Why do I pick this topic? Firstly, this is inspired by a proposal from Madam Li Biqi, organizer of the conference, who has been advocating “good guy economy”. then we agree on the topic of Chinese entrepreneurship based on goodwill. After 16 years’ striving, people from organizers to participants are pursuing the answer of what is true entrepreneurship and I am very delighted to attend this forum and talk about my opinions on this topic.
People have been arguing the issue that whether the entrepreneurs are exploitative since before the reform and opening up. According to Marx’s theory of surplus value, the surplus value that is produced by production factors is occupied by entrepreneurs. However, a new element is added into production factors: entrepreneurship, which should be paid off in an objective, legal and fair manner. Therefore, we can introduce the justifiable function of entrepreneurs and I wonder if you agree with me on the opinion that entrepreneurs are wealth creator rather than exploiting class. Success of entrepreneurs stems from setting goals and satisfying social meets by making use of knowledge, value and emotion.
A survey conducted in 2007 shows that the most hated three types of people in the society were officials, stars and entrepreneurs then. Nowadays, views changed as people know the rapid economic growth can’t be achieved without entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs have two important tasks include mobilizing resources and achieve to the goals set by enterprises. To this end, we have four possible ways in this area. Among them, the worst one is that goals are missed with resources wasted and the optimized way is to achieve the goal while conserve the resources. However, it is the entrepreneurs rather than the government who can follow the latter option, by which I mean goals achieved with making full use of the resources.
According to J.A.Joseph Alois Schumpeter, whose key theory is destructive innovation, entrepreneurship includes three parts: innovation, vision and creativity. With innovation, entrepreneurs are never satisfied with what they have already achieved. With vision, entrepreneurs can take action when others are worried about risks. With creativity, they can create new products, find new ways for marketing. Another important way is to establish new organization mode for both corporation governance and business model.
According to M.kirzner, entrepreneurs have two merits. Firstly, entrepreneurs are sensitive than normal people so they can sense opportunities in lives which are viewed as nothing than usual. Secondly, they are capable of learning knowledge in various cases from ways to do business to truth in lives.
Libin Stan thinks entrepreneurs act as bridge between market and social demands, especially when it comes to the market failure. In China where the market hasn’t fully worked, entrepreneurs play a very important role while rewarded with numerous opportunities.
The economist McClellend argues that entrepreneurs are not purely driven by profits. He thinks their dreams are the constant inspiration and they also pursue power. What’s more, they need sense of belongings by establishing organizations to differentiate themselves from merchants.
I would like to conclude that entrepreneurs present are driven by dreams rather than profits or benefits.
A modern management master Peter Drucker once said that entrepreneurs should have capability to spot opportunities faced with social problems or global problem. I will take the energy structure as an example. 70% of China’s energy supply is provided by coal while the world’s average is only 29%, even in the underdeveloped countries. Therefore, change energy structure and improve the utilization can be a good opportunity.
What is the difference between entrepreneurs and politicians? I have two opposite examples. One is Ralph Nade , American politician and lawyer, who initiated consumer right movement. The facts he noticed the serious defects in car design motivated him to be a leader of consumption right protectors and an politician later. However, Wang Hai established four companies to chase profits by utilizing counterfeiting rights after he found the defects in products. I think this is the difference between politicians and entrepreneurs.Michael E.Porter, an active management scientist who believes that the entrepreneurship spirit should be embodied and expressed in corporate culture. As a organizer, entrepreneurs who can’t shape a good corporate culture can’t perform well.
As far as I am concerned, I think there are four tasks for entrepreneurs. Firstly, entrepreneurs need to explore lager markets while knowing what is right thing to do in order to achieve the goals. Secondly, entrepreneurs shall have their own business mode and strategy. Thirdly, they need to keep in line with the economical and political trend. Fourthly, they need to build up the brand for themselves, organizations and products.
I conclude six aspects of entrepreneurship by what is described by management scientists and economists. Firstly, they are bold enough to take risk. After matters are cleared up and risks disappear, entrepreneurs are not needed any more because employees are capable of taking care of the matter then. Secondly, vision, innovation and communication ability are necessary for entrepreneurs. Finally, they are supposed to have capability to organize and take quick action , which means they can take action when others are still hesitating. With these qualities, entrepreneurs are ethics-driven.
Let’s see why should we promote ethics and make it a standard for competing. We call the ethical behavior social license. The business environment has been changing over the past three decades. Three decades ago, the key factor for success was production rate while two decades ago was production capacity. Ten years ago it was your sales capability and public awareness of the product that mattered and things changed when it came to five years ago when companies need to design products that can meet consumers’ need. Today, however, meeting the public expectation becomes the focus of competition. Therefore, I will talk about what the entrepreneurs are supposed to do today.
The entrepreneurs need to make decisions based on changing social needs and competition, which is called shared value in management. As our market and economic mode are changing, the economic mode has reached the fourth stage, where we have turned to focus on shared value.
In this time, innovation and hard work are not enough to achieve success. There is another important factor called goodwill economy. What is it? It is similar to the conception of “no harm” in western civilization. There is similar idea in oriental civilization called sense of dishonor. I think we have reached a common ground on the business ethics. Therefore, goodwill economy is a universal issue.
Business ethics requires corporations to make contributions to environment, economy and society. Brand value of corporations is built by the responsibilities they honored: economic responsibilities, legal responsibility, ethical responsibility and philanthropy responsibility.
To establish ethical economy requires us to make transformation in deep levels and explore real values. We also need to combine legitimacy, justification and sentiment and guide corporation with the converging point. Entrepreneurship in China involves Confucianism. One of Confucius’ Disciples said he would like to do what the public like, which Confucius disagreed with. Likewise, entrepreneurs should consider more than the need of customers.
Given it is not reasonable to do what the public like, can we refuse to do what the public hate? The answer is no according Confucius. All in all, entrepreneurs should not cater to unhealthy or unreasonable need. They need to make decisions based on their ethical judgment. Decision-making involves his experience, knowledge and understanding of values.
At last, I wish Chinese entrepreneurs can form a virtuous force that not only promotes development but also become model for international community in business rules.
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