Originally written by Matthew Cushen on Small Business
My favourite definition of entrepreneurialism is from Professor Howard Stevenson of Harvard Business School — “the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled”.
It captures the noble struggle of an entrepreneur to create something big from little, to use their innovation, cunning and agility to overcome the inherent advantages of scale, expertise and trust that large businesses have.
Conventional theory about economies of scale would suggest that big companies are unassailable. But over the last couple of decades, we have increasingly seen this is not the case, with numerous examples of scale creating paralysis and new businesses being the drivers of innovation and new business models.
I’ve an unusual perspective on the business world, having worked within large corporates, then (and still) as an innovation consultant to the leaders of large businesses (such as IKEA & AB InBev) and years of investing in & helping start-ups. My belief is that an entrepreneur’s greatest advantage is born from scarcity. Entrepreneurs have…
From these constraints are born the necessity and freedom to rapidly and cheaply experiment, learn and iterate — with the main effort focused on the customer. Large businesses get fixated on the risk — of spending too much,