Entrepreneurial Leadership

Assignment #1

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Joyce Harrison

The Business Enterprise

December 14, 2010

1. Discuss the common elements described in the theories/philosophies of Case, Kouzes, and Drucker including how their principles/strategies relate to the new definition of entrepreneurial leadership presented in Understanding Entrepreneurial Leadership in today’s Dynamic Markets.

According to Tarabishy, Fernald, and Solomon (Understanding Entrepreneurial Leadership in today’s Dynamic Markets, 2003, p.5), the “new definition of entrepreneurial leadership is one of an enterprising, transformational leader who operates in a dynamic market that offers lucrative opportunities”. This leader exhibits characteristics of clarity, communication, consistency, caring, creating opportunities, self-confidence, power need and its use, and vision. Entrepreneurial leaders are well equipped to define, develop and sustain the elements of an organization, i.e. how people deal with external forces and the need to change, goal achievement, the nature of organizational goals, how people work together to get the job done, and the strength of shared values and beliefs. Additional strengths of an entrepreneurial leader consist of the ability to recognize opportunities in a dynamic market, excels in leading firms that compete on the edge, ability to leverage knowledge gained and quickly disseminate it throughout their organization, can handle sudden change, and understand their resources and capabilities, aka core competencies.

Steve Case, former AOL CEO and Chairman, relied on People, Passion, and Perseverance, aka the 3 P’s, as assessment tools to help guide his direction and goals. His theory was when all 3 parts are in balance, an entrepreneur can achieve success like that of AOL; when unbalanced, the likely result will be failure, i.e. the AOL-Time Warner merger. Case believed innovation and risk-taking thru entrepreneurship are the two things to get...