Entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones who take on risk in a start-up
I recently caught the following headline in a Tech Crunch article: ‘Facebook Stealing Googlers At An Alarming Rate’ which goes on to discuss Facebook’s poaching of top-notch talent from the search beast in order to boost their (fad) business. One employee is quoted as saying: “it’s not just about the money. Entrepreneurs want to work at the hottest place on earth and right now that’s Facebook.” Whoa, whoa, whoa, isn’t Zuckerberg the genius entrepreneur here? Who’s this dude? Since when did entrepreneurs work for other people?
This reminded me of the importance of the entrepreneurial employee in a new venture or any other innovative or creative business. An entrepreneur doesn’t have to be that one individual struggling to make something new happen. The employees enlisted to help build a successful venture are entrepreneurs in their own right. An innovative organization is only as good as the people involved who are making things happen and are also willing to bear the risk of working in a new venture (good leadership helps too).
For more on how to identify the entrepreneurial employee, Joe Hadzima, of MIT Sloan School of Management recognizes seven characteristics of highly effective entrepreneurial employees:
- Ability to deal with risk
- Results oriented
- Energy
- Growth Potential
- Team Player
- Multitasking Ability
- Improvement Oriented
Sound like you? Maybe you have what it takes to work for a start-up.
Amie manages programs for the Business Mentorship and Entrepreneurship Program, a component in the Ministry of Research and Innovation’s Market Readiness Program.
