New Modes of Doing Business, Essay Example

Abstract

Through pioneering new modes of doing business, entrepreneurs provide energy and innovation in all fields of industry. Marked by senses of independence, creativity, and commitment, the entrepreneur may often reinvent the field he works in. This element of the entrepreneurial character, applied to health care, can introduce vastly influential benefits for the public welfare, as well as create jobs to fill the needs the innovations demand.

The Entrepreneurial Character

True entrepreneurs are neither born nor made; they are both. They must have in them the vital characteristics that make up the type, but they also must be at some point in an environment where these elements can find a focus and a purpose. They become what they are only when the opportunity is right for it to happen.

“Most studies of the entrepreneur make no attempt at definition. They rely instead on a stereotype, that of the swashbuckling business adventurer” (Casson, 2003, p.1). Today’s entrepreneur runs the gamut from Bill Gates, billionaire  founder and CEO of the Microsoft corporation, to the woman down the street who runs her own baked goods business. There are, however, certain traits common to all, no matter the form their entrepreneurship takes, and none of these traits is more present than the others. All must exist within the nature of the entrepreneur.

Independence is a key personality trait in such people. They are either unwilling to work for someone else and follow rules which apply to everybody, or they simply cannot successfully adapt to such a life. The ambition in them drives them to achieve an independent stature, and to be identified uniquely as the foundation of whatever the enterprise it.

Creativity is as well essential, for the entrepreneur must be resourceful. In a very real sense the entrepreneur “creates” his own job, and often where there was no absence of such a role noticed. Creativity here functions as insight mixed with daring and this applies, again, no matter the size of the endeavor. Lastly, entrepreneurs need an innate ability to commit. People have excellent business ideas all the time, many of which would do very well if pursued. Only the entrepreneur, however, makes it happen through a determination to follow through and guarantee the success their independence demands.

The Entrepreneur in Health Care

If any field can most benefit from the creativity and drive of the entrepreneur, it is health care. Here the entrepreneur’s personal ambitions are directed toward a goal which must have positive impact on the health and lives of the people in the community, or in the greater world at large.

The last few decades have in fact seen a new industry emerge, that of the nursing entrepreneur. Usually not on a grand scale, these health care businesses nonetheless reflect true entrepreneurship in their attainments of independence and in forging unique services to their communities. “…A nurse entrepreneur identifies a need and creates a service to meet the identified need” (Chitty, 2005, p.144).  As expected, this takes many forms, from offering in-home care for the elderly to wider consulting services which incorporate teams of nurses.

This ability to evolve as needed is also intrinsic to entrepreneurship. The size and scope of the business begun by the single entrepreneur, or by a few in concert, is dictated by the sheer size of the need being filled and the talents of the entrepreneur(s) in meeting the challenge. Real growth to a corporate level can occur only when both factors are strongly in play, for a lack in either can only weaken and eventually destroy the enterprise.

When it comes to health care, entrepreneurship is not merely a hoped-for boost; it is an urgent need. By its very definition, health care encompasses the well-being of the public, and there can be no excess of creativity and ambition in this field which so relies on discovery and innovation in practice. Other businesses of all kinds can thrive with only the occasional new direction taken, but health care’s constantly evolving and complex nature requires it consistently. Fortunately, the field provides endless opportunities for creative entrepreneurship.

References

Chitty, K.K. (2005.)  Professional Nursing: Concepts and Challenges. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Casson, M. (2003.)  The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.