Media Enterprise

cultural entrepreneurship by david louis hendley

In this blog I will look at

What is entrepreneurship?
What is an entrepreneur?
What is a cultural entrepreneur?
In what way can an entrepreneurial approach lead to success?
Case Study on David-Louis – Product Designer.
Case study on James Dyson
Summary of investigation and conclusion.

What is Entrepreneurship?
According to Kirby D (2003) Entrepreneurship is ‘…people who have the ability to see and evaluate business opportunities; gather the necessary resources to take advantage of them; and to initiate appropriate action to ensure success.’

The ability to create and build something from practically nothing. It is initiating, doing, achieving and building an enterprise or organisation, rather than just watching, analysing or describing one. It is the knack for sensing an opportunity where others see chaos, contradiction and confusion.

Kirby D (2003) Entrepreneurship.

As mentioned in Dr Robs PHD Thesis Online called ‘A PASSION TO EXIST: CULTURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE SEARCH FOR AUTHENTICITY IN CORNWALL’

“An entrepreneur is one that is skilled at ‘collecting together smaller bits of dispersed information which collectively will have a market value and a public benefit’ or someone who links ideas and suppliers to the market. Creating wealth in the process.”

The understanding of the word ‘ entrepreneur ‘ is quite subjective and can be interpreted in a wide variety of situations but it is clear that entrepreneurs do have similarities and character traits. I have listed at the end of the blog a list of specific characteristics of the classic entrepreneur.

Important qualities.
In my personal experience the main quality an entrepreneur requires is the desire and positive attitude to responsibility.

In fact we see the origin of the word entrepreneur is ‘Entreprendre’ which means to undertake.

The entrepreneur is responsible for making ‘it’ happen. This responsibility needs to be embraced by the entrepreneur and seen as a motivator and driver. A negative attitude and unwillingness to take on responsibility as an entrepreneurship will lead to a lesser success.

From Classic to Cultural Entrepreneurship.

The leap from entrepreneurship to cultural entrepreneur ship is not difficult to take but to identify specific characteristics can be more difficult. In order to understand the cultural entrepreneur we must look at the values and motivations of a cultural entrepreneur and attempt to define the traits of a cultural entrepreneur. Our understanding of a cultural entrepreneur is that they are ‘ a new generation ‘ ‘ emerging in the 1990s in multimedia, design, computer games, internet services, fashion and music’ (The independents, Charles Ledbeater and Kate Oakley, P20).

Classic characteristics of the cultural entrepreneur are – they are:

Independent
Blur work and non-work issues.
They are collaborative and work together as independents and as clusters.
Social – engaging with outside issues.
Share and exchanging ideas – idea exchange is used as a cultural currency.
Building supply network and sharing information and resources.
They are interested in the effects of doing business on society.

(The independents, Charles Ledbeater and Kate Oakley, P25).

In summary the cultural entrepreneur has all the traits of an entrepreneur with the addition of social responsibility and an altruistic attitude to business.

I will now look at how an entrepreneurial approach can be beneficial and help to create direction and be used as a tool to implement tasks successfully.

From looking at entrepreneurs, both cultural and traditional entrepreneurs and using product designer and maker David-Louis as example of a cultural entrepreneur.

Biography : http://www.david-louis.com/designer.asp

I have seen that an important first step to being entrepreneurial is,

· Spotting an opportunity, identifying a niche in a particular market

So the destination (or the first destination) for the entrepreneur has been set. A clear goal is immediately defined and procrastination can really only be over the way to deliver the service or product – ultimately the goal is clearly defined.

It should be noted an entrepreneur could have multiple goals related or not related to each other.

Having a goal or Vision is a very convenient planning tool as you have used an entrepreneurial skill to identify the niche and a side effect of this identifying it that you have now got a destination for your cultural business.

With the destination in defined we can now begin to draw a specific map which helps to achieve the goal.

Case Study David-Louis.www.david-louis.com

A simple case study from David-Louis is ‘ My vision is to use technology to shorten the time between thinking of a product idea and delivering it to the identified niche market’ with a view to keeping ahead of competition through our flexibility and openness to opportunity using our small scale operation as an advantage.

This vision is defined now and as a result or setting a specific project I now have a variety of ‘problem’s to solve or I have the opportunity to crate new supply chains – my perspective is – ‘ I now have a series of smaller goals to achieve my vision’.

Some examples of problems arising from the goal is

· I don’t own any technology

· I can’t use required technology

· I can’t afford the technology.

Some examples of the opportunities arising from the goals are

· I don’t own any technology

· I can’t use required technology

· I can’t afford the technology.

Through networking and being passionate about technology from the beginning of the industrial revolution to the present day I do understand the technology required to achieve my vision. The basic technology needed is:

· Computed Aided design.

· Rapid Prototyping

· Linking to traditional production methods.

Through experience as an entrepreneur and designer I do have established routes to market. So utilising my:

· Design experience

· Passion for new technologies.

· Networking capabilities.

· Established client base

It has been possible to :

· Design a product.

· Consumers test it.

· Produce it very quickly.

· Launch it to the market in 2 months.

Thus gaining competitive advantage over larger perhaps international competitors who will undoubtedly launch a similar product in September 2008 as I move on to the second stage of the products life cycle and into a new development phase for the next generation of design.

Utilising entrepreneurial skills to create direction and to develop a strategic plan David-Louis has side stepped competition and achieved his goal of launching his new Spaghetti Measuring Device (MD)

http://www.david-louis.com/detail.asp?productId=1

This approach to creativity and entrepreneurship is used to advantage by multiple individuals in the creative sector.

Case Study – James Dyson.

Another more notable example we could look at could be looking is the innovator James Dyson.
”James Dyson was vacuuming his house when he realized his top-of-the-line machine was losing suction and getting clogged. An industrial designer by training, Dyson went to work reengineering vacuum cleaner technology to fix this problem. But that wasn’t his only challenge. Fifteen years and more than 5,000 prototypes later, he launched Dyson Limited to produce his design when no other manufacturer would take it on.”
Source: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/dyson.htm

The resilience and effort James Dyson put behind the development of his innovative vacuum cleaner is typical of an entrepreneur – he presented his designs to Hoover and other UK brands but was forced to go to abroad to find a company willing to licence his idea and invest in a UK based manufacturing factory to produce exclusively the Dyson upright vacuum cleaner.

This product went on to become the world best selling vacuum cleaner and along side this a reputation for innovation was established.

At this stage I must touch on the controversial move when in 2002 profit of Dyson fell and in 2003 James Dyson was forced for commercial reasons to move production to the far east – after due consideration Malaysia was chosen much to the irritation of the national press.

It is worth noting that Dyson did re employ and re deploy over 500 of his UK based employees – of which there were 600 to begin with – to other areas of the Dyson factory. http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/06959143454587923447/james-dyson.html

Summary.

Both examples we have looked at, David-Louis and James Dyson, display the characteristics of what we have called the classic entrepreneur; David seems to work more in the cultural sector utilising collaboration, networking skills, component and service outsourcing plus his design knowledge to reach his specific goals.

Whereas James on the other hand has focused on developing his range of design led products in house, employing volumes of staff to manufacture his cutting edge products.

In a classic case of stupendous growth and increased market share James Dyson was forced to look at cutting costs to increase his bottom line as his product moved from niche market to mainstream consumer goods.

Conversely David-Louis successfully works in a niche luxury market. The result of this is that his design led products can consistently fetch a higher retail price due to the focus on design and the cultural sector.

In conclusion we must ask, which approach is deemed more successful, the motivations and personal goals of both individuals need to be considered when reflecting on this.

As production and variety of the David-Louis range of design led consumer goods increases can or is he willing to sustain the personal investment in being involved in running a cultural business?

I suggest at this stage that both type of entrepreneurial activity can live in harmony and there is no right and wrong. The common links between each venture are strong and I will finish with two quotes.

The first from James Dyson.
“Anyone developing new products and new technology needs one characteristic above all else: hope.” – James Dyson

and the second from The Times Online article ‘ The secret of making millions ‘ –

“The only difference between a failed entrepreneur and a successful one is that the successful one never gives up”.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sitesearch.do?query=the+secret+of+making+millions&hitsperpage=10&nextOffset=0&offset=0&left

StartIndex=1&leftEndIndex=10&submitStatus=searchFormSubmitted&mode=

simple§ionId=879

Characteristics of a classic entrepreneur.

The ability to learn from the market

Risk taker.
Self-motivated.
Determined to succeed.
To be competitive or enjoy competition.
To enjoy working hard.
To have confidence and self-belief.
To be able to take criticism.
To have leadership qualities.
To have a positive attitude to problems.
To be visionary and able to see the bigger and long-term picture.
Good networking skills
Risk taker.
Profit focused orientated.
Positive
Confident
Motivation
Self determined.
Team builder
Facilitator
Financier
Opportunist
Embrace change
Embrace challenges
Not afraid of failure
Capitalises on opportunity
Uses innovation and lateral thinking.