Opportunity Discovery And Entrepreneurial Action

Characteristics of Eckersley-Maslin as an Entrepreneur

Discuss about the Opportunity Discovery and Entrepreneurial Action.

Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin is one of the successful Australian entrepreneurs. Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin started his career life as a weapons engineer. He first worked with the Royal Australian Navy as an engineer who worked in the weapon’s department in Iraq. At the Royal Australian Navy, he worked for ten years before making a decision to quit the job to do business. As an entrepreneur, Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin has managed to grow fast and has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world at present.

Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin founded Venture Technology firm BlueChilli. Bluechilli connects various parties together to form a robust team to handle most of the greatest world challenges. The various parties connected by BlueChilli include investors, cooperate organizations and entrepreneurs among many others. When these parties come together, some will finance the projects, others will provide the necessary skills, while others will still make managerial skills, training among other forms of support. These joint efforts have significantly helped Bluechilli to be able to solve most of the problems of the world. The company operates in most parts of the world including Sydney, US start-up incubators, and Brisbane among many others. The company has also come up with a program that offers six-month training to those joining the team (Fristch 2014). This, therefore, will always ensure that the firm has a robust team to work on the problems.

Through his entrepreneurial spirit and hard work, Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin was awarded as the winner of Ernst and Young Entrepreneur awards of the year in the category of “30 –under-30”. Sebastian Eckersley-Maslin also serves as a member of the board of Sydney Chapter of the Awesome Foundation where he represents the tech startups for Australia at State and Federal government. He is, therefore, a resourceful person on the board due to the experience and achievements that he has.

Successful business entrepreneurs have certain characteristics associated with them. Their attributes revolve around the opportunities, resources, and organization. These features are essential since they are the ones that help them establish and sustain their businesses. Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin is no exception as an entrepreneur. He also possesses these entrepreneurial characteristics that have helped him to be successful and to achieve his entrepreneurial dreams (Carree 2010, pp. 557–594).

Firstly, entrepreneurs have the ability to recognize, evaluate and exploit an opportunity. Opportunity can be explained to be a situation of creatively to introduce a service, product or process to the market which can be sold at a higher price than the cost required to produce it. Opportunity recognition, evaluation, and exploitation are the core aspects of entrepreneurship (Audretsch 2007). Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin possesses this characteristic since he has also recognized and evaluated the business opportunity, and he has gone ahead to exploit this opportunity.

Processes of Opportunity Recognition and Idea Development

It is also evident that an entrepreneur has a characteristic of attracting and combining resources. Entrepreneurs have the potential of getting the resources required to start and sustain a business. He can acquire various resources and can combine the resources altogether to succeed in the endeavor (Klein 2008, pp. 175-190). Looking at Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, we find him too to possess this attribute. Mr. Maslin can creatively source the resources required to run the startup program in the Bluechilli Company and to sustain it too. He can bring together various companies which help to maintain his course. This is an important characteristic of every successful entrepreneur (Ollila et al. 2011).

An entrepreneur can build and manage an organization.  Every successful entrepreneur has got the ability to start, build and maintain or sustain the firm.  With other skills they possess, they can start an organization, and they usually have strong managerial skills that help them to support the organizations they start. Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin as an entrepreneur also portrays ability to be having strong administrative skills (Asoni, A. and Tino S. 2012). He starts the Bluechilli Company and can manage it well, and it is observed to grow very fast over a short period.

It is also evident that Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin is a great risk taker. He can quit his job as a weapon manager in the Australian Navy only to embark on a business which is full of uncertainties. Starting the business is a risk because you can’t be sure to predict whether you will make the profit or a loss. Every entrepreneur must be a risk taker. Starting and sustaining a business is a risk because it is full of uncertainties (Anderson & Warren 2011,  pp 589-609).

In addition to this, entrepreneurs possess characteristics of the ability to fit opportunities in the business environment into the organizations, they can configure resources into the organizations and also, they are focused on combining opportunities with the existing resources (Okkonen 2010). This is an important characteristic of every entrepreneur since entrepreneurship revolves around these three items; resources, opportunities, and organization. Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin is also able to manage and balance the three resources. This characteristic has enabled him to grow fast and succeed in business (Mueller 2014).

Ability to recognize an opportunity and the process of idea generation are crucial aspects of consideration in entrepreneurship. Every successful entrepreneur must have had an ability to see an opportunity. An opportunity can be viewed to be derived from three items; technology, competition, and market (Henrekson 2014, pp. 1760–1765). Opportunities mostly come from needs that have not been met by the current system, in some cases it may be new requirements that been raised, a times opportunities also come from fast-growing segments, and in other cases, opportunities arise from the new consumer groups (Okkonen 2012). All these sources bring about many opportunities for entrepreneurs. Sebastien also founded Bluechilli on such a basis.

Business and its Competitive Advantage

In the process of identifying the opportunity that is more profitable, some factors need to be considered. All these factors revolve around the market for the opportunity (Murnieks et al..2012). Firstly, one needs to choose a market that has not been exploited. The niche of the market chosen should accommodate the particular needs of the market, and the opportunity should also be open to new markets (Mueller 2012). Also, it is important to consider offering unique product or service. It is crucial to consider these factors since they will help the idea to grow fast due to reduced competition and increased market for the goods or services offered (Parker 2012, pp 377–394).

Every business organization must analyze its competitive state to establish the benefits that it has over the other competitors.  This important because it helps the business to capitalize on these advantages and therefore make more profit and also improve its sustainability. In the competitive analysis, there is need to look at the competitor’s profile (Grilo 2008, pp. 1113–1145). It is necessary to establish if the competitor is satisfied with the current state, whether the competitor is vulnerable and such factors. Establishing the competitors’ profile is important since it gives an understanding of what the competitor has at the moment and what the competitor is likely to do in future (Koellinger 2012, pp. 1143–1156).

The competitor’s future goals should be established and also know what drives the competitor. It is, therefore, important to know what the next steps that the opponent is likely to take in the process of seeking success (Faria 2014). It is also important to establish the competitor’s current strategy to be able to know what the competitor is doing or can do currently. Besides, it is crucial to establish the capabilities that the business has over others. This gives an understanding of the strengths which should be capitalized and the weaknesses that should be addressed for success (Lamballais 2012).

Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin needs to establish all the competitors of Bluechilli Company. It is necessary to determine what the competitors are currently doing in the market. This will give information on what the company should do to cop up with the competition. It should determine the likely next steps that the competitors are mostly likely to take.

Bluechilli has been growing fast in tech start-ups. It has many customers and people interested all over the world. There is need to invest further into this company to ensure it covers more parts of the world. This will continue sustaining the business and improve its sustainability. As a suggestion, Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin should also consider diversification in Bluechilli Company. It should invest more into many other available technological avenues. This will improve on its competitive advantage and improve on its sustainability.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the entrepreneurial spirit is important for the growth of any nation and the world in general. Entrepreneurs have characteristics in common that are business oriented. The process of idea generation and opportunity identification in entrepreneurship can be fruitful if well followed. It is also important to establish the competitive advantages that an opportunity has over others. Entrepreneurs should consider diversification for financial continuity.

References

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Carree M. A., Thurik A. R. , Audretsch, D. B., Acs, Z. J. (2010) pp. 557–594  The impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research, pp. 557–594  

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