Civic Entrepreneurship, Term Paper Example

Civic entrepreneurship, according to Charles Leadbeater and Sue Goss is a term borrowed from an organization in Polo Alto, California called Collaborative Economics. The term is used to describe the roles of business leaders. This, according to Doug Henton, Kimberly Walesh and John Melville is done by creating open partnership through the innovative Joint Venture Silicon Valley Initiative (1998). Entrepreneurship is a managerial style that aids and exploits the available opportunities against the expected threats to deliver exemplary results.  It requires that one should have a vision and a sustained commitment during the process of doing the mundane things to have the required results.Entrepreneurship also demands mastering of new ideas and other people’s resources to produce better outcomes. It is the quest of value; most managers learn on strategic opportunities, and how to use it to promote value in their workplace and lives. The practice is done in both private and public sector, but in a different style depending on its sociality.

Characteristic of Civic Entrepreneurs

CivicEntrepreneurs assists the communities in developing, organizing economics assets and strengthening productivity by having steady relationship between the public, private and civic sectors. They create ties to enable their economic activities prosper mutually and work on difficult issues over a long period. They are known to operate in time of many changes, notice opportunities and marshal communities towards one common goal. They share five common traits. These are:Civic entrepreneurs appreciate new economic realities and obliged to act the vision on behave of their communities to have better success in the future. They believe that new,fast changing and complex economy can provide greater opportunities for people, places and organization. Having an opportunity is the beginning of having positive choices, good relationships and better resources in the future according to civic entrepreneurs.

The second characteristic of civicentrepreneurs is that they wield a collaborative style in leadership. They believe thatgood results can be acquired by working with people.  They take collaborations keenly and it is an initiative of obtaining benefits of a new economic idea in a community. Collaborative leadership practiced byentrepreneurs brings together diverse parties on board, identify a common agenda and take mutual action. They at as bridges and have no formal authority apart from their credibility. They are seen as loyal people and worth of people’s trust.

Thirdly, civic entrepreneurs have a classic business entrepreneur’s personality trait; they are people with vision, who can work tirelessly to utilize the opportunities to make the impossible thing possible. They can combine both the resources, skills and talents to bring change. They focus on how to make things happened and reasons why thing happened not the vice versa. Their driving force is credible outcomes, this goes against all odd to achieve the set target.

The forth characteristic of civic entrepreneurs is that they work, in teams, to enable their communities forge ahead. They make decisions on change processes with the aid of an entrepreneur.  This is because it has complex processes and requires skills, experience, talents and personalities to manage it. Entrepreneurshipis effective when both roles are developed,and new leaders attained.

The last and most visible characteristic is believed that their own interest is entangledwith the community’s interest at large. They get involved in almost all activities affecting the community and are highly talented in making the community adopt new ideas. They work towards that long term positive within the business, environment, schools and infrastructure.  It takes into consideration the community’swell being and strives to improve the life qualityof its people.

Benefits of Civic Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a skill that helps the community in many ways. Its benefits and consequences are mostly visible by the activities to the community. It helps in initiation; because civil entrepreneurs are self-motivators and networkers, they view the community differently than non-entrepreneurs. This personality style shows new responsibility level for future direction of the community (Henton, Melville &Walesh, 1997). They network with their friends and broaden the network beyond their comfort zone with other critical leaders to start a change process.

Civic entrepreneurs are seen as teachers this is because theyeducate the communities and prepare them to participate in the collaborative process of change. This will ensure that the participants understand the facts brought on board and the community and that they are aware of the implication of the activities (Morris,2012). This aids in making fair and effective decisions among diverse communities and have clear rules and standards of operation.

Civic entrepreneurship helps in implementation because the entrepreneurs act as integrators and drivers; they have a crucial role in collaborating, with the community, to implement the collaborative actions that are to bring change to the communities. Entrepreneurship ensures that the objective adopted are measurable and can be attained.It also ensures that the implementation is attained with no bottlenecks, and the approach of attaining the objective is not rigid.

Civic entrepreneurship helps in improvement and renewal by being acting as mentors. This is done by the entrepreneurs adopting short term goals into a culture that can be easily managed continually.  They develop a platform that communities can work together to tackle important issues.This will be ensured that new people to the community are taken,through the processes, to be able to fit well and get involved.Employing varied entrepreneurs to perform the task at all stages will aid in community evolution (Henton, Melville &Walesh, 1997).

How Civic entrepreneurs are related to CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the effort put by the companies andis categorized into four groups. The four categories, namely, Instrumental, political, Integrative and ethical work together to in order to achieve economic gain. This is similar to civic entrepreneurship in that working in collaboration will help the community improve. Carrying out CSR in a corporation will fulfill the stakeholder’s expectations and goal, it will also educate than on how its expectations will be meet. Entrepreneurs and CSR are also motive driven,and they try their best to reach their target despite the problems experienced.

How civic entrepreneurs have helped to conserve the environment

Civicentrepreneurs are known topractice sustainable development to improve the environment. This is done by ensuring that the available resources are utilized wisely and how a particular ecosystem can improve the livelihood of the communities. The people and the civic entrepreneurs are partners in decision-making and thus, invest on enabling environment to create a workable condition for both parties (Moore, 2010). In investing in projects that are environment friendly this will help in conserving the environment and making it conducive for human habitat.

In conclusion, civic entrepreneurship is beneficial to both the government and the community. They are the most required people in a corporation because their motives are similar to those of the community and take the need of the community at heart. They strive to meet their goals despite the discrepancy they undergo. Recently entrepreneurshipis mostly practiced in all business sectors and is associated with modernization and social improvement. They have a sense of enterprise and adventure,and this inspires all the people around them thus enabling then have bigger capabilities and higher results.

References

Banuri, T., Najam, A., Spanger, E. (2003) Sustainable Development Opinion; Civic Entrepreneurship: In search of sustainable Development.

Civic Entrepreneur, Inc. retrieved on 01^st November 2012 from  http://www.civicentrepreneur.com/about.html

Collaborative Economics; Advisors to civic Entrepreneurs; retrieved on 1^st November 2012 from<http://www.coecon.com/>

Hansen, A. (2002). What Motivates Civic Entrepreneurs; Profiles in Co-opetition. Economic Competitiveness Group, Inc. Retrieved 2 November, 2012 from <http://www.ecgroup.com/documents/What%20Motivates%20Civic%20Entrepreneurs.pdf>

Henton, D., Melville, J. &Walesh, K.  (1997). The Age of the Civic Entrepreneur: Restoring civic society and building economic community.National Civic Review, Summer (2); 149-157.

Leadbeater, C., Goss, S. (1998). Civic Entrepreneurship: Contributor Public Management Foundation Edition. New York: Demos.

Morris, M. J. (2012). A Practical Guide to Entrepreneurship: How to Turn an Idea into a Profitable Business. New York:Kogan Page Publishers.

Moore, M. H. (2010). Manifesto for the executive session: Transforming Cities through civic initiative and entrepreneurship.