would wish to be in future (goals in life)
 Scanning the environment to identify business opportunities that would help him/her to set goals in life.
 Conducting market survey to determine the feasibility and viability of the identified business opportunities in order to come up with the best one.
 Calculating the risks involved in doing the selected business to find out if they can easily managed or else to find an alternative that can be easily managed.
 Mobilizing the necessary resources needed to start and operate the selected business.
 Setting up an organisation or arrangement through which the business will be operated.
 Monitoring the operations and performance regularly to find out whether it is performing towards achieving the set goals and objectives or not.
 Carrying out innovation ie doing things in business or doing of things that are already being done but in a unique way, like launching a new product, creation of new markets, discovering new raw materials, new technology etc
 Carrying out decision making regarding the setting the business goals, acquisition of the necessary resources, marketing strategy decisions etc.

 Management, which involves the business operations, day to-day activities, direction of men, machinery, materials etc.
REWARDS / BENEFITS FOR BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR
 It leads to feeling of freedom and independence e.g. in terms of decision making.
 It leads to increased income. People in the business society earn income which in turn improves their standards of living.
 It encourages the development of self-confidence due to the high levels of independence that exists i.e. the owner is the leader of him/herself.
 It enables one to invest his/her resources and skills fully and productivity. This leads to self-employment.
 It allows one to become creative and innovative as he/she can come up with the new ideas and implement them for the success for his/her business.
 It leads to respect and recognition by the society.
 It ensures maximum job security.

CHALLENGES/COSTS/DISADVANTAGES OF BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR
 It makes an entrepreneur work for long and irregular hours with a lot of hard work so as to succeed. This leads to fatigue and exhaustion.
 It leads to uncertainty of the income i.e. business is associated with both profits and losses.
 It is associated with low life style as a result of working for long and irregular hours especially at the beginning.
 It is associated with a lot of risks. The entrepreneurs face all the risks of his business alone.
 It ensures personal responsibility for the business failures i.e. in case of failure of the business. The entrepreneur stands personally liable for such failure.