The Business Book

4646

T H E R O L E O F T H E

C E O I S T O E N A B L E

P E O P L E T O E X C E L

FROM ENTREPRENEUR TO LEADER

I

n the early days of a new

business the most valuable

skill a founder can have is

entrepreneurship—the vision to

identify opportunities, and the

willingness to take risks. But as the

business grows, demands change.

Disciplined management skills and

corporate expertise are required to

co-ordinate a growing enterprise.

Some entrepreneurs are able to

make the transition to leadership

successfully, while others struggle.

An Ernst & Young report in 2011

identified entrepreneurs as people

who are nonconformist, driven and

tenacious, passionate and focused,

with an opportunist mind-set.

As a business grows,

its demands change.

...and leadership skills

are required to maintain

long-term growth.

Founders must adjust

from being the sole decision-

maker to delegating...

Entrepreneurship is

needed to spark a

business into life, but...

...management discipline

is required to support

that growth...

...and make the

transition from

entrepreneur to leader.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Business growth

KEY DATES

1972 Professor Larry Greiner

suggests the various stages of

business growth are preceded

by crisis, the first being a

crisis of leadership.

2001 Leadership and change

expert John Kotter writes the

paper “What Leaders Really

Do.” Published in Harvard

Business Review, it draws a

distinction between the roles

of manager and leader.

2008 Indian business scholar

Bala Chakravarthy and

Norwegian economist Peter

Lorange’s paper “Driving

Renewal: The Entrepreneur-

Manager” is published in

Journal of Business Strategy. In

it, the authors calls for a new

breed of entrepreneurship

in management, in order to

manage business renewal.