The Entrepreneurial Leadership

Abstract
Entrepreneurship is defined as “the willingness to take risks”. (Kurtz, 2010 p.182). The people who make entrepreneurship happen are those who “seek a profitable opportunity and take the necessary risks to set up and operate a business” who are known as entrepreneurs. (Kurtz, 2010 p.182). In this assignment, we will analyze the different leadership styles of the well know entrepreneurs, Thomas Edison who was an American scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, and Anita Roddick who is the founder of The Body Shop and encourages social responsibility in a number of facets. In addition, we are going to discuss the major business principles these entrepreneurs used to achieve their goals.
Presently, entrepreneurship has become increasing encouraged because of the chance of job security and financially stability; enhance their quality of life, Entrepreneurship starts with a vision to change society, a culture, the world, or just a single person’s life, with a product or service and Anita Roddick had a vision to make a profitable business.
Entrepreneurism is a curious thing. When one man has a dream, he goes out and converts that dream into a reality. For centuries, this has been the American way. There are several questions an entrepreneur has to ask himself, though; first, will I be making profit? No one wants to go into business to waste his time or money. Second, an entrepreneur must ask himself if he is being socially responsible. A business, whether large or small, have repercussions in society, and many don’t stop to consider these possible ramifications. Every entrepreneur possesses certain traits, such as ambition. Why? Because every new business venture is a calculated risk. For the potential gains an entrepreneur may incur, there are also going to be equal potential risks and losses. There are too many to list here in this brief summary, but a few entrepreneurs who considered these things are Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, inventors of Google. Anita Roddick, creator of The Body Shop, the second largest cosmetic company on the planet, changed the way business was done on the factory-front. In an article by her, “The Body Shop: Freeing the Corporate Spirit” she says about her business, “what we take seriously is our product development and there we have one rule of thumb - go in the opposite direction to the cosmetic industry” (Roddick, 1991, p.16). Very ethically, she takes serious the materials used in her products and the uses of the profits made from the sale of them. Roddick places emphasis on anthropology, understanding dwindling cultures, and applying intercultural practices to her business. Roddick also has her own positive agenda in the field of marketing. “Finally we have turned marketing on its head by linking products to social causes and making them emissaries for political messages” (Roddick, 1991, p.17). While profitable, Roddick was concerned with input from the consumer, and was constantly trying to put out products with a lesser degree of negative environmental impact, beginning as early as the late 1980s and early 1990s before the Global Warming crisis had really been put on the front page. Another notable effort on Roddick’s behalf is the lack of testing, either beta or finished products, on animals. Just because she was environmentally and socially conscious certainly doesn’t mean that Anita Roddick was an effective businesswoman. …”Anita Roddick [was] a widely acknowledged prototype of a responsible leader (Pless, 2007, p.1). In her research, Pless posits that leadership skills are learned as early as childhood and is unconscious (p.439). Pless goes on to list various characteristics of effective and ethical leaders, and Anita Roddick is a perfect fit. Perhaps Roddick and Pless may have shared some similar ideas, had they ever known each other Roddick lists as one of the lessons she’s learned through business and her life is “that you do not wait for extraordinary opportunities, you seize common occasions to make them great” (Roddick, 1991, p.20). Anita Roddick certainly had vision, a high energy level, and creativity, an internal locus of control, and self-confidence and optimism. Two other entrepreneurs who have changed not only our lives, but the face of business and the way of the world, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google. Don’t know what that constellation is? Google it. Can’t think of that actor from that episode of that show in 1995? Google it. It is nothing short of astonishing what the ingenuity of these men have allowed us as a global civilization to achieve, both on micro and macro levels. Not only have these men facilitated our instant access to knowledge, but have paved another layer on the skyscraper of knowledge that has been in construction since the creation of the written work. After Google and the internet, the possibilities are endless. While Google faces opposition and censorship in foreign countries, it still remains the leading search engine in the United States, and is known worldwide. Google, from these facts alone, is obviously a profitable and wildly successful business, first incorporated in 1998 and persisting to this day as popular and culturally significant as ever. The founders obviously possess many, if not all, the characteristics of entrepreneurs: vision, creativity, optimism, and a need to achieve to say the least. But what about the non-business side of Google and its founders? What do Page and Brin do for the people? We’ve seen Anita Roddick and her animal rights actions, and her involvement in social reform. But what about Google? When a reporter from CNET revealed negative personal information about Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, the company refused to speak to CNET for a year (Vise, 2006, 22). This could be interpreted as an angry man with too much power, or it could also be interpreted as a company that values its employees’ and users’ privacy, making a statement and setting an example of the lengths it would go to to protect the privacy of its users and employees. That one is certainly up for debate. As far as censorship of Google search results in China, Google goes as far as to label each searched page as incomplete due to censorship. (Vise, 2006, 23). Their goal of transparency is certainly an admirable one, and it a reflection on founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt. It must be noted from an ethical standpoint that there have been other allegations in the Google workplace of sexism and ageism among other things (Kawamoto, 2005). A business, whether large or small, have repercussions in society, and many don’t stop to consider these possible ramifications. Prime examples of entrepreneurs who considered these things are Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, inventors of Google. Roddick grew The Body Shop into the second largest cosmetic company in the world, which is obviously profitable and social responsibility oriented, and even took the time to focus on social environmental issues that were near and dear to her and her customers. Google is the same. Privacy over the internet has been a concern from day one, but founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt, do an outstanding job of maintaining privacy or its users given the sheer vastness and effortless accessibility of the internet. These men, too, fight policies against censorship, and when they lose, they still maintain an heir of control. Key qualities of any entrepreneur are vision and creativity, and all of these individuals used these attributes to not only get their business of the ground, but the make their businesses useful and profitable, and to enable them to withstand the test of time and legislature. Though there are countless other admirable individuals like them, Anita Rodick, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin should be admired for not only their business acumen, but also for their customer care and attention to pertinent social issues concerning their businesses and themselves. The small business Administration provides a wealth of resources called SCORE library that has up to date publications that helps new enterpruers finance their new business venture, online training, and seminars. They provide financial advisors to help guide you through the process of making good business financial decisions. The SCORE counselors provide ways to new enterpreurs to make good business sense and the know-hows to create a successful business. Financial management is one of the most difficult tasks to maintain when starting a business. That is important to have a good business plan that outlines your financial position of your business. References
Pless, N. M. (2007). Understanding responsible leadership: Role identity and motivational drivers. Journal of Business Ethics, 74(4, Ethics in and of Global Organizations: The EBEN 19th Annual Conference in Vienna), pp. 437-456.
Roddick, A. (1991). The body shop: Freeing the corporate spirit. Geography, 76(1), pp. 16-20.
Kawamoto, Dawn (July 27, 2005). "Google hit with job discrimination lawsuit". CNET News. Retrieved January 19, 2012
Vise, D. A. (2006). Google. Foreign Policy, (154), pp. 20-24.