The document discusses the definition and role of entrepreneurs. It provides several definitions of entrepreneurs from different scholars over time, highlighting that entrepreneurs take risks to start businesses by identifying opportunities to fulfill needs in the marketplace. The document also outlines key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs like creativity, passion, risk-taking ability, and focusing on customers. Finally, it discusses the importance of entrepreneurs in economic development and growth by creating jobs, wealth, innovation and promoting overall development.

1.  A person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of
profit.
 An entrepreneur is an individual who identifies a need in the marketplace and works
fulfill it. The term, historically, has been applied to an individual who starts a business,
the ability to fulfill that identified need as an economic opportunity.
 The word “entrepreneur” originates from a thirteenth-century French verb,
meaning “to do something” or “to undertake.” By the sixteenth century, the noun
entrepreneur, was being used to refer to someone who undertakes a business venture.
Definition of Entrepreneurship

2. Social Entrepreneurship
 What Is Social Entrepreneurship?
 How Do We Define Social Entrepreneurship?
 Examples Of Social Entrepreneurship
 Types Of Social Entrepreneurship
 Business Entrepreneurship And Social Entrepreneurship
 Characteristics Of A Social Entrepreneur
 A Social Entrepreneur Needs A Vision

4.  The concept of entrepreneurship is understood in different manners by different
scholars and authors. There is no one consensual definition of the term among
the experts.
 Different dimensions have been used to explain the term. The definitions also
vary with the passes of time.

5.  It is the astounding forces of man that indebted our civilization with varieties of
products, among technologies, and breakthrough thoughts.
 It affects all aspects of political-legal, sociocultural, technological, economic and
demographical environment of life and society. Entrepreneurship is the
pioneering force that connects the world societies with its activity of exchange
from the early period of our human history.
 It is a basic strength of business organizations too. The provocation of change
toward future business prosperity is the result of the entrepreneurial zeal of the
people. Therefore entrepreneurship is a basic discipline to learn for the student
of business.

6.  Entrepreneurship is that form of social decision making performed by economic
innovators.” -Robert K. Lamb (1952).
 Lamb describes entrepreneurship as an act of economic activity engaged in
innovation He also points out the social orientation of entrepreneurship as it is
involved with social good and welfare.
 “Entrepreneurship is the purposeful activity of an individual or a group of associated
individuals, undertaken to initiate, maintain or aggrandize profit by production or
distribution of economic goods and services.” – A.H.Cole (1959).
 The definition recognizes entrepreneurship as a deliberate human activity for
earning profit through economic activities of production and or distribution of goods
and services.
 It may be an individual or a group activity. But the central focus is profit-making.
That is. to initiate, maintain or increase profit, entrepreneurship is undertaken
 “Entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental wealth.” – Robert
C. Ronstadt (1984)

7. Origin of Entrepreneurship
 The term entrepreneurship is derived from a French word ‘Entreprendre’ which
means ‘to undertake’, ‘to pursue opportunities’, or ‘to fulfill needs and wants
through innovation and starring businesses’. The word first appeared in the
French dictionary in 1723.
 It is believed that the Irish Banker operating in France, Ricardo Cantillon (Kent,
1984) was the first person who used the word ‘entreprendre’ in economics as
“an agent who assembles material/inputs for producing goods at a specific price
and through coordination of those inputs produces goods whose sales price is
uncertain in comparison with production cost”.
 It is also believed that the Frenchman J.B. Say (1824) first used the term
‘entrepreneur’ as an economic agent who brought together the factors of
production in such a way that new wealth can be created.
 Oxford English dictionary adopted the word ‘entreprendre’ as “entrepreneur” in
1897 and meant;
 “director or manager of a public musical institution; one who gets up
entertainments, especially musical performance”.

8.  Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1961) takes it as;
 ‘an organizer of an economic venture, especially one who organizes, owns,
manages, and assumes the risk of a business’.
 The Oxford English dictionary has revised the meaning of entrepreneur in /
1933 and meant ‘a contractor acting as an intermediary between capital and
labor”.
 Today, entrepreneurship is used with different meanings such as innovating,
risk-bearing, adventurism, wealth creation, thrill-seeking, etc.

9.  According to Schumpeter, “Entrepreneurship is based on purposeful and
systematic innovation. It included not only the independent businessman but
also company directors and managers who carry out innovative functions”.

10. Innovation
 Innovation, i.e., doing something new or something different is a necessary
condition to be called a person as an entrepreneur.
 The entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout to do something different and
unique to meet the changing requirements of the customers.
 They may or may not be inventors of new products or new methods of production,
but they possess the ability to foresee the possibility of making use of the inventions
for their enterprises. Let some facts speak.
 To satisfy the changing preference of customers, nowadays fruit juice is sold in
small cartons (Mango Fruity) instead of bottles so that customers can carry it and
throw away the container after drinking the juice. Let us take another example.
 Lipton offers its tea in small packs known as ‘PUDIYAS’ to meet the requirements of
its rural customers.
 You may have heard of Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company in the
United States.
 Remember, Henry Ford himself did not invent the automobile. Foreseeing the
people’s desire to have passenger cars at somewhat lower rates, he applied new
methods of mass production to offer passenger cars to the customers at an
affordable price.

11. 10 Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur
 1) Creativity:
 Creativity gives birth to something new. For without creativity, there is no innovation possible.
Entrepreneurs usually have the knack to pin down a lot of ideas and act on them. Not necessarily
every idea might be a hit. But the experience obtained is gold.
Creativity helps in coming up with new solutions for the problems at hand and allows one to think
of solutions that are out of the box. It also gives an entrepreneur the ability to devise new
products for similar markets to the ones he’s currently playing in.

12.  2) Professionalism:
 Professionalism is a quality which all good entrepreneurs must possess. An entrepreneurs
mannerisms and behavior with their employees and clientele goes a long way in developing the
culture of the organization.
Along with professionalism comes reliability and discipline. Self-discipline enables an
entrepreneur to achieve their targets, be organized and set an example for everyone.
Reliability results in trust and for most ventures, trust in the entrepreneur is what keeps the
people in the organization motivated and willing to put in their best. Professionalism is one of the
most important characteristics of an entrepreneur.

13.  3. Risk Taking: A risk-taking ability is essential for an entrepreneur. Without the will to explore
the unknown, one cannot discover something unique. And this uniqueness might make all the
difference. Risk-taking involves a lot of things. Using unorthodox methods is also a risk. Investing
in ideas, nobody else believes in but you is a risk too.
Entrepreneurs have a differentiated approach towards risks. Good entrepreneurs are always
ready to invest their time and money. But, they always have a backup for every risk they take.
For exploring in the unknown, one must be bestowed with a trump card; a good entrepreneur has
one, always. Also, evaluation of the risk to be undertaken is also essential. Without knowing the
consequences, a good entrepreneur wouldn’t risk it all.

14.  4) Passion:
 Your work should be your passion. So when you work, you enjoy what you’re doing and stay
highly motivated. Passion acts as a driving force, with which, you are motivated to strive for
better.
It also allows you the ability to put in those extra hours in the office which can or may make a
difference. At the beginning of every entrepreneurial venture or any venture, there are hurdles
but your passion ensures that you are able to overcome these roadblocks and forge ahead
towards your goal.

15.  5. Planning: Perhaps, this is the most important of all steps required to run a show. Without
planning, everything would be a loose string as they say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Planning is strategizing the whole game ahead of time. It basically sums up all the resources at
hand and enables you to come up with a structure and a thought process for how to reach your
goal.
The next step involves how to make optimum use of these resources, to weave the cloth of
success.Facing a situation or a crisis with a plan is always better. It provides guidelines with
minimum to no damage incurred to a business. Planning is one of the most important

16.  6. Knowledge:
 Knowledge is the key to success. An entrepreneur should possess complete knowledge of his niche or industry. For
only with knowledge can a difficulty be solved or a crisis is tackled.
It enables him to keep track of the developments and the constantly changing requirements of the market that he is
in. May it is a new trend in the market or an advancement in technology or even a new advertiser’s entry, an
entrepreneur should keep himself abreast of it. Knowledge is the guiding force when it comes leaving the
competition behind. New bits and pieces of information may just prove as useful as a newly devised strategy.
He should know what his strengths & weaknesses are so that they can be worked on and can result in a healthier
organization.
A good entrepreneur will always try to increase his knowledge, which is why he is always a learner. The better an
entrepreneur knows his playground, the easier he can play in it.

17. 7. Social Skills

18.  skillset is an arsenal with which an entrepreneur makes his business work. Social Skills are also
needed to be a good entrepreneur. Overall, these make up the qualities required for an
entrepreneur to function.
Social Skills involve the following:Relationship Building
 Hiring and Talent Sourcing
 Team Strategy Formulation

19.  8. Open-mindedness towards learning, people, and even failure:
 An entrepreneur must be accepting. The true realization of which scenario or event can be a useful opportunity is
necessary. To recognize such openings, an open-minded attitude is required.
An entrepreneur should be determined. He should face his losses with a positive attitude and his wins, humbly. Any
good businessman will know not to frown on a defeat. Try till you succeed is the right mentality. Failure is a step or a
way which didn’t work according to the plan. A good entrepreneur takes the experience of this setback and works
even hard with the next goal in line.
This experience is inculcated through the process of accepted learning. Good entrepreneurs know they can learn
from every situation and person around them. Information obtained can be used for the process of planning.
Learning with an open mind lets you look at your faults humbly. New information always makes an entrepreneur
question his current resolve. It also provides a new perspective towards a particular aspect. Open-mindedness also
enables you to know and learn from your competition

20. 9. Empathy

21.  Empathy:
 Perhaps the least discussed value in the world today is empathy or having high emotional intelligence.
Empathy is the understanding of what goes on in someone’s mind. This a skill that is worth a mention.
A good entrepreneur should know the strengths and weaknesses of every employee who works under
him.You must understand that it is the people who make the business tick! You’ve got to deploy
empathy towards your people.
Unhappy employees are not determined and as an entrepreneur, it is up to you to create a working
environment where people are happy to come. To look after their well-being, an entrepreneur should
try to understand the situation of employees. What can be a motivational factor? How can I make my
employees want to give their best? All this is understood through empathy.
Keeping a workplace light and happy is essential. For without empathy, an entrepreneur cannot reach
the hearts of employees nor the success he desires. Empathy is one of the most
important characteristics of an entrepreneur.

22.  10) And lastly, the customer is everything:
 A good entrepreneur will always know this; a business is all about the customer. How you grab a
customer’s attention is the first step. This can be done through various mediums such as marketing
and advertising.
It is also important that you know the needs of your customers. The product or service which is being
created by your organization needs to cater to the needs of your consumers. Personalising a business
for consumers will also boost the sales.
The ability to sell yourself in front of a potential investment when it comes in the form of a customer is
also required. Being ready with the knowledge to please a customer, is a way to have a successful
business.
It isn’t necessary that every entrepreneurial venture is a huge success. In addition to a brilliant idea,
viability is an equally important aspect of a business, which is where having a business education can
play an important role. All these characteristics of an entrepreneur can be instilled in an individual

23.  HOW ENTREPRENEURS THINKEntrepreneurs think differently from
nonentrepreneurs. Moreover, an entrepreneur in a particular situation may
think differently from when faced with some other task or decision
environment. Entrepreneurs must often make decisions in highly uncertain
environments where the stakes are high, time pressures are immense, and
there is considerable emotional investment. We all think differently in these
strained environments than we do when the nature of a problem is well
understood and we have time and rational procedures at hand to solve it.
Given the nature of an entrepreneur’s decision-making environment, he or
she must some- times (1) think structurally, (2) engage in bricolage, (3)
effectuate, and (4) cognitively adaptability

24. Role of Entrepreneurs in economic
Development
 1. Wealth Creation and Sharing:
 By establishing the business entity, entrepreneurs invest their own resources
and attract capital (in the form of debt, equity, etc...) from investors,
lenders and the public. This mobilizes public wealth and allows people to
benefit from the success of entrepreneurs and growing businesses. This kind
of pooled capital that results in wealth creation and distributions is one of the
basic imperatives and goals of economic development.

25.  2. Create Jobs: Entrepreneurs are by nature and definition job creators, as
opposed to job seekers. The simple translation is that when you become
entrepreneurs, there is one less job seeker in the economy, and then you
provide employment for multiple other job seekers. This kind of job
development.
 3. Promotes capital formation: Entrepreneurs promote capital formation by
mobilization the ideal savings of public which is very essential for the
industrial and the economic development of the country.

26.  4. Creates Large-Scale Employment Opportunities: Entrepreneurs provide
immediate large scale employment to the unemployed which is chronic
problem of under developed nations
 5. Promotes the balanced regional development: Entrepreneurs help to
remove regional disparities throw setting up of industries in less developed
and backward areas.
 6. Reduces concentration of reduces economic power: Economic power is the
natural outcome of industrial and business activity.
 7. Wealth Creation and Distribution: It Stimulates equitable distribution of
wealth and income in the interest of the country to more people and
geographic areas .

27.  8. Increasing gross national product and per capital income: Entrepreneurs
always look out for opportunities they explore and explicate opportunities,
encourage affective resource mobilization of capital and skill.
 9. Improvement in the standard of living: increasing in the standard of living
of the people is a characteristic feature of economic development of the
country.
 10. Promotes country export trade: Entrepreneurs promoting help in a country
export trade which is an important ingratiate of economic development.
 11. Entrepreneurs create new business: stimulation of related businesses or
sectors that support the new ventures adds to for the economic development.

28.  12. Facilities and over all development: entrepreneurs act as catalyst agent
for change which results in chain reaction. Once an enterprise is established
the process of industrialization is set in motion.
 13. Creating innovation: an entrepreneur is a person who always looks for
change apart from combining the factors of production; he also introduces
new ideas and new combination of factors.
 14. Entrepreneurship helps better distribution of wealth and investment.

29. Importance of Entrepreneur in Economic Growth
 “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and
magic in it.” The words are attributed to German author and natural philosopher
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but they seem to name the essence of the
entrepreneurial spirit.
 An entrepreneur is a person who perceives a need then brings together manpower,
material and capital required to meet that need. In other words an entrepreneur is an
individual or team that identifies the opportunity, gathers the resource, creates and
ultimately responsible for the performance of the organization.

30.  Entrepreneurship is one of the most important input in the economic development of
a country. The entrepreneur acts as a trigger head to give spark to economic activities
by his entrepreneurial decisions. He plays a pivotal role not only in the development of
industrial sector of a country but also in the development of farm and service sector.

31.  1. Capital Formation
 Entrepreneurs promote capital formation by mobilizing the idle savings of public.
Entrepreneurs by placing profitable business proposition attract investment to ensure
private participation in the industrialization process.
 The otherwise idle savings are channelized for investment in business ventures which in
in turn provides return. Again the savings are invested giving a multiplier effect to the
process of capital formation.
 They employ their own as well as borrowed resources for setting up their enterprises.
Such type of entrepreneurial activities leads to value addition and creation of wealth,
which is very essential for the industrial and economic development of the country.

32.  2. Balanced Regional Development
 The entrepreneurs always look for opportunities in the environment. They capitalize on
on the opportunities of governmental concessions, subsidies and facilities to set up
their enterprises in undeveloped areas. This helps to remove regional disparities
through setting up of industries in less developed and backward areas.
 The growth of industries and business in these areas lead to a large number of public
benefits like road transport, health, education, entertainment, etc. Setting up of more
industries leads to more development of backward regions and thereby promotes
balanced regional development.

33.  3. Generate Employment
 Growing unemployment particularly educated unemployment is the acute
problem of the nation. The available employment opportunities can cater only 5
to 10 % of the unemployed. Entrepreneurs generate employment both directly
and indirectly. Directly, self-employment as an entrepreneur and indirectly by
starting many industrial units they offer jobs to millions. Thus entrepreneurship
is the best way to fight the evil of unemployment.
 If hundred people become entrepreneurs, they not only create jobs for
themselves but also will provide jobs for hundred more people. As the
enterprises grow these create more direct or indirect jobs in the market.
 In this way, entrepreneurs play an effective role in reducing the problem of
unemployment in the country which in turn clears the path towards economic
development of the nation.

34.  4. Improve Standard of Living
 Entrepreneurial initiative through employment generation leads to increase in
income and purchasing power which is spent on consumption expenditure.
Increased demand for goods and services boost up industrial activity.
 Large scale production will result in economies of scale and low cost of production.
Modern concept of marketing involves creating a demand and then filling it.
 Increase in the standard of living of the people is a characteristic feature of
economic development of the country. Entrepreneurs play a key role in increasing
the standard of living of the people by adopting latest innovations in the production
of wide variety of goods and services in large scale that too at a lower cost. This
enables the people to avail better quality goods at lower prices which results in the
improvement of their standard of living.

35.  5. Increase in Per Capita Income
 Entrepreneurs convert the latent and idle resources like land, labor and capital
into goods and services resulting in increase in the national income and wealth
of a nation.
 Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for opportunities. They explore and
exploit opportunities,, encourage effective resource mobilization of capital and
skill, bring in new products and services and develops markets for growth of the
economy. In this way, they help increasing gross national product as well as per
capita income of the people in a country.
 The increase in national income is the indication of increase in net national
product and per capita income of the country.

36.  6. Economic Independence
 Entrepreneurship is importance for economic self-reliance. Businessman export and import
goods and services on a large scale and earn the scarce foreign exchange for the country. Such
import substitution and export promotion help to ensure economic independence of the
country.
 7. Creating Innovation
 An entrepreneur is a person who always looks for changes. Apart from combining the factors of
production, he also introduces new ideas and new combination of factors. He always try to
introduce newer and newer technique of production of goods and services. An entrepreneur
brings economic development through innovation.
 According to Meir and Baldwin, development does not occur spontaneously as a natural
consequence when economic conditions in some sense are right. A catalyst is needed which
results in entrepreneurial activity to a considerable extent. The diversity of activities that
characterizes rich countries can be attributed to the supply of entrepreneurs.

37. Women Entrepreneurs
 WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Women are
regarded as nuclei of a nation and the builder and molder of its destiny.
Women entrepreneurs have become an important part of national
development planning and strategies. Women entrepreneurship is not a
singular narrative rather it is located in a complex set of caste, class, religion
and ethnic identities. It is heavily dependent on many variables that include
geographical location (rural/urban) educational status, social status (caste
and class) and age.

38.  The Indian economy has been witnessing drastic changes since mid-1991 with new
policies of economic liberalization, globalization and privatization initiated by the
Indian government. India has great entrepreneurial potential. At present women‟s
involvement in economic activities is marked by a low work participation rate,
excessive concentration in the unorganized sector and employment in less skilled
jobs. Any economic strategy aimed at economic development will be lop-sided
without involving women who constitute half of the world population. Evidence
has unequivocally established that entrepreneurial spirit is not a male prerogative.
Women entrepreneurship has gained momentum in the last three decades with the
increase in number of women enterprises and their substantive contribution too
economic growth. Women entrepreneurship has been recognized during the last
couple of decades as an important untapped source of economic growth.

39.  The age old traditions and taboos arresting the women within the four walls
of their houses also make their conditions more disadvantageous. These
factors served as non-conducive conditions for the emergence and
development of women entrepreneurs in the country. Given such conditions,
the development of women entrepreneurship is expectedly low in the
country. This is well indicated by the facts that women constitute 48 per cent
of the total population in India, but form 34 per cent total work force, 11 per
cent of total entrepreneurs and around 6 per cent of total self employed in
the country. But in developed countries like United States women own nearly
30 per cent of businesses and form over 70 per cent of new businesses.

40.  In India women‟s entry into business is a new phenomenon. Initially women‟s
entry to business or say entrepreneurship is traced out as an extension of
their kitchen activities mainly to make pickles and pappad. Women in India
plunged into business due to both pull and push factors. Pull factors imply the
factors which encourage women to start a venture to do something
independently. Push factors refer to those factors which compel women to
take up their own business to tide over their economic difficulties. With
growing awareness about business and spread of education among women
over the period women have started shifting from 3 Ps to 3modern Es viz.,
engineering, Electronics and Energy. Women entrepreneurs manufacturing
solar cookers in Gujarat, small foundries in Maharashtra and TV capacitators
in Orissa have proved beyond doubt that given the opportunities, they can
e x c e l t h e i r m a l e c o u n t e r p a r t s .

41.  The Government of India for the first time prepared new Small Enterprise
Policy titled “Policy measures for promoting and strengthening and
supplementing „Small, Tiny and Village Enterprises, 1991 stressed the need
for conducting special entrepreneurship development programme for women
with a view to encourage women to enter industry. There are several
institutional arrangements both at the centre and state levels devoted to the
protection and development of women entrepreneurs in the economy.

42.  Following are some illustrative ones:The Small Industries Development Bank
of India (SIDBI) has developed a fund called „Mahila Vikas Nidhi‟ for the
development of women entrepreneurs in rural areas.The State Bank of India
has introduced the “Shree Shakti Package for women entrepreneurs‟ to
provide them concessions and special training facilities.The Mahila Udayam
Nidhi Scheme‟ introduced by the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI)
provides equity type of assistance to women entrepreneurs for setting up new
industrial projects in small sector.The Rashtriya Mahila Kosh‟ was set up in
1993 to grant micro credit to poor women entrepreneurs at nominal rates of
interest involving simple procedures.NAYE has set up a women wing, in 1975
to impart training to women entrepreneurs and organize exhibitions for
p r o d u c t s o f w o m e n e n t r e p r e n e u r s .

44.  The Government of India for the first time prepared new Small Enterprise
Policy titled “Policy measures for promoting and strengthening and
supplementing „Small, Tiny and Village Enterprises, 1991 stressed the need
for conducting special entrepreneurship development programme for women
with a view to encourage women to enter industry. There are several
institutional arrangements both at the centre and state levels devoted to the
protection and development of women entrepreneurs in the economy.
Following are some illustrative ones:

45. Sources of New Ideas for
Entrepreneurs
 The entrepreneurial idea is a feasible, financially sound, technically possible,
and socially acceptable idea of a project or product that may have utility lo
perspective customers.
 Customers
 Prospective customers know best what they want and the habits/tastes that will
be popular shortly.
 New product or service ideas may come from customers’ reactions to the
present product and the expected product idea.
 Contacts with prospective consumers can also reveal the features that should
be built into a product or service.
 The attention to the customers can take the form of informally monitoring
potential ideas and needs or formally arranging surveys among prospective
customers

46.  Existing Organisations:
 Competing products and services of existing organizations and evaluation
thereof is a successful source of new ideas.
 Frequently, this analysis uncovers ways to improve on these offerings, resulting
in a new product that has more market appeal.
 The analysis of profitability and break-even level of various industries or
organizations indicate promising investment opportunities which are profitable
and relatively risk-free.
 An examination of the capacity utilization of various industries provides
information about the potential for further investment.

47.  Distribution channels
 Member of the distribution channels; intermediaries, transient customer preference, and
possible expectations may be a good business idea.
 Not only do channel members frequently have suggestions for completely new products,
but they can also help in marketing the entrepreneur’s newly developed products.
 Government
 The government can be a source of new product ideas in many ways.
 First, the files of the Patent Office contain numerous new product possibilities. They can
suggest other more marketable new product ideas.
 Secondly, new product ideas can respond to government regulations, industrial policy,
investment guidelines, annual plan, Five-year plan, etc.
 Thirdly, several government agencies nowadays assist entrepreneurs in discovering
evaluating business ideas.
 Fourthly, government publications on trade and industry can also help set new venture
ideas.

48.  Financial institutions and Development Agencies
 These organizations also provide ready projects and offer suggestions to
potential entrepreneurs who help identify promising projects.
 Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Small Business
Administration, Office of Advocacy, United States Chamber of
Commerce, Economic Development Administration, Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Council, House Committee on Small Business,

49.  Research and Development
 The entrepreneur’s own “research and development” is the largest source of
new ideas. It may be a more formal endeavor connected with one’s current
employment or an informal laboratory in the private premises.
 Formal institutional research and development are often better equipped,
enabling the entrepreneur to conceptualize and develop successful new
product ideas.

50.  Trade Shows, Fairs aid Exhibitions
 These sources display new products and innovations in processes and services.
 An innovative entrepreneur can get product ideas to adapt or modify and
produce with indigenous materials and technology.
 Focus Groups
 Focus groups are good sources of product ideas.
 A moderator leads a group of people through an open, in-depth discussion
rather than simply asking questions to solicit participant response; for a new
product area, the moderator focuses the group’s discussion in either a directive
or a nondirective manner.
 The group of 8 to 14 participants is stimulated by comments from other group
members to conceptualize and develop a new product idea to fulfill market
needs.
 This is an excellent method for initially screening ideas and concepts too.

51.  Brainstorming
 The brainstorming method for generating new product ideas is based on the fact that people
can be stimulated to greater creativity by meeting with others and participating in organized
group experiences.
 This method would be effective if the effort focuses on a specific product or market area. The
following four rules should be followed when using this method:
 No criticism is allowed by anyone in the group – no negative comments.
 Freewheeling is encouraged- the wilder the idea, the better.
 Quantity of ideas is desired- the greater the number of ideas, the greater the likelihood of useful
ideas emerging.
 Combinations and improvements of ideas are encouraged – ideas of others can still produce
another new idea.
 The brainstorming session should be fun, with no one dominating or instituting the discussion.

52.  Heuristics Method
 Heuristics relies on the entrepreneur’s ability to discover through a progression of
thoughts, insights, and learning.
 The technique is probably used more than imagined because entrepreneurs
frequently must settle for an estimated outcome of a decision rather than a certainty.
 One specific heuristic approach is called the heuristic ideation technique (HTT).
 The technique involves locating all relevant concerts – that could be associated with
a given product area and generating a set of all possible combinations of ideas.
 Value analysis Method: The value analysis technique develops methods for
maximizing value to the entrepreneur and the new venture. It is a method for
developing a new idea by evaluating the worth of aspects of ideas.
 Under this technique, regularly scheduled times are established to develop,
evaluate, and refine ideas.

53.  Checklist Method
 A new idea is developed through a lot of related issues or suggestions.
 The entrepreneur can use the list of questions or statements to guide the direction of developing entirely new ideas or
concentrating on specific “idea” areas. The checklist may take any form and be of any length.
 One general checklist is :
 Put to other uses? New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified?
 Adapt? What else is like this? What other ideas does this ‘ suggest? Does the past offer parallel? What could I copy?
Whom could I emulate?
 Modify? New twist? Change meaning, sour, motion, odor, form, shape? Other changes?
 Magnify? What to add? Plus ingredient? Duplicate? Multiply? Exaggerate?
 Minify? What substitute? Smaller? Condensed? Miniature? Lower? Shorter? Lighter? Omit? Streamline? Split up?
Understated?
 Substitute? Who else instead? What else instead? Another ingredient? Other material? Another process? Other power?
Other places? Other approaches? Other tones of voice?
 Rearrange? Interchange components? Other Pattern? Other layouts’.’ Other sequences? Transpose cause and effect?
Change pact? Change schedule?
 Reverse? Transpose positive and negative? How about opposites? Turn it backward? Turn it upside-down? Reverse
roles? Change shoes? Turntables? Turn other cheeks?
 Combine? How about a bend, an alloy, an assortment, an ensemble? Combine units? Combine purposes? Combine
/appeals? Combine ideas?

54.  Synectics Method
 Synectic is a creative process that forced individuals to solve problems through
four analogy mechanisms: ‘ personal, direct, symbolic, and fantasy. A group
works through a two-step process.
 The first step is to make the strange familiar.
 Through generalizations or models, this involves consciously reversing the
order of things and putting the problem into a readily acceptable or familiar
perspective, thereby eliminating the strangeness.
 Once the strangeness is eliminated, participants engage in the second step,
making the familiar strange through personal, direct, or—symbolic analogy,
which ideally results in a unique solution being developed

55.  Dream Approach
 The big dream approach to coming up with a new idea requires that the
entrepreneur dreams about the problem and. Its solution- thinking big.
 Every possibility should be recorded and investigated without regard to all the
negatives involved or the resources required.
 In other words, ideas should be conceptualized without any constraints until an
idea is developed into a workable form.

56.  Market Gap Analysis
 Market gap analysis is a powerful method used to uncover areas in the market in which
the needs and wants far exceed the supply.
 This method has a hopper or gathering effect of converting everyday information into
bunches of lucrative product and service gaps that few have thought of before.
 Life-style analysis Method
 Entrepreneurs can use lifestyle analysis effusively for product-service ideas. Lifestyle is a
person’s pattern of living expressed in his or her psychographics (Kotler and Armstrong.
181:2001).
 It involves measuring consumers’ major activities (work, hobbies, shopping, sports, social
events), interests (food, fashion, family, recreation), and opinions (about themselves,
social issues, business, products).
 The lifestyle analysis will help entrepreneurs understand new needs and want under the
changed conditions. It will also reflect the changing consumer values that may be a good
source of product-service ideas.