Lesson # 54 : Have we changed the definition of the word entrepreneur?

There's this sudden craze all around. Everyone wants to suddenly leave their job and do the unconventional. Everyone imagines that in the very first try they are going to set up the next Facebook, Apple or Google.
Almost every second person things he or she is going to create a business, scale it and eventually sell it for millions. The point being most of us today have started to link entrepreneurship to a quick fix solution to our long term wealth problem.

What right does one have to call himself/herself an entrepreneur if their sole purpose is to make money. They are capitalists at best. But entrepreneurs? Hell no.

What right does a person who jumps from one business idea to another without successful execution of even a single idea have to call himself/herself an entrepreneur?

What right does a person who simply copies the business model of another have the right to call himself/herself an entrepreneur. He/She is simply a thief.

These are simple questions that have simple answers. Most of the readers shall state but what right has Mark Zuckerberg to call himself an entrepreneur when he simply lifted the concept of Facebook from the Winkelvosses and Divya Narendra. What right has Steve Jobs to call him an entrepreneur when he was simply a marketer?

The world is changing and the lines between a businessmen and entrepreneur, an entrepreneur and a marketer have started to diminish.

As with everything else we have started to rethink and reinvent traditional definitions of the word 'Entrepreneur'.

The question that remains is whether changing the definition is the solution? Are we ready to accept Entrepreneurs as they are being shaped  or are we ready to draw lines to clearly demarcate who we wish to see as an entrepreneur. Perhaps this is wishful thinking but then again it may not be.

On behalf of Doodle inc
Udit Sabharwal

Lesson # 53 : Going East

Everything that we see around us be it the television, the ipad, the iphone, the kindle or even the very laptop that the author is using to type this article all of these have a common thread running through each of them. Apart from being modern marvels of the 21st century each of these have been manufactured in China.

Most of the readers at this point of time shall put forward the simple question, "So what's the big deal?"

This trend is an indication of where the world is headed. A greater number of American Corporations are outsourcing or rather already have successfully outsourced their manufacturing to China.

While this trend has been seen primarily in Electronics other industries such as Clothing, Footwear etc are also following suit.

This in itself has created a sort of Symbiotic relationship between the creators and the manufacturers.

We need to clearly establish that if we are taking the example of Apple and their Iphone. Then in this case while the world may predominantly think that the Iphone was manufactured by Apple what must be stated is that Apple is simply the creator.

Hence, generalising this we can state that the creator is a company that is behind the research and development of the product, it is also in charge of marketing and selling the product, it is even in charge of after sales service and repairs. But the creator is not in charge of manufacturing the product.

The world over it is known that a greater number of Apple products are manufactured by Foxconn. Hence, in this case Foxconn is the manufacturer and not Apple.

This simple example is an indicator of where the world is headed. Most of the big brands of the world would rather spend on research and development rather than manufacture good solid hardware.

Though, this trend is now slowly seeing a change with Motorola deciding to set up a factory and employ local workers from nearby states in the US.

What needs to be seen however in the coming years is whether if large corporations shall be able to balance out their research and development and new products with good solid hardware manufacturing done locally in factories set up in the country of origin of these global conglomerates.

On behalf of Doodle inc
Udit Sabharwal