Product Description

What is this mysterious activity we call entrepreneurship? Does success require special traits and skills or just luck? Can large companies follow their example? What role does venture capital play?
In a field dominated by anecdote and folklore, this landmark study integrates more than ten years of intensive research and modern theories of business and economics. The result is a comprehensive framework for understanding entrepreneurship that provides new and penetrating insights. Examining hundreds of successful ventures, the author finds that the typical business has humble, improvised origins. Well-planned start-ups, backed by substantial venture capital, are exceptional. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Sam Walton initially pursue small, uncertain opportunities, without much capital, market research, or breakthrough technologies. Coping with ambiguity and surprises, face-to-face selling, and making do with second-tier employees is more important than foresight, deal-making, or recruiting top-notch teams.
Transforming improvised start-ups into noteworthy enterprises requires a radical shift, from "opportunistic adaptation" in niche markets to the pursuit of ambitious strategies. This requires traits such as ambition and risk-taking that are initially unimportant. Mature corporations have to pursue entrepreneurial activity in a much more disciplined way. Companies like Intel and Merck focus their resources on large-scale initiatives that scrappy entrepreneurs cannot undertake. Their success requires carefully chosen bets, meticulous planning, and the smooth coordination of many employees rather than the talents of a driven few.
This clearly and concisely written book is essential for anyone who wants to start a business, for the entrepreneur or executive who wants to grow a company, and for the scholar who wants to understand this crucial economic activity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #222321 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

From Library Journal
The entrepreneurial function has long been overlooked both by economists and business theorists, though courses in entrepreneurship are increasingly popular in business schools. Bhid? (Harvard Business Sch.) draws on both of those disciplines for theory, which he then extends through the analysis of data from 100 interviews with leaders of high-growth companies. This groundbreaking work shows the complementary roles held by innovative startup companies in areas with high uncertainty and little financial investment and by more established companies, which focus on large-scale projects with more certain payoffs. The characteristics of promising startups and their founders are carefully outlined and contrasted with those of more established firms, and Bhid? explains why so few firms make the transition from successful startup to ongoing large enterprise. Offering a wealth of avenues for future research as well as insights for potential entrepreneurs, this book is sure to be cited for years to come.
-A.J. Sobczak, Covina, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Bhidecautions the reader that this is not a how-to book on the popular subject of entrepreneurship; rather, it looks at entrepreneurs mainly from an economic point of view. His work represents systematic research about starting and growing a new business, and Bhidecontends this approach is unique in the field. The book examines the nature of the opportunities that entrepreneurs pursue, problems and tasks they face, traits and skills they require, and the social and economic contributions they make; and then compares those realities with features of large, established companies. Entrepreneurs pursue opportunities with different levels of uncertainty, investment requirements, and likely profit. They survive and prosper because of an ongoing ability to adapt to opportunities and problems, are subjected to many detours, and stumble often along the way. This theory book will find a welcome reception in business schools that are focusing on courses in entrepreneurship and may also appeal to corporate executives who are trying to instill an entrepreneurial spirit in their employees. Mary Whaley

Tony Jackson, Financial Times, December 3, 1999
The strenght of [Bhide's] book is that it hands us large quantities of empirical and awkward fact. Any future theorizing on about the role and nature of the entrepreneur must take account of it.

Customer Reviews

The academic bible on entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship had long been neglected by academics and Bhide changed that with this classic book forever. While a bit outdated and of limited practical value, any serious entrepreneur will find loads of basics / fundamentals in the world of entrepreneurship.

Bhide's concept of 'Investment, Uncertainty & Profit' is in my opinion a principle of entrepreneurship worth the price of the book. The concept has been used a lot and probably the best re-use / improvement was written by Keith McFarland in 'The Breakthrough Company', chapter Upping the Ante.

This is a major book that changed the academic and professional work on how we think about entrepreneurship. Thus, many books have been using Bhide's finding extensively including 'Extradordinary Entrepreneurship', which is to me the finest and very best book for any hands-on entrepreneur.

Insightful!
The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses When Jann Wenner launched Rolling Stone magazine, he did no market research and considered himself merely an "amateur journalist." When Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft, they had no business plan, only a brainstorm that they should write a program in the BASIC computer language. Such seat-of-the pants planning is typical among entrepreneurs, says author Amar Bhide. Successful entrepreneurs don't need unique ideas and long resumes, Bhide writes. Rather, they must be able to adapt quickly to changing business conditions, and they must enter industries in a state of upheaval, where established players are lacking. Bhide offers a revealing look at the characteristics that make for successful start-ups. In spite of his often-dense prose, Bhide gives plenty of real-world examples to illustrate his concepts. We [...] recommend this book to entrepreneurs and to those thinking of starting their own companies.

Rigor for the Entrepreneurs and Concepts for Intellectuals
This book provides both valuable practical insights for someone considering a new business and concise conceptual frameworks for those with an academic bent on the subject. Bhide makes excellent use of data to support his assertions, and this gives the book its academic flavor. But he also brings the subject alive with real world evidence and anecdotes. For example, he points to data that shows many entrepreneurs lack credentials one might expect to begin a successful business. He then explains a rational basis for the low credential (not to be confused with low skill) level of many entrepreneurs: that their opportunity cost is low because they "don't have the credentials and experience that could secure them highly paid employment." Hence they have less to lose. "[I]ndividuals who face high opportunity costs...usually do not start small, boot-strapped ventures." Entrepreneurs often even avoid the emotional costs of quitting satisfactory jobs. He then provides the entertaining quote of John Mineck who started Practice Management Systems in 1982 while still employed by the Personal Care Division of Gillete, Inc.: "You could do something on the side very easily; they seemed to discourage hard work."

But the book is by no means all humorous anecdote. It has heavy data, with charts and graphs that are not simply conceptual in nature, but quite empirical. Overall an excellent text for both the intellectually curious and the entrepreneurially inspired.