fire starter or non-starter? what kind of entrepreneur are you?

Fire-starter or non-starter?

Where do you fit on this entrepreneurial scale?

www.leaderzone.org www.omnicor.eu

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We’ve been working to assess and coach entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial leaders

for 25 years…

this model describes our understanding of the range of entrepreneurial talent


You are free to share this slideshow but please acknowledge ownership by Leaderzone Omnicor

First things first:

entrepreneur does not mean successful!

another word for entrepreneur is change-maker everyone is a change-maker to some degree



ask 10 of your friends to name an entrepreneur:

4 will say Bill Gates; 3 will say Richard Branson; 2 will say Steve Jobs and

1 will look confused

thank goodness for role models like Bill Gates and Richard Branson because they

help ordinary people set extraordinary goals.

but little of what they are known for is fundamentally entrepreneurial



Branson and Gates, Sugar, Trump, Ramaphosa, Abramovitch and the late Steve Jobs are recognised entrepreneurs but most

of their lives were or are spent managing cash flow, revenue targets, people, suppliers

and property

They should be known as managers But managing isn’t glamorous



We know them as entrepreneurs because they inspire with their occasional ability to

make the world change!

a little or a lot, where they’ve trodden, the world is different.



• making change rather than owning a company or being rich is at the core of entrepreneurialism

• by this standard, many ordinary people leading conventional lives are entrepreneurs.

• every one who has a dream (big or small) and makes part of it come true is entrepreneurial

• everyone who imagines how something can be different, and who makes it so… is an entrepreneur



but some are more entrepreneurial than others.

over the years we’ve assessed, coached and interviewed thousands of entrepreneurs

from all walks of life; the model that I’ll share with you has been built up as a result

of careful observation, testing and re-working



Omnicor LeaderZone’s scale of entrepreneurialism



Withdrawn From Play…

Originally as we developed this model in a BRICS economy we didn’t have this category but now, social

welfare has changed the game.

As we work more and more in developed states with social welfare systems paying people to stay

unemployed, (people whose entire families including parents and grandparents may have lived on benefits), it

seems an unfortunately appropriate starting place for our entrepreneurial scale.

People in this category seem able but not willing to work, their entrepreneurialism might be applied to queueing

for a new type of benefit or changing their brand of toothpaste, but it doesn’t fit our notion of change-

maker.www.leaderzone.org www.omnicor.eu


The Bureaucrat Seatwarmer

The bureaucrat has a defence for protecting against working too hard. Rules!

For some people, working hours, reporting lines and service standards describe the bare minimum that they expect of

themselves. For the seat warmer, the same rules become a mantra, a target.

Sorry if you arrive at the front of the queue at 4:31!

The bureaucrat will shut the service window without a smile. It’s the rule!

The key motivation for the seat warmer seems to be job stability and a deep-seated sense of “my job is my right!”

But they are entrepreneurs, seat-warmers do at least one change-making thing in their lives, they get a job!



The Corporate Exister

Not the talent bedrock of an organisation but certainly belonging to the largest category of employees

A solid worker who may rise up into dead man’s shoes; he or she

generally flies under the radar, but may be known for a few incidents of special competence

Often know as a holder of knowledge of business process and history however, the Exister might struggle to show

economic value after years of CPI salary increases. He or she usually does enough to avoid a poor performance

rating

Part of the furniture, in teams he or she may be said to be the “cultural hearth” never though, the heartbeat!



The Corporate Thriver

Sometimes referred to as an ‘intrapreneur’, an entrepreneur who chooses to work for a boss

Energetic, runs his or her function like a business taking risk, being creative and driven and often hard to manage

unless the manager is also a change-maker

Promotable and energetic, working within the structures and an eager brand ambassador; his or her enthusiasm is

infectious and the Thriver tends to lead through inspiration

Unless he or she rubs people the wrong way the Thriver will be seen as high talent showing sound thinking and judgment and at least reasonably good ability to work

with peoplewww.leaderzone.org www.omnicor.eu


Single Venture FranchiseeThis entrepreneur might or might not run a formal franchise

business, that’s not the main issue. The main issue is his or her orientation towards being an independent entrepreneur within a

prescribed structure.

The SU Franchisee likes to be free of a boss, can live with the risks that come from being free of a pay-cheque but knows he or she

lives best without the loneliness or the risk of complete independence.

The fundamental promise that a franchisor makes to a franchisee is “take this business, run it according to the structures I provide and

you will have a business!”. The Single Unit franchisee likes this

Don’t get confused by thinking that all franchisees fit this category, it’s not about what you do for a living. It’s about what you are best

suited to and in truth many franchisees are really corporate refugees, unable to be employed by an organisation. If, when

offered the chance to become a corporate employee your answer would be to take a ‘proper’ job, you don’t belong in this category!



Multi Venture Franchisee

There is a significant difference between the desire to make a single business that offers the owner independence and an income and the instinct to create a complex business. It’s not about the money but it is about the experience of working in a complex entity over which you hold influence but not operational control.

The multi-venture franchisee owns several often similar or complementary franchise businesses and leads them by influencing employed managers in their efforts to stick to the rules.

For this person, the owner-operator model is not an option, somehow he or she must make peace with the knowledge that others are in daily control. The excitement is about creating an enterprise rather than a shop, a practice or a factory.



Single Venture Independent

The single venture independent business owner is driven, like the SU Franchisee to build or own a business he or she

can be in control of, one that brings an income and that offers a limited range of complexity.

Unlike the SU Franchisee, the single venture business owner thrives on the freedom of starting, succeeding or

failing without a guiding or a prescriptive business model.

When you think of the difference between Single Venture and Multi Venture franchisees or independents don’t be seduced by the scale of the operation, think about the complexity of it. A plumbing business with three small

branches run by the founder is probably a Single Venture independent business because its simple model is defined

by the founder’s control. www.leaderzone.org www.omnicor.eu


Multi Venture Independent

The essential difference between single and multi venture entrepreneurs is not the number of outlets they run but the

complexity of the business.

A similar plumbing business, this time with three outlets united by a common purchasing and distribution system, with sophisticated

branding and IT POS systems, with managers supported by advertising, leading edge technologies and perhaps a set of compelling values, this is a business run by a Multi Venture

Independent entrepreneur.

The risks are large, the complexity costs money and the owner must make peace with not having much direct control over the

operations. But for him or her, it’s better than being a solo-plumber!

Many of the inspirational business people we read about and look up to, epitomise this category of entrepreneurialism, it has the

potential to take place on a grand scale.www.leaderzone.org www.omnicor.eu


The Wild-Eyed Entrepreneur

The poster boy example must be Thomas Edison who filed around 2778 patents (US and foreign, successful or not) during

his lifetime

Driven by driving! An inventor of processes or things or organisations, the wild-eyed entrepreneur is not well balanced! This type of energy and extremism is rare, often obsessive and

certainly difficult to manage!

Risk becomes incidental, the need is to invent, to move forward, stasis is anathema to the wild-eyed entrepreneur.

Edison did well because some of his inventions such as the light-bulb caught on and he had a fairly unique capacity to invent and

to create structures around his inventions, structures that became a series of successful organisations. This management ability is a useful addition to wild-eyed entrepreneurialism but it

is not commonwww.leaderzone.org www.omnicor.eu


So there’s the scale…

The variables increasing from Withdrawn to Wild-Eyed Entrepreneur include

characteristics like appetite for risk; action orientation;

creativity; courage and boldness; independence and

energywww.leaderzone.org www.omnicor.eu


Where do you fit?

Try answering not in terms of what you aspire to be but instead look at at your life in

terms of what you’ve done, what are the best examples of your own change-making?

Now weigh them against the scale.



This is a working model, not a scientific truthso use the ideas to guide your thinking but don’t take the

results to be written in stone!

At Omnicor and LeaderZone we’re always working to understand how to help leaders improve their organisations.

Please mail us if you liked this slideshow and if it made you think. We would love to hear your response

James Ashton [email protected]



About Leaderzone and Omnicor

Omnicor is a team of organisation development experts working through Africa, Europe and soon, the Middle East bringing psychological science to bear on business decision makers. Select better, interview with intent, develop leaders and know who your talented people are, why they stay and why they leave.

www.omnicor.eu

LeaderZone is Omnicor’s online sister company a site for business leaders at all levels who want to be better at guiding and leading their teams. Accelerating leader development. James Ashton is LeaderZone’s principal author and coach, subscribe for free to receive weekly newsbriefs and subscriber opportunities

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