QHT1 Why Entrepreneurial Organizations Seek Opportunities for Innovation
QHT1 Objective 304.4.4-01
Why Entrepreneurial Organizations Seek Opportunities for Innovation
An entrepreneurial organization is a business that provides time and space for employees to seek creative ideas, promotes those ideas, and supports those ideas by building the project. Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which to exploit change as an opportunity for a different or enhanced product or process. The definition of “entrepreneur” from Dictionary.com is “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.”
One such person who invested considerable initiative and risk is Ray Kroc, king of the famous franchise chain, McDonald’s. Ray Kroc started as a salesman for the Lily-Tulip Cup Co. selling paper cups when he was 37 years old. He met Earl Prince, inventor of the first five-spindle milkshake mixing-machine called a Multimixer. Ray purchased the marketing rights for the Multimixer and sold it all across the country. When he came upon the first hamburger stand owned and operated by the McDonald brothers, Kroc was so impressed by the simplicity and originality of this new restaurant (a storefront with no seats which offered only burgers, fries, drinks and milkshakes) that he purchased the McDonald’s method from the brothers - and the rest is history. There are now more than 25,000 McDonald’s in operation worldwide. Ray’s reason for seeking this opportunity was to become profitable and at 61 years of age, he did become a millionaire.
Organizations seeking innovative opportunities do so when there is an Organizational Need. United Parcel Service (UPS) designed their own route optimization system which computerized daily schedules to provide more efficient routes thereby saving delivery time, assisting with driving directions (reducing wrong turns and wrong deliveries), and reducing gas consumption. This system also alerts the closest driver to the pickup
Why Entrepreneurial Organizations Seek Opportunities for Innovation
An entrepreneurial organization is a business that provides time and space for employees to seek creative ideas, promotes those ideas, and supports those ideas by building the project. Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which to exploit change as an opportunity for a different or enhanced product or process. The definition of “entrepreneur” from Dictionary.com is “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.”
One such person who invested considerable initiative and risk is Ray Kroc, king of the famous franchise chain, McDonald’s. Ray Kroc started as a salesman for the Lily-Tulip Cup Co. selling paper cups when he was 37 years old. He met Earl Prince, inventor of the first five-spindle milkshake mixing-machine called a Multimixer. Ray purchased the marketing rights for the Multimixer and sold it all across the country. When he came upon the first hamburger stand owned and operated by the McDonald brothers, Kroc was so impressed by the simplicity and originality of this new restaurant (a storefront with no seats which offered only burgers, fries, drinks and milkshakes) that he purchased the McDonald’s method from the brothers - and the rest is history. There are now more than 25,000 McDonald’s in operation worldwide. Ray’s reason for seeking this opportunity was to become profitable and at 61 years of age, he did become a millionaire.
Organizations seeking innovative opportunities do so when there is an Organizational Need. United Parcel Service (UPS) designed their own route optimization system which computerized daily schedules to provide more efficient routes thereby saving delivery time, assisting with driving directions (reducing wrong turns and wrong deliveries), and reducing gas consumption. This system also alerts the closest driver to the pickup
References: Bateman, T. & Snell, S. (2011). Managing Technology and Innovation. In Management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World (Ninth edition). New York, NY: McGraw Hill Irwin. Prominent people, A website dedicated to famous people, celebrities, VIP 's, actors, actresses, musicians, politicians. The Rolling Stones. 2012. Retrieved from http://prominentpeople.co.za/rolling-stones.aspx