JamaicaObserver.com:
Entrepreneurialism is no longer what it was once thought to be. Traditionally and by definition, the practice is associated with the risks of starting and operating a business.
From a narrow capitalist perspective, the tendency has been to view entrepreneurs as a select minority of specially endowed individuals who create wealth.
The masses who work for them are ostensibly and stereotypically treated as if belonging to an inferior species. This discriminatory tenet, which is a by-product of Charles Darwin’s theories ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’ or ‘The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’, has got to be one of the biggest lies ever perpetrated on humankind.
Thankfully, the spectre of the entrepreneur as a genetically favoured individual who can work business magic is being destroyed daily by a number of developments. Firstly, the rise of the professional manager with access to modern planning and forecasting tools has all but rendered useless the kamikaze or daredevil approach to business decision-making, once thought to be the preserve of the entrepreneur. Secondly, a string of legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) in the United States is forcing entrepreneurs and business leaders to give up their ‘wheeling and dealing’ in which somebody wins but at the expense of the unsuspecting others. Thirdly, big bonuses and profit-sharing plans are causing CEOs to lose their appetite for acting on blind faith in the hope of huge gains. ‘Playing it safe’ by being more analytical and basing decisions on good information, is becoming the norm rather than the exception in business.
These indisputable trends do not necessarily lead to the conclusion that entrepreneurialism is dead or is dying. It simply means entrepreneur-ialism is no longer what it was once thought to be…
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