Jaleesa Simpson, 15 November, 2022
“As leaders you need to create opportunities for entrepreneurs to flourish.” – Professor Rowena Barrett, QUT
“Entrepreneurship is needed now more than ever.” – Bill Aulet, MIT
Continuing series three of The Future Enterprise, a global webinar series in collaboration with MIT Sloan School of Management and QUT Business School, our experts explored The Entrepreneurial Enterprise.
Moderated by MIT Sloan’s Stu Krusell, Professor Rowena Barrett from QUT and Bill Aulet from MIT discussed the mindset required to embrace entrepreneurship.
What is an entrepreneurial mindset?
There is little consensus about what an entrepreneurial mindset is, with many research papers attempting to clearly articulate this.
Professor Rowena Barrett shared key definitions from others’ research.
Starting with Howard Stevenson’s definition of entrepreneurship, she outlined that entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources currently controlled.
“Implicit in this definition is the concept of mindset,” Professor Barrett said.
Mindset is also prevalent in Carol Dweck’s research, which outlines how growth mindsets embrace failure and learning opportunities, strongly aligning with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Those with an entrepreneurial mindset are also lifelong knowledge seekers.
“They tend to have compelling goals, be self-directed, action-oriented, and have an optimistic interpretation of adverse events,” Professor Barrett said.
“We want to empower those with entrepreneurial mindsets to take ownership of their life.”
Some of the common entrepreneurial elements across literature include value creation, acting on opportunities, resilience, and decision-making with limited information.
Aulet echoed this need for a mindset shift to become truly entrepreneurial.
“When change happens, entrepreneurs have an anti-fragile mindset and thrive in this environment,” he said.
“Entrepreneurship is a mindset that will be needed universally for the challenges we face.”
Aren't you born with an entrepreneurial mindset?
This is a common myth that both speakers debunked.
Aulet stated that he is confident that everyone can be an entrepreneur.
“Everyone is born an entrepreneur,” he said.
“The system can take it out of us, but it can also teach us to be a better entrepreneur.”
Working at QUT over the last six years, Professor Barrett explained that building an entrepreneurial mindset is critical for creating an entrepreneurial enterprise.
Professor Barrett outlined that the best time to build entrepreneurship is at university, when students are surrounded by opportunity and can be empowered to bring their ideas to life.
“Entrepreneurs are often seen as those who are born brilliant, this is wrong,” she said.
“Entrepreneurship can be taught, but it’s also important to build an environment where an entrepreneurial mindset can be developed.”
What's the difference between entrepreneurs and managers?
As Professor Barrett outlined, a key distinction of entrepreneurs is they are curious, often asking ‘what if’ or ‘why’ about various situations.
Aulet continued, clarifying that the need for entrepreneurship will continue to grow.
“The very nature of entrepreneurship is fundamentally different than what we’re taught in management,” he said.
“Management focuses on optimising systems and de-risking existing organisations.
“These techniques are to get predictable results and create a more fragile system.
He continued that management is valuable but relies on predictable inputs, which is unlikely to continue in the future enterprise.
“Entrepreneurship is effective in dealing with change,” Aulet said.
“Entrepreneurs see opportunities around the corner, deal with ambiguity and embrace change.”
We need managers who have an entrepreneurial skillset and mindset.
Fostering an entrepreneurial mindset
So how do you develop an entrepreneurial mindset, or encourage those in your organisation to thrive entrepreneurially?
Professor Barrett encouraged companies to bring in external speakers or prompt people to talk with those outside of their sphere, finding time and space for meaningful effort.
“Encourage people to get out of their world, be inspired by others and be curious about what others do,” she said.
“We need to create an environment where an entrepreneurial mindset can flourish.”
Aulet stressed that we need entrepreneurs throughout society.
“We have to systematically look at companies and understand there are different types of innovation and different types of entrepreneurs,” he said.
“If we think it’s one-flavour-fits-all innovation, that’s not going to work.
“We don’t want people to always fail fast. Sometimes we want incremental innovation.”
Want to dive deeper into entrepreneurship? Watch The Entrepreneurial Enterprise here.
Interested in how you can continue building a future enterprise? Join our final webinar in this series, The Sustainable Enterprise, on Wednesday 30 November 8am AEST/Tuesday 29 November 6pm EST. Find out more and register here.
Author
Jaleesa is the Marketing Content Coordinator for the Business and Law Faculty. She also is an alumni of QUT, completing a Master of Business (Integrated Marketing Communication), and a sessional academic in the Business School.