In this essay, our purpose is to prove that diversity in an entrepreneurial team often leads to success and that, reciprocally, failures may often be explained by the narrow-mindedness resulting from a too homogeneous partnership. When we talk about diversity, we talk about complementary intellectuals, with cultural and technical assets and backgrounds. If there is diversity, there should never, ever, whatsoever, be any misunderstanding when it comes to the goals and strategy of the new firm, and if possible a convergence in the partners interests. However, there is no magic solution in entrepreneurship or we would all be rich; the point is that the more diversity, the more knowledge, the bigger the networks, the more the financial resources, hence our conclusion advocating a thorough dual-competencies training of the entrepreneur, making the existence of entrepreneurship studies even more relevant. This research essay is three-fold: the first section raises the issue of diversity leading to successful entrepreneurial adventures, the second section looks at several cases in which too much homogeneity necessarily leads to failure, and, last but not least, the third section focuses on looking for entrepreneurial success, going over family businesses and very well educated entrepreneurs, in order to validate our initial statement.
[...] That is why, providing that you may now, hopefully, agree that Asterix and Obelix would be a thrilling founding team, the diversity in this very example is enhanced by the presence of not only Idefix but the whole team i.e. village of our two heroes. And only the Romans knows what they are capable of Bibliography 1. John Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, McKinsey & Company, The Wisdom of Teams, Harvard Business Scholl Press MIT Open Course Ware MIT Sloan School of Management Strategic Human Resource Management 3. [...]
[...] All in all, if, when it comes to building a diverse and hence more competent entrepreneurial team, factors to entrepreneurship can be seen as “systematic behaviour” (i.e. planning, choosing the right people to bring competencies and look credible to investors), and factors to entrepreneurship may be perceived as “heuristic behaviour” (i.e. informal and chaotic exchanges amongst would-be founders with diverse backgrounds leading to spot a good idea and an entrepreneurial opportunity)9. Diversity and real-life examples Diversity seems to be key to partnerships' successes. [...]
[...] All in all, as the advantages of a diverse founding team are countless, the fallout of having homogeneous entrepreneurs starting a new venture are one-fold: it all deals with a more effective communication. Hence our stance that a would-be successful entrepreneurial team should go for diversity. However, the lessons that may be drawn from our three key-examples, namely the two failed partnerships Afidora and RSM-Salustro Reydel and the successful one KIP Content Development, is that diversity in the capabilities of the founders should be complemented by a thorough homogeneity in the strategy, goals, and if possible, personal interests. [...]
[...] Furthermore, if research in biotechnology does have a breakthrough in the following years, would the merger of the brain of Asterix and the brawn of Obelix lead to the birth of a very successful entrepreneur? Are complementary assets, often resulting from an initially diverse entrepreneurial team, the very key to success? Although some egoistic successful businessmen still pretend they are pure self-made men, most entrepreneurial adventures are the result of a team may these new ventures settings be successes of failures. [...]
[...] Folker When He and She Sell Seashells: Exploring the Relationship Between Management Team Gender-Balance and Small Firm Performance Journal Of Developmental Entrepreneurship Vol No.4 December generations of successful entrepreneurs in the family can be a very valuable asset22. Their father, who had set up his own ‘related' business after working for his father for twenty years, was instrumental in making them understand the value of healthy sibling-relationships, as well as teaching them the trade, from a very early age. While benefiting from this experience, the brothers still developed capabilities in different, but complementary, areas finance, marketing and operations management leading them to run a successful business with an annual growth-rate of roughly over 5 years, earning them a place in Inc.com's top-100 growing businesses of 1999. [...]
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