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| An Entrepreneurial Mindset in Your Discipline or Field |
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| Within your industry of interest or area of study, what are the challenges that create frustration? |
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| How can these be turned into opportunities? |
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| Earlier in this chapter, we discussed Evernote, a company that focuses on expanding our memories by storing and organizing information. |
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| Let’s look at some other examples of entrepreneurial endeavors in specific industries to help you plan your own venture in your own industry. |
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| In the agriculture industry, insects, weeds, weather conditions, and the challenges of harvesting crops are all ripe for entrepreneurial activities. |
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| The move toward organic produce has also affected this industry. |
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| From an entrepreneurial perspective, what products could you invent to support both organic farming and the problems of insects that damage or destroy crops? |
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| The old method was to use chemical sprays to kill the insects, but today, the growing demand for organic foods and increased awareness of the impact of chemical sprays on our environment are changing this scenario. |
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| One new idea to solve this problem combines a vacuum cleaner with an agriculture product. |
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| LINK TO LEARNING |
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| Watch this video on the creation of a crop vacuum that sucks up insects and bugs to learn more. |
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| A bug vacuum is an example of how using divergent thinking contributed to the solution of removing bugs from crops without using chemicals. |
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| In the group activity of creating divergent ideas, this idea may not have been received well. |
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| However, in the incubation stage, the idea must have come forward as a viable solution. |
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| Entrepreneurs frequently face the challenge of pressure to conform to established habits and patterns within industries. |
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| Often, the entrepreneurial mindset includes futuristic ideas that shake up the normal, conventional processes that are grounded in experience over time. |
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| Tried-and-tested processes and products that have a proven history of success can be a formidable obstacle to new ideas. |
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| A new idea may even appear as impossible or outlandish, perhaps even an embarrassment to the steady and predictable practices established within an industry. |
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| This can create a dilemma: Do we try something new and unproven that lacks documented research? |
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| Sometimes, we must disregard our past successes and research to be open to new possibilities for success and failure. |
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| An entrepreneurial mindset includes creativity, problem-solving skills, and a propensity to innovation.23 |
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| Open-mindedness is one characteristic that supports creativity, problem solving, and innovation. |
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| Taking the time to explore new ideas, dream, reflect, and view situations from a new perspective contribute to the entrepreneurial mindset. |
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| Some innovations can lead to disruptions within the industry, or even create a new industry. |
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| The innovator’s dilemma was presented by Clayton Christensen to explain disruptive technology, which are technologies that, once introduced, displace established patterns, processes, and systems previously accepted as normal or accepted. |
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| One example of a disruptive technology is Airbnb, a company that threatens the established hotel industry by connecting personal resources to people who desire those resources. |
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| If you have a spare bedroom that you aren’t using, why not sell that space to someone who wants and needs the space? |
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| Airbnb has become a significant threat to the established hotel industry’s business model of building large hotels and renting rooms within those hotels to their customers. |
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| Airbnb has reconfigured that model, and since its 2008 launch, 150 million travelers have taken advantage of 3 million Airbnb listings in more than 191 countries. |
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| Airbnb has raised more than $3 billion (plus a $1 billion credit line) and is considering selling stocks to support significant expansion. |
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| The value of Airbnb is approximately $30 billion. |
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| Compare this market value to Hilton’s market capitalization of $19 billion and Marriott’s of $35 billion. |
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| If you were the CEO of Hilton or Marriott, would you be worried? |
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| The hotel industry recognized Airbnb as a threat, and in 2016, began a campaign to create legislation to rein in Airbnb’s growth and popularity. |
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| From the hotel industry’s perspective, Airbnb is not playing by the same rules. |
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| This is the definition of disruptive technology, the focus on creating a new idea or process that negates or challenges established process or products.24 |
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| Sometimes disruptive technologies result from not listening to customers. |
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| Customers don’t always know what they want. |
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| Customer groups might need to be redefined by the entrepreneurial team on the basis of better models, knowing when to invest in developing lower-performance products that promise lower margins while still satisfying the need, and knowing when to pursue small markets at the expense of larger or established markets. |
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| Basically, disruptive technologies occur through identifying new and valuable processes and products. |
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| The founders of Airbnb recognized that some people have unused resources, bedrooms, that other people need. |
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| We can apply this idea to other unused resources such as vehicles and motor homes. |
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| We see this model reproduced in short-term car rental and bike-sharing programs. |
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| Emma Fleck. “Needed: Entrepreneurial Mindset.” Central Penn Business Journal, 34(12), 10. http://pageturnpro2.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/Publications/201803/15/83956/PDF/131668002208352000_CPBJ033018WEB.pdf |
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| Katie Benner. “Inside the Hotel Industry’s Plan to Combat Airbnb.” New York Times. April 16, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/technology/inside-the-hotel-industrys-plan-to-combat-airbnb.html |