Chapter 4: Enterprise Notes

Question 1

Explain entrepreneurship/enterprise

Answer 1

-Any attempt to start or do something new.
-Involves taking initiative and using your creativity to identify a gap (niche) in the market and take steps to fill that gap.
-Enterprise involves taking both a personal and financial risk.

Question 2

Explain Entrepreneur. Give an example.

Answer 2

A person who spots an opportunity and takes the initiative to set up a business in the hope of making a profit.
They take a personal and financial risk to do this but are rewarded if the business succeeds by making a profit.
E.g. Mark Zuckerberg

Question 3

Give an example of enterprise in the home, community, school and public life.

Answer 3

Home-Parents draw up a rota for doing chores.
Community-Community comes together to enter tidy towns competition.
School-Teacher runs extra curricular activity
Government-Minister for finance set up NAMA

Question 4

Give four reasons enterprise is important in a business.

Answer 4

-Idea generation
-Intrapreneurship; lowers costs or increases sales.
-Creation of wealth; profit for employers or increased wages for employees.
-Taxes

Question 5

Explain four reasons enterprise is important in the community.

Answer 5

Job generation-more jobs, means higher wages and standard of living.
Local economy-new money got from jobs is spent on local services and shops.
Encourages enterprise-People are inspired by their local people and motivates them to be entrepreneurs.
Taxes-Government receives taxes from new business and pays out less social welfare. Increases money available to spend on schools, hospitals in area.

Question 6

List the 9 characteristics of an entrepreneur.

Answer 6

1. Pro-active
2. Risk taker
3. Ruthless
4. Independent
5. Self-motivated
6. Confidence
7. Need for achievement
8. Creative
9. Decisive

Question 7

Explain pro-active as a characteristic of an entrepreneur. Give an example.

Answer 7

Entrepreneurs don’t sit around waiting for things to happen, they make things happen. They take action to get ideas up and running and achieve their goals.
E.g. Setting up a business

Question 8

Explain independent as a characteristic of an entrepreneur. Give an example.

Answer 8

-Like to be in charge.
-Like working for themselves
-Like to be the boss and not be told what to do.
E.g. Self-employed plumber

Question 9

Explain risk taker as a characteristic of an entrepreneur.

Answer 9

-Not afraid to take a chance even though they may fail.
-They stand to lose all money invested and self esteem if business fails.
-They take sensible risks with a good chance of success.
E.g. Using your savings to set up a business

Question 10

Explain confident as a characteristic of an entrepreneur.

Answer 10

-They believe in themselves and their ideas.
-They aren’t put off by what others say or think and do not give up when they suffer setbacks.
E.g. When one business fails and you set up another successful one.

Question 11

Explain creative as a characteristic of an entrepreneur.

Answer 11

-They are inventive and they use their imagination to develop original products/services.
-Think outside the box
E.g. Mark Zuckerberg coming up with facebook

Question 12

List the skills of entrepreneurs.

Answer 12

-Human relations
-Time management
-Risk management
-Decision making
-Reality perception
-Flexibiltiy

Question 13

Explain human relations as a skill of an entrepreneur.

Answer 13

-Good with people. They can bring out the best in a person. They persuade people do what the business needs.
E.g. Persuading a bank to give you a loan to set up your business

Question 14

Explain decision making as a skill of an entrepreneur.

Answer 14

-Involves analysing a problem and coming up with a list of possible solutions.
-Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages so the best possible option can be chosen from all the solutions.
E.g. Deciding whether to locate a factory in Ireland or China

Question 15

Explain Time management as a skill of an entrepreneur.

Answer 15

Completing all essential tasks in the time available so as to achieve business goals. Good at prioritising to ensure all important work gets done. May list tasks and allocate a time for them.
E.g. Ensuring all deliveries are ready on time.

Question 16

Explain risk management as a skill of an entrepreneur.

Answer 16

Planned approach for minimising risks that the business faces. Try to stop bad things happening and manages risk by 1) Identifying Risk, 2) Cost to business if risk happens, 3) Cost to protect the business, 4) Protect the business if the cost of protection is far less.
E.g. Insurance, Proper Training, Security Measures

Question 17

What is intrapreneurship? Give two examples.

Answer 17

Intrapreneurship is when an employee works within a business and shows enterprise. They use their initiative and come up with new ideas to help the business succeed.
E.g. Microsoft Xbox was developed by employees.
Amazon Prime developed by employees

Question 18

List three advantages of Intrapreneurship and explain them.

Answer 18

-Competitive advantage-Intrapreneurship leads to economic stability. New ideas help a business adapt to a changing marketplace and remain competitive. Which gives the business a better chance of survival.
-Motivation-Gives employee opportunity to be creative and makes their jobs more challenging/rewarding. This leads to better job satisfaction and productivity.
-Increased Sales/Lower Costs-New ideas help the business sell more by increasing sales or reducing costs.

Question 19

List four ways a business can encourage intrapreneurship and explain them. Give an exmaple for the last one.

Answer 19

-Freedom to fail-Learning from failures can lead to enterprise and an environment with no penalties for failure encourages new ideas.
-Financial Rewards-Business compensates employees for their ideas. Such as bonuses or profit sharing which motivates employees to be intrapreneurs because the more the business profits from their idea the more they earn.
-Teamwork-Teams allow for brainstorming which produces more creative ideas and allows employees to build on each other ideas. Each member has different ideas.
-Formal Structure-Giving employees time out for innovation, and setting up procedures to make sure ideas go somewhere. Common in technology companies.
E.g. Google allows 20% of their time on company related work to be a personal interest project.