Are you an entrepreneur? Are you an innovator? Entrepreneurs/tip and management "are only two different, dimensions of the same task" according to Peter Drucker. To be a successful entrepreneur, learn how to manage; to be a successful manager, learn how to innovate.
Winning by ideas
In the knowledge economy, ideas win. Everybody has ideas all the time, but few exploit them to the full. The key is to build continuous innovation into your work. The greater emphasis you place on generating ideas, Drucker argues, the more they will flow. Drucker urges you to encourage entrepreneurial thinking inside your unit or organization to achieve success outside, and more important, you need to be purposefully searching the outside world for entrepreneurial opportunities. Assess your own management of opportunities using the questions and analysis below. Are you:
* Constantly looking outside the business, to the customers and the marketplace?
* Gathering all the market information you can from customers and suppliers? Creatively using the information that comes back from the outside world?
* Watching out for changes that will signal opportunities (as they always do)?
* Organizing the business to take opportunities when they occur?
Analysis
If you answered "Yes" to three or more questions, you are performing well, but you must strive to improve in the weak areas you have identified. If you answered "No" to more than three questions you need to take action now - you are wasting vital opportunities.
Encouraging innovation
If these questions do not seem relevant to you in your current role, remember that, in time, your ability to conceive, sponsor, and execute entrepreneurial initiatives will be decisive. Start practising now. In today's competitive world, a reputation for enterprising ideas can only benefit your career.
