Entrepreneurship Reading: Recognizing and Shaping Opportunities

Having an idea is just the first step in an entrepreneurial journey. Turning that idea into a compelling opportunity requires analytical capabilities, passion, and determination. Successful entrepreneurs know how to take their ideas and shape them into opportunities to create value for all stakeholders. Beginning with the stories of 3 entrepreneurial journeys, this Reading examines that process of identifying and shaping opportunities. Opportunity recognition and shaping comprise 3 distinct activities: (1) perceiving an unmet market need, or a capability that could meet a need that has yet to be identified; (2) discovering the fit between market needs and the capabilities and resources available to the entrepreneur; and (3) creating a product, service, or solution that can be delivered to a specific market to address a specific need while generating value for all stakeholders. The novelty of an entrepreneurial opportunity--whether in market need or in skills needed to execute--influences the level of uncertainty in the assumptions that the entrepreneur must make in shaping the opportunity, which, in turn, influences the level of risk. After sharing the journeys of 3 entrepreneurs, this Reading explores how entrepreneurs identify opportunities and ends by discussing how they shape them by crafting business models and identifying risks and uncertainty. Although entrepreneurial ventures are usually formed in an iterative rather than a sequential manner, and founders are engaged in multiple parts of the new-venture-formation process simultaneously, this Reading lays out sequential steps for simplicity.

• Innovation
• Risk management
• Business models
• Cash flow
• Start-ups
• Business lifecycle