The document discusses entrepreneurship and why it is taught at Vlerick Business School. It provides statistics on student interest in entrepreneurship and discusses what deters people from starting their own businesses. The document then defines entrepreneurship as identifying opportunities and assembling resources to capitalize on them despite uncertainty. It discusses the central questions in entrepreneurship around identifying opportunities, dealing with uncertainty, and limited resources. The document then presents a case study on TerraCycle and its founder Tom Szaky, and how he overcame challenges in building his business. It concludes that entrepreneurship requires identifying opportunities, dealing with uncertainty through adaptation and learning from failures, and managing risk to allow for iteration.

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2. ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ACTION
Prof. Miguel Meuleman

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7. Why entrepreneurship in the world?
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8. Why entrepreneurship at Vlerick?
The mission of the Vlerick Business School
is to substantially contribute to the
development of management and
entrepreneurship in a Belgian and
international context by carrying out
Academic Research - knowledge creation -
and by offering high quality management
education - knowledge transfer.
© Vlerick Business School

9. Why entrepreneurship in your program?
Entrepreneur
What / How
Other side of the table
Investor (bank, angel, venture capital)
Supplier / customer
Policy maker
Same side of the table / bed
Husband / wife / partner
Friends
Intrapreneur
T-manager
Integration
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11. Who of you wants to be an
entrepreneur?
In 3 years?
In 30 years?
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12. Students’ interest in entrepreneurship
Within 30
years after 67%
completing studies
33%
15%
12% Vlerick
USA
EU
Within 3
years after
10% B
completing studies
19%
10%
7%
Source: Ministry of Economical Affairs/Netherlands

13. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Italy
Japan
Azores
Belgium
Denmark
Russia
Germany
Romania
Spain
Portugal
Slovenia
Sweden
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Malaysia
Switzerland
Greece
Croatia
Israel
Finland
France
Tunisia
United Kingdom
Korea
Ireland
Egypt
Hungary
Netherlands
United States
Norway
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Australia
Worldwide 2010 (Source GEM)
Macedonia
Taiwan
Turkey
South Africa
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Latvia
West Bank & Gaza Strip
Mexico
Jamaica
Iceland
Uruguay
Iran
Costa Rica
% 18-64 pop [7/10] YES: Expects to start a new business in the next 3 years
Argentina
China
Intentions to set up a business within 3 years:
Montenegro
Trinidad & Tobago
Guatemala
Chile
% 18-64 pop [7/10] TEA involvement: setting up firm or owner of young firm (SU or BB)
Brazil
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru
Uganda
Angola
Zambia
Ghana
Bolivia
Vanuatu

14. What keeps people from setting up
their own ventures?
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17. ENTREPRENEURSHIP = ?
An entrepreneur is someone who creates a
business in the face of uncertainty by
identifying significant opportunities and
assembling the necessary resources to
capitalize on them
Scarborough
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20. Source: Knaup & Piazza, 2008
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22. Central questions in entrepreneurship!
What process can help you:
to identify/create and implement
opportunities?
to deal with uncertainty?
to deal with limited resources?
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23. TERRACYCLE (A): BUILDING A VENTURE WITH
SPINELESS EMPLOYEES

24. WHO IS TOM SZAKY?
the Autonomous Management School of Ghent University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

25. WHAT IS THE BUSINESS IDEA?
What convinced him there was an
opportunity?
the Autonomous Management School of Ghent University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

26. WHAT WENT WRONG?
the Autonomous Management School of Ghent University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

27. WHAT DID HE LOSE?
the Autonomous Management School of Ghent University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

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32. CONCLUSION
Entrepreneurship is the process of identifying
and exploiting opportunities
A key question in entrepreneurship is how to
deal with uncertainty in an efficient way
Start-ups try, they fail, they adapt, they move
on. They try, they fail, they adapt, they move
on.
Learning and flexible adaptation is key in an
entrepreneurial setting
You need to manage downside risk to be able to
iterate
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