The ‘Innovative’ University Change Academy: 7 th & 8 th July 2009

The Changing Sector HEFCE Cap Reduced Budgets Signalled Challenging Economic Climate Increasing Levels of Competition Quality of Provision & of Service, Responsiveness, Relevance, Engagement in the Local & Regional Economic Development, Income & profit generation & the ability to adapt

Our Strategic Plan ‘The Innovative University – sustaining, pioneering, transforming’ ‘learning, community & service’ ‘developing an enterprising environment for our students and staff’

Innovation & Enterprise…  A clear set of ambitions, driven by you  Encouraging enterprising behaviours  Reducing duplication of effort  A climate that is less risk averse  Real & on-going encouragement & support  Investment – time, money & related resources

Enterprise ‘a project or undertaking that is especially risky, difficult or complicated’ ‘a systematic or purposeful activity’ ‘a readiness to engage in daring or difficult action’

Entrepreneurship ‘the practice of starting a new organisation or re-vitalising a mature organisation generally in response to identified opportunities’

Entrepreneurial Behaviours & Values  Initiative taking  Ownership of a development  Commitment to see things through  Strategic thinking  Negotiation capacity  Selling/persuasive capacity  Networking capacity  Intuitive decision making with limited information  Incremental risk taking  Strong sense of independence  Self made/self belief  Strong sense of ownership  Strong belief in the value of freedom to take action  Hard work brings its rewards  Distrust of bureaucracy  Strong action orientation  Belief in informal relationships  Belief that you can make things happen

Some of the characteristics of an entrepreneur….(1)  Enthusiastic vision, the driving force of an enterprise.  A vision that is usually supported by an interlocked collection of specific ideas not available to the marketplace.  The overall blueprint to realise the vision is clear, however details may be incomplete, flexible, and evolving.

Some of the characteristics of an entrepreneur….(2)  The entrepreneur takes the initial responsibility to cause a vision to become a success.  Entrepreneurs take prudent risks. They assess costs, market/customer needs and persuade others to join and help.  An entrepreneur is usually a positive thinker and a decision maker.

Entrepreneurs….the downside  Tough, pragmatic people driven by needs of independence and achievement. They seldom are willing to submit to authority. (Collins and Moore, 1970)  Prone to insights, brainstorms, deceptions, ingeniousness and resourcefulness. They are cunning, opportunistic, creative, and unsentimental. (Bird, 1992)  Entrepreneurs exhibit extreme optimism in their decision-making processes. (Cooper, Folta & Woo, 1993)  Prone to overconfidence and over generalisations. (Busenitz and Barney, 1997)  Calculating inventors, the over-optimistic promoter (Cole, 1959)

Entrepreneurship… in an HE environment Risk (Randomness with knowable probabilities) Ambiguity (Randomness with unknowable probabilities) True Uncertainty (Where the outcome is impossible to calculate)

Entrepreneurship  Risk Measurable statistically (such as the probability of drawing a red colour ball from a jar containing 5 red balls and 5 white balls).  Ambiguity Hard to measure statistically (such as the probability of drawing a red ball from a jar containing 5 red balls but with an unknown number of white balls).  True Uncertainty Where it is impossible to estimate or predict statistically (such as the probability of drawing a red ball from a jar whose number of red balls is unknown as well as the number of other coloured balls). Frank Knight, Risk, Uncertainty & Profit (1921)