BDME8013 STRATEGIC ENTREPRENEURIAL GROWTH DECISION MAKING PROCESS BY AN ENTREPRENEUR by

Rodziah Ahmad (2013) Decision making happens at all level of organization. A different level of management hierarchy has a different weightage of decision making. In an organization, sometimes, a manager should not assume that he is always right. He needs to have opinions from his subordinates or superior in order to have an overview of subject matters before any decision has to be made, in line with the organizations objectives. But how does an entrepreneur makes decisions? There are few guidelines presented by successful entrepreneurs: 1. Risk quantification. Entrepreneur must be able to quantify the risk that they want to venture in. It is important to have a study on the subject matter before you make decisions and by quantifying the risk, it will be much easier to make decision (Anderson, 2011). 2. Trust self-instincts. The team and competitors may have vast of analysis about the subject matters and sometimes the entrepreneur may have a different view on it. Based on the perception of risk that had been quantified and the entrepreneurs experience, he had to trust his instincts before final decision been made.(Anonymous, n.d.-a). The decision making of entrepreneur sometime is called a paradigm because they usually looked at the phenomena rather than the theories to make decision (Schade, 2010). Anderson (2011) named it as fast and bold action. The strategic orientation of an entrepreneur is normally based on his or her perception on opportunity and limited resources that they have (Hisrich, D., Peters, & Shepherd, 2005) . 1

3. Focus on customers, not the critics. In order to do so, an entrepreneur must be able to think creatively (Anderson, 2011) and out of the box; to gain maximum opportunities. Example: the pre-paid mobile services was first introduced to cater the needs of the customers to use mobile services but unable to do so because of the contract requirement if they signed the post-paid services. (Anynomous, n.d.-b) In this case, the service provider focus on the customers needs not the requirement of their firm. 4. Always support the team. A successful entrepreneur must lead and support his team to achieve the goal that he had set for the organization. 5. Know when to exit. As fast as the decision making to enter into a decision, an entrepreneur must also be brave to make decision to exit the industry they venture in, to avoid future losses. The commitment for the opportunity normally in a short time span (Hisrich et al., 2005; Wu & Knott, 2006) and they have to know when to walk out. One need to have a backup plan (Anderson, 2011) if the first run of the decision making does not make a success. They must be brave enough to make new mistakes and learnt from it. Due to the flat organization structure of an entrepreneur (Hisrich et al., 2005), fast decision can be made on entering or exiting a business.

Reference:

Anderson, E. C. (2011). Entrepreneurial Decision Making & Risk: A Formula for Success | Eric C Anderson Blog. Retrieved from http://ecanderson.com/blog/?p=14 Anynomous. (n.d.-a). Richard Branson on Decision-Making For Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222739 Anynomous. (n.d.-b). History of The Prepaid Mobile. Retrieved October 22, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_prepaid_mobile_phone Hisrich, D., R., Peters, M. P., & Shepherd, D. A. (2005). Managerial Versus Entrepreneurial Decision Making. In Entrepreneurship (6th ed.). McGraw-Hil Irwin. Retrieved from http://sbaer.uca.edu/publications/entrepreneurship/pdf/02.pdf

Schade, C. (2010). Entrepreneurial decision making: A paradigm rather than a set of questions Introduction to special section based on LallyDardenHumboldt Young Entrepreneurship Scholars Retreat 2006. Journal of Business Venturing, 25, 173174. Retrieved from http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/risk/library/J2010JBV_Schade.pdf Wu, B., & Knott, A. M. (2006). Entrepreneurial Risk and Market Entry. Management Science, 52(9), 13151330. Retrieved from http://eserv.uum.edu.my/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true& db=bth&AN=22365640&site=ehost-live&scope=site