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Action Trumps Everything

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InnovationAcademy_UCD

The document discusses entrepreneurial thinking and behavior. It contrasts entrepreneurial thinking, which is focused on action, experimentation, and embracing failure, with managerial thinking which emphasizes extensive planning, known outcomes, and avoiding failure. Entrepreneurial thinking follows an iterative process of starting small with available resources and using what is learned to build upon opportunities in an uncertain environment. The conclusion advocates treating uncertainties like mysteries to be solved through action rather than puzzles with known solutions.

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ACTION ? TRUMPS EVERYTHING Heidi M. Neck, PhD Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies hneck@babson.edu / @ProfNeck
ARE ENTREPRENEURS BORN?
? 2012 YSF Magazine: Young, Fabulous and Self-employed
Action Trumps Everything
Action Trumps Everything
Action Trumps Everything
Action Trumps Everything
Action Trumps Everything
Action Trumps Everything
Action Trumps Everything
6%
Now more than ever, the world needs entrepreneurs of all kinds who think and act entrepreneurially¡ª who can transform opportunity into reality, and create social and economic value for themselves and for others.
Behavior Results & Actions Behavior of entrepreneurs often looks idiosyncratic and contradictory Behavior Thinking Results & Actions There is strong consistency in how serial entrepreneurs think. And it largely explains their unconventional behavior.
Puzzle Challenge
Story vs. Maze Working through a maze Creating a story Managerial Thinking Entrepreneurial Thinking
? The end goal is quickly established & definable. ? Resource needs known ? Typically spend some time planning ? Analyzing different paths ? Execute the plan ? Goal achieved ? Move on to next maze
How was the story created?
? Story emerged ? Didn¡¯t really know how to start ? Only choice was to act ? Every person added something new and unplanned ? Built the story together ? Structure emerged over time ? Surprises? Direction changes? ? Action oriented
Story vs. Maze Working through a maze Creating a story Managerial Thinking Entrepreneurial Thinking
PREDICTION/ CREATION/ MANAGERIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL Big planning Small actions Wait until you get what you need Starting with what you have Expected Return Affordable loss Linear Iterative Optimization Experimentation Avoid failure at all costs Embrace & leverage failure Competitive Collaborative Knowable Unknowable To the extent we can predict the future, To the extent we can create the future, we can control it. we don¡¯t need to predict it
Implications for Ireland?
Puzzles may be more satisfying, but the world increasingly offers us mysteries. Treating them as puzzles is like trying to solve the unsolvable ¨C an impossible challenge. But approaching them as mysteries may make us more comfortable with the uncertainties of our age. Greg Treverton Director of the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security
The Method of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action ? Intriguing area, attractive partners Sufficient to get started Clear, sharply ? Start with defined, robust plan means at hand ? ¡°Pay¡± only what Build on you can afford to lose (Acceptable Loss) ACT What you learn ? Enroll others to join your journey ACT. LEARN. BUILD. Source: Schlesinger et al., (2012) Just Start. HBS Press.
When do you stop? Continue until: ? You don¡¯t want it, and/or ? You exceed your Acceptable Loss, and/or ? You prove to yourself it cannot be done. Source: Saras Sarasvathy

More Related Content

Action Trumps Everything

  • 1. ACTION ? TRUMPS EVERYTHING Heidi M. Neck, PhD Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies hneck@babson.edu / @ProfNeck
  • 3. ? 2012 YSF Magazine: Young, Fabulous and Self-employed
  • 11. 6%
  • 12. Now more than ever, the world needs entrepreneurs of all kinds who think and act entrepreneurially¡ª who can transform opportunity into reality, and create social and economic value for themselves and for others.
  • 13. Behavior Results & Actions Behavior of entrepreneurs often looks idiosyncratic and contradictory Behavior Thinking Results & Actions There is strong consistency in how serial entrepreneurs think. And it largely explains their unconventional behavior.
  • 15. Story vs. Maze Working through a maze Creating a story Managerial Thinking Entrepreneurial Thinking
  • 16. ? The end goal is quickly established & definable. ? Resource needs known ? Typically spend some time planning ? Analyzing different paths ? Execute the plan ? Goal achieved ? Move on to next maze
  • 17. How was the story created?
  • 18. ? Story emerged ? Didn¡¯t really know how to start ? Only choice was to act ? Every person added something new and unplanned ? Built the story together ? Structure emerged over time ? Surprises? Direction changes? ? Action oriented
  • 19. Story vs. Maze Working through a maze Creating a story Managerial Thinking Entrepreneurial Thinking
  • 20. PREDICTION/ CREATION/ MANAGERIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL Big planning Small actions Wait until you get what you need Starting with what you have Expected Return Affordable loss Linear Iterative Optimization Experimentation Avoid failure at all costs Embrace & leverage failure Competitive Collaborative Knowable Unknowable To the extent we can predict the future, To the extent we can create the future, we can control it. we don¡¯t need to predict it
  • 22. Puzzles may be more satisfying, but the world increasingly offers us mysteries. Treating them as puzzles is like trying to solve the unsolvable ¨C an impossible challenge. But approaching them as mysteries may make us more comfortable with the uncertainties of our age. Greg Treverton Director of the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security
  • 23. The Method of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action ? Intriguing area, attractive partners Sufficient to get started Clear, sharply ? Start with defined, robust plan means at hand ? ¡°Pay¡± only what Build on you can afford to lose (Acceptable Loss) ACT What you learn ? Enroll others to join your journey ACT. LEARN. BUILD. Source: Schlesinger et al., (2012) Just Start. HBS Press.
  • 24. When do you stop? Continue until: ? You don¡¯t want it, and/or ? You exceed your Acceptable Loss, and/or ? You prove to yourself it cannot be done. Source: Saras Sarasvathy

Editor's Notes

  1. What¡¯s the purpose? What is the output of entrepreneurship education? It¡¯s my opinion that we¡¯ve been teaching entrepreneurship based on a perpetuated myth of what entrepreneurship is. Because we tend to be the quiet ones
  2. Almost 200,000
  3. This will be a build slide