Entrepreneurship is the process of starting a business, a startup company or other organization. The entrepreneur develops a business plan, acquires the human and other required resources, and is fully responsible for its success or failure. Entrepreneurship operates within an ecosystem as per the domain of his business. Entrepreneurs are leaders willing to take risk and exercise initiative, taking advantage of market opportunities by planning, organizing, and employing resources, often by innovating new or improving existing products. Entrepreneurial activities differ substantially depending on the type of organization and creativity involved. Entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo, part-time projects to large-scale undertakings that create many jobs.
While Competition brings with it challenges, risks and failures, entrepreneurs are not deterred by failures. In fact it is very important to experience some failure, as it broadens your comfort zone and you realize that failure is not all that bad. You become a lot bolder in terms of taking risks. An entrepreneur will continuously enhance his skills in all areas, will keep looking for new opportunities to provide better value to his customers and will do more than what is expected, providing help out of the way. He will continuously expand his network by providing additional help, not only through himself, but through his network as well. His relationships with the manufacturers, suppliers and customers will be flexible with a view to provide convenience, and a higher value for their money to them. As against a normal businessman who uses opportunities, entrepreneurs not only use existing opportunities but create opportunities, through expanding in value chain, and/or generating new ideas, to get better value.
Factors that may predict entrepreneurial success include the following:
Market
Industry
Team
Company
What makes an entrepreneur?
The ability to lead a business, take responsibility and the willingness to take risks in order to gain the rewards makes an entrepreneur. Telecommunication is one field that has seen few entrepreneurs who were up for the challenge. The reasons could be linked to the highly technical nature of the field and the requirement of extensive domain knowledge.
During the mid-1990’s there was a dramatic shift in the winds all over the world, especially in the business space. The Indian government recognized the crucial role of telecommunication infrastructure and facilities. It saw a great opportunity to stabilize the economy with the aid of the telecom sector. There was also a spurt in entrepreneurial opportunities that arose out of the shift in technological and regulatory events. This changed the way products and services were offered to customers.
A more detailed analysis pertaining to the Telecom sector can be found here-
http://iitcoe.in/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=175&Itemid=20
Funding opportunities for entrepreneurial ventures
There are enough venture capitalists who provide funding to entrepreneurs to develop new technology, create innovative applications of old technology, bridge the gap between technology and market place, and even to purchase facilities as long as they are not merely transfer of ownerships. To get funding you don’t need to be an experienced technology entrepreneur, but you should at least have management team with a background in your chosen field. The team should also have a track record of successful business management, although it need not be an entrepreneurial venture. The firms exploiting technological and regulatory changes have to ensure that after pursuing their technological visions in relative obscurity, they have to emerge with tangible advances. These should be able to attract the attention of the big players: either carriers and service providers looking to deploy or vendors or venture capitalists willing to invest. Recognizing the role of telecom sector in the growth of the economy, several countries have increased the focus on telecom research at the national level through public funding. More details can be found over here on how the funding ecosystem thrives in India -
http://www.venturecenter.co.in/funding/
The Government has also taken key steps to establish various Entrepreneurship development centres in India which are: -
http://www.dcmsme.gov.in/schemes/list_edi.htm
TCOE India through PPP Model is committed to promote Telecom Entrepreneurship and innovation in the country. It provides a well-balanced platform to budding Entrepreneurs to leverage their ideas and skills into mature market ready prototypes of technologies. They are guided by its panel of Experts with Industry experience and connectivity, forged with academic excellence and knowledge.
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