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Entrepreneurialism & E Development
Entrepreneurialism vs Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Development (ED)

Innovating and Creating Value for Society

Entrepreneurs, or those with entrepreneurial skills, are highly valued for their ability to create wealth for societies and to grow economies. If you think you are likely to be an entrepreneur, find out how you can develop yourself and acquire core skills of an entrepreneur while at NTU.

High EPLs, high EPs, high ELs and high Es score highly for this career type. High Es may have the motivation for only one set of broad skills. They may also lack the motivation to develop the deep expertise in a profession. To be more T-shaped, high Ps, high Ls, high PLs or low EPLs could consider learning more about entrepreneurialism and develop competencies and skills associated with entrepreneurialism.

What is Entrepreneurialism? What is Entrepreneurship?
In the EPL career framework, “entrepreneurialism” is about the desire to create products and services of value to fulfill the needs of others or to look for ways to improve things. It includes the idea of “entrepreneurship”. Entrepreneurs are those who are interested in entrepreneurship as a career path. Entrepreneurs are known for creating wealth, starting or owning their own businesses and being their own bosses. But you can be entrepreneurial without being an entrepreneur. Being entrepreneurial means you bring value to an organisation by introducing new ideas, solving problems with the best or most cost-effective methods or re-inventing or improving business processes and products to stay in competition.

How Does Entrepreneurialism Differ From Leadership?
While entrepreneurialism is about creating value to fulfil the needs of others, it is different from leadership which is a process of influencing others to accomplish goals. Entrepreneurs also need leadership competencies (see more under “Leadership Development”) to succeed.

What Does It Take To Be Entrepreneurial?
Awareness of your personality traits is an advantage. Personality traits associated with entrepreneurial success or entrepreneurial performance are:

Conscientiousness (related to achievement motivation, important for thinking before acting, business execution – planning, organizing and prioritizing tasks)
Openness to experience (important for envisioning, business creation - creativity & innovation - and business success)
Extraversion

✔ is about taking an energetic approach to things and includes being sociable - important for building business networks

✔ is also related to proactive personality and assertiveness – important for taking initiative to explore and exploit opportunities and being persistent in achieving one’s goals

✔ from a cognitive perspective, it is about being able to analyze business information timely, solving problems and taking actions)

Emotional Stability (entrepreneurs are emotionally stable and positive in the face setbacks or business failures and manage stress well)

Personality traits (based on the Big-5 model) associated with entrepreneurial motivation or entrepreneurial intentions are:

Conscientiousness
Openness to Experience
Emotional Stability.

Take a personality test from the NTU Career Attachment Office (CAO), to understand your personality strengths. Gauge for yourself and find out if you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Visit the following websites for free Big-5 personality tests conducted by researchers and to receive a free feedback:

http://www.personalityassessor.com/ipip300/
https://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/
http://www.personalitytest.org.uk/
https://www.123test.com/personality-test/

Working with Ideas
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurialism involve working with ideas. You can be entrepreneurial by contributing ideas to create and innovate in your organisation. Ideas can be technology-driven (hence, you can be a technopreneur) or driven by social needs (hence, social entrepreneurs or sociopreneurs). Sociopreneurs are a new breed of 21^st Century workers who use business approaches and techniques to solve social problems or drive social changes. You can become one of them if you are more interested to do good for the society than earning profits from the business.

Check out the NTC website (www.ntc.ntu.edu.sg/).

Do entrepreneurs need to be experts in any area?
Entrepreneurs need not be experts in any area but do need to work with deep expertise (professionals) especially if the ideas come from specialised professions (e.g., medicine and engineering).

Can professionals become entrepreneurs?
Professionals can also make a business out of their professions either by themselves or by collaborating with other professionals. They are called “propreneurs” who are typically less interested in the running of the business but love what they do in their profession. They are another new breed of 21^st Century workers.

What if you do not have the personality traits but you still want to be an entrepreneur? You can develop yourself to be more entrepreneurial at work within your organisation (i.e., an intrapreneur).

Entrepreneurial Development Opportunities in NTU
NTC Programmes. You can acquire conceptual knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship (and technopreneurship) while in NTU. Attend relevant courses, programs, talks etc. to increase awareness and exposure to entrepreneurship or entrepreneurialism. Check out the programs offered by NTC.

NTC’s entrepreneurial development programmes aim to “transform people with dreams into successful entrepreneurs”. Check out NTC website for the following programmes:

‑ Undergraduate Programs (Introduction to Entrepreneurship, Minor in Entrepreneurship, Bioentrepreneurship & E-Startups and Social Media Strategies)

‑ Graduate Programmes (Master of Science in Technopreneurship & Innovation (Full-Time/Part-Time which are also offered in Chinese).

‑ Entrepreneurial Development Programmes (for entrepreneurs):

✔ Kauffman FastTrac Programmes

✔ Entrepreneurial Skillsets Training for Students

- Entrepreneurial Development Programmes (for intrapreneurs):

✔ Enterprising Mindset Building for Executives

✔ Innovation Immersion Programme (IIP)

- Ideas Inc. Accelerator programme where you can submit a proposal and if selected, attend the workshops and demonstrations and participate in activities to develop your entrepreneurial skills.

NTUitive Programmes
Find out more about the business incubation support and mentoring programs conducted by NTUitive, the innovation and enterprise company of Nanyang Technological University. For more details, visit the NTUitive website. Learn about the programs that support your entrepreneurial development:

‑ Intellectual Property & Disclosures

‑ Why Start-up

‑ Start-up career

‑ Incubation support

‑ Funding schemes

‑ Hackathons & workshops

‑ Overseas Entrepreneurship Program (see below)

✔ Overseas Entrepreneurship Program (OEP). With access to four global entrepreneurial hotspots, NTUitive’s Overseas Entrepreneurship Program is not your usual internship. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for NTU undergraduates to gain valuable skills outside the classroom through start-up internship, international immersion and entrepreneurship experience. Students can experience the know-how, establish important contacts and learn skill-sets needed to kick-start their own entrepreneurial journey. Visit the NTUitive website for more details.

✔ MakanNight! organised by NTUitive, is a monthly networking event organised for members of the NTU and Singapore start-up ecosystem. Interact with successful entrepreneurs and listen to them share their past experiences. Find out what other like-minded students are curious about. Learn about the challenges that start-ups face and how to overcome them.

Development of Cognitive Skills for Entrepreneurialism:
While attending the NTU entrepreneurship programmes, focus on developing the following cognitive skills

‑ Entrepreneurial Alertness or Opportunity Recognition. This entrepreneurial skill is about identifying a profit-making opportunity based on potential product or service that is not available in the market. This skill is gained through entrepreneurial experiences. Some ways in which you can enhance your entrepreneurial alertness or opportunity recognition are:

✔ Immersing yourself in entrepreneurial ventures

✔ Learning through the experiences of successful entrepreneurs

✔ Reflecting on your experiences.

‑ Exploring & Exploiting Opportunities. You could also practice the behaviours or cognitive skills of successful entrepreneurs. One way is to learn how to explore and exploit opportunities after you recognise the opportunity. You can practice this skill if you:

✔ believe that others (customers) will value your new product/idea

✔ believe you have the enabling technologies for full-scale operations

✔ believe you have a capable team who can help you operationalise the idea

✔ believe you have strong stakeholder support for the full-scale operations.

Check out relevant programs and courses:
http://www.adm.ntu.edu.sg/Programmes/Undergraduate/UndergraduateProgrammes/Undergraduate-Degree/Pages/DD9009.aspx
http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/cce2/faculty_courses/coursedetail.asp?id=%7B08BD0792-4987-E011-ACA2-001560A3FDED%7D

Tips for Developing Cognitive Skills

‑ Brainstorm ideas to improve current products and services in NTU. Consider ideas that you think customers will buy or support.

‑ Once you have the idea, take actions to improve the current products and services. Taking actions and persisting in getting things done are hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs.

‑ Learn how commercialization is done and test your ideas with others. Consider the enabling technologies for full-scale operations, the resources are needed and how to secure funds etc.

‑ Discuss the opportunities with experienced entrepreneurs (mentors) and learn from them. Consider your stakeholders and whether they will support your full-scale operations.

‑ Earn the business processes and techniques from experienced entrepreneurs (your mentors). Consider the expertise / management capabilities and the type of management team you will need.

‑ Attend courses that enhance your opportunity recognition as well as your creativity and innovation:

✔ Design Thinking (see NTU website for details)

✔ Creative Thinking (see NTU Professional Development Courses)

✔ Tough Problem Solving Through Systems Thinking (see NTU Professional Development Courses)

✔ Critical thinking (see NTU Professional Development Courses)

Enabling or Supporting Skills for Entrepreneurialism
These are leadership or influence skills. Attend workshops or programs that can help you develop the following skills that support your entrepreneurialism:

‑ Envisioning and selling your vision to others

‑ Presentation or Communication skills

‑ Networking skills

‑ Cross-cultural awareness and cultural competence

Starting Your Entrepreneurial Learning in NTU
Make use of your internship assignments to gain entrepreneurial experiences.

‑ Ask questions and learn.

‑ Do not be afraid to make mistakes. When you do, learn from them. Develop a positive frame of mind.

‑ While in your internship program, create a portfolio of your E development including the skills that you have acquired, and record your reflections and learning. A simple format for the portfolio can include the following sub-headings:

✔ Short description of my internship roles/responsibilities

✔ List of my entrepreneurial skills

✔ My confidence on the above skills before and after my internship

✔ Description of relevant internship experiences/episodes where skills were learnt

✔ My reflections & learning.

Your Continual Learning as an Entrepreneur
To remain entrepreneurial and be a successful entrepreneur, it is imperative to continue your learning. Some ways in which you can continually develop yourself as an entrepreneur include:

‑ Reading books, articles, blogs, podcasts, TED talks etc. on:

✔ Stories of successful entrepreneurs

✔ Creativity and innovation in business

✔ Boundary spanning in entrepreneurship

✔ Latest ideas in business and technology.

‑ Networking with other entrepreneurs and attend relevant conferences.

‑ Learning organizational leadership skills

‑ Joining a mentoring program that helps young entrepreneurs learn.

References
Baron, R. A. (2004, August). Opportunity Recognition: A Cognitive Perspective. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2004, No. 1, pp. A1-A6). Academy of Management.
Brandstätter, H. (2011). Personality aspects of entrepreneurship: A look at five meta-analyses. Personality and individual differences, 51(3), 222-230.
Chan, K. Y., Uy, M. A., Chernyshenko, O. S., Ho, M. H. R., & Sam, Y. L. (2015). Personality and entrepreneurial, professional and leadership motivations. Personality and Individual Differences, 77, 161-166.
Choi, Y. R., & Shepherd, D. A. (2004). Entrepreneurs’ decisions to exploit opportunities. Journal of Management, 30(3), 377-395.
Ciavarella, M. A., Buchholtz, A. K., Riordan, C. M., Gatewood, R. D., & Stokes, G. S. (2004). The Big Five and venture survival: Is there a linkage? Journal of Business Venturing, 19(4), 465-483.
Giones, F., Zhou, Z., Miralles, F., & Katzy, B. R. (2013). From ideas to opportunities: Exploring the construction of technology-based entrepreneurial opportunities. Technology Innovation Management Review, June.
Ofstein, L. F. & Shrader, R. (2013). Boundary Spanning In The Entrepreneurial Firm: Effects On Innovation And Firm Performance (Interactive Paper). Frontiers Of Entrepreneurship Research, 33, (11)
Uy, M. A., Chan, K. Y., Sam, Y. L., Ho, M. H. R., & Chernyshenko, O. S. (2015). Proactivity, adaptability and boundaryless career attitudes: The mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 86, 115-123.
Zhao, H., & Seibert, S. E. (2006). The big five personality dimensions and entrepreneurial status: a meta-analytical review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2), 259.