{"id":1651,"date":"2020-11-30T16:31:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T16:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/escp.eu\/thechoice\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2021-03-23T10:21:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T10:21:46","slug":"think-like-an-entrepreneur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/escp.eu\/thechoice\/choose-to-lead\/think-like-an-entrepreneur\/","title":{"rendered":"To face uncertainty, think like an entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whether you call it entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship, the curiosity to learn and the desire to create new ideas can be applied no matter where you work. If you\u2019ve started your own company or work for a major consulting firm, the basic characteristics of good entrepreneurs, such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, can help you create value for your business, clients and teams.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After participating in ESCP\u2019s Art Thinking<\/a> workshop, Jolanda Burgers-Pas<\/strong><\/a>, Manager in Business Engineering at IG&H, and Isabell Schastok<\/strong><\/a>, Manager for People & Organization Transformation at Capgemini Invent, did not experience a revelation about how important entrepreneurship is. They already knew it was. Rather, they learned to think about entrepreneurship in a different way and developed tools to help them make decisions in uncertain situations.<\/mark> They shared their key takeaways from the experience for The Choice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new mindset to confront the status quo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the consulting arena, we as intrapreneurs tend to focus on management principles. We are very goal-oriented and know exactly what to do to reach those goals,\u201d<\/em> says Burgers-Pas. \u201cBut what if your goal isn\u2019t clear and your environment is uncertain?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where thinking like an artist and an entrepreneur can come into play. Like artists who consistently challenge the status quo, \u201cwe can\u2019t just rely on the existing infrastructures \u2013 we also have to adapt them for a new purpose,\u201d <\/em>explains Sylvain Bureau<\/strong><\/a>, ESCP Professor of Entrepreneurship and creator of the Art Thinking<\/a> method, in an article with the Financial Times<\/a>. \u201cHow do we find new means to achieve new goals? The challenge is not to think about a new, perfect society, but to rearrange our existing system to produce new solutions.<\/mark>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By applying the Art Thinking approach and the Effectuation Theory of Entrepreneurship<\/a>, Burgers-Pas and Schastok learned to work from a mindset that allows you to start with what resources you have at hand, accept certain losses, embrace surprises, create partnerships, and control what you can.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBy validating the taken-for-granted assumptions and destroying the existing ones, it helped us to uncover unforeseen opportunities,\u201d <\/em>says Schastok. \u201cFurther, I felt reminded to try less to predict the future and apply more often the <\/em>Pilot-in-the-Plane Principle<\/em><\/a> of Effectuation, to concentrate on the activities that are within my control. Instead of investing a lot of effort in predicting the future, I will rather work on identifying my \u2018means\u2019 and building a \u2018crazy quilt\u2019, a network of self-selected stakeholders, that will help me experiment, to decrease the uncertainty over time, and to shape the future.<\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Isabell
Isabell Schastok<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Jolanda
Jolanda Burgers-Pas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI firmly believe that we really have to adopt different skills in order to produce the improbable with certainty,\u201d <\/em>adds Burgers-Pas. \u201cI learned that I need to use a different approach in order to become more creative, find more distinctive solutions and be able to obtain more enduring results. Rather than focusing on others\u2019 needs or focusing on my goals, it would be more fruitful to put something of myself, my means (my passion, my expertise, my knowledge and network) into my creation.<\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Manager or Intrapreneur . . . you can be both<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, innovation is not only a key competitive advantage for organisations, but also the ability to manage an organisation through uncertainty. The pandemic is putting organisations’ entrepreneurial ways of working and thinking to the test,\u201d<\/em> explains Schastok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies need an entrepreneurial mindset in their organisation across all roles and responsibilities. They need more employees with the ability to see opportunities and willing to take the risk to implement them.<\/p>Isabell Schastok<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom that point of view, I consider myself as an Intrapreneur, always open for new opportunities and change, ready to add sugar to the lemons of life and make lemonade out of it! Willing to learn based on failure and courageous enough to take a risk and experiment,\u201d <\/em>adds Schastok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Burgers-Pas\u2019 experience, one of the common traits between both managers and intrapreneurs is the ability to connect team members and establish means of \u201csmart collaboration\u201d. <\/strong>\u201cI try to combine different skills so that we are able to offer an end solution to our clients that consists of multi-perspective insights and leads to a more creative and distinctive solution in the end.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As consultants, Burgers-Pas and Schastok work to help their clients build similar leadership skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our understanding, digital leadership roles combine various skills, attitudes and behaviours to answer flexibly to the VUCA challenges (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity),\u201d<\/em> explains Schastok. \u201cWe therefore enable leaders along 4 roles, Intrapreneur being one of them:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n