Mara Mentor is a platform that connects ambitious African entrepreneurs with experienced business leaders. I recently registered on the platform with the singular aim to share knowledge and add value. The except below is from a post I wrote and was published on Mara Mentor.
Have a great read … 🙂
“Entrepreneurship is more celebrated, studied, and desirable than ever. Business school students flock to courses on entrepreneurship. Policymakers pin their hopes for job creation and economic growth on start-ups rather than on the once-preeminent corporate giants.” – Amar Bhide
You would agree with me that the above words are still very profound now even after over two decades old. We are in the age of the entrepreneur! And nothing else seems to matter, everyone just wants to be an entrepreneur. Every tom, dick and harry is starting a ‘start-up’ and one continues to wonder, is this really the best way out? Is this trend worth following? What must I do to be an entrepreneur?
A perfect answer to my heart questions was found in a 1996 Harvard Business Review article credited to Amar Bhide, an associate professor at Harvard Business School at that time, and he has the following words of advice for would be entrepreneurs:
Of the hundreds of thousands of business ventures that entrepreneurs launch every year, many never get off the ground. Entrepreneurs must continually ask themselves what business they want to be in and what capabilities they would like to develop. Many young enterprises simultaneously lack coherent strategies, competitive strengths, talented employees, adequate controls, and clear reporting relationships.
The following frameworks presented are based on my observation of several hundred start-up ventures over eight years. They will help entrepreneurs analyze the situations in which they find themselves, establish priorities among the opportunities and problems they face, and make rational decisions about the future. Entrepreneurs should use the framework to evaluate their companies’ position and trajectory often not just when problems appear. The framework consists of a three-step sequence of questions.
#1 – Clarifying Goals: Where Do I Want to Go?
#2 – Setting Strategy: How Will I Get There?
#3 – Executing the Strategy: Can I Do It?




