Trilogy On Entrepreneurship

Book One, Preparing for Entrepreneurship, opens the curtains on A Trilogy on Entrepreneurship. As the title proclaims, Book One endeavors to take the entrepreneur through the step-by-step process of Opportunity Seeking, Opportunity Screening and Opportunity Seizing. The first step allows the entrepreneur to unravel the myriad possibilities in finding a good business venture by following any one of several proven methodologies. This is a creative and divergent thinking process. The second step evaluates the possibilities using logical and convergent thinking based on criteria deemed important by the entrepreneur. The third step enables the entrepreneur to focus on the critical variables that could make or break a business differentiate its products from competitors. To ensure success, the entrepreneur must validate the opportunity through rigorous Market Research and its accompanying Marketing Toolkits. Customer Profiling and Location Analysis are the two additional endeavors that entrepreneur must embrace. The first one enables the entrepreneur to target a specific and appropriate market segment while the second one chooses the best place for doing business and selling goods and services. Finally, Preparing for Entrepreneurship, delves into the systematic process of New Product Development.

Book Three, Growing the Enterprise, nurtures and propagates the business venture. The first chapter documents the formation and evolution of three entrepreneurs and their enterprises. Lessons from the three case studies are abstracted into general guidelines for the gestation of enterprises into robust corporations. This is supported by a framework on the Enterprise Life Cycle and Life Forces originated by the author. The next four chapters of Book Three immerse the entrepreneur in the four functional areas of enterprise development: Marketing. Operations, Human Resource and Financial Management. Finally, Book Three tackles three more case studies on Asian family enterprises, spanning two or three generations, to highlight alternative enterprise growth strategies and expansion models. Again, the chapter abstracts invaluable lessons for the entrepreneur with a far-sighted vision and highly ambitious goals.