Main Features of Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Management Essay

Main Features of Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Management - Essay Example This is why generating ideas is important, to identity potential innovations in either advertising or actual product development. Certain products and services have limited life cycles, meaning that they move from launch to growth to maturity in shorter periods of time (Keegan and Green, 2009). In order to maintain competitiveness, an entrepreneur must always develop new concepts in order to create products or services with longer sales potential and keep the business distinctive and original from competing firms. Strategic objectives are defined as â€Å"short-term statements that detail specifically how an organisation will achieve its long-term goals† (Nickels, McHugh and McHugh, 2005: 215). Once ideas have been generated about how the business will position itself, it is necessary to set-up and identify the steps required to achieve long-term strategy. This might include conceiving how to establish an organisational structure (vertical or horizontal), how to focus on human resources for people development, or determine advertising strategy. Objectives are important as they serve as a framework for how the business will achieve long-term market position or growth. Market analysis and market research Boone and Kurtz (2005) again identify the importance of market analysis, which is understanding what consumers value, their purchasing preferences and their lifestyle or family trends. A business must conduct either qualitative or quantitative research to determine how to segment customers for marketing and also how to target them effectively with promotions, pricing and advertising. The company can perform surveys or questionnaires, as two examples, in order to determine how it will provide effective products and services that will be appreciated and adopted by selected target customers. It is necessary for the entrepreneur to understand these consumer attitudes in a variety of different dimensions for the business to be able to compete successfully. Mark et analysis is about gaining knowledge of buyer behaviour and then applying customer service principles that will best satisfy customer needs. Market analysis is also about understanding the different forces that impact business success or will contribute to its failure. Michael Porter developed a framework known as the Five Forces Model that describes risk of competition, supplier and buyer power in the market, and threat of substitute products (Porter, 2011). A business needs to understand the volume of competition in the industry in order to develop a risk management model. Since entrepreneurs will also be procuring inventories from various vendors, the business needs to conduct market analysis to understand how much leveraging power it will have against suppliers and how to establish an efficient supply and value chain framework. It is vital to have knowledge of how the external market operates and this can only be accomplished through market analysis processes, such as PEST ana lyses. Understanding competition â€Å"To differentiate means to create a benefit that customers perceive as being of greater value to them than what they can get elsewhere† (Zwierzynski, 2009: 1). An entrepreneur must understand what competition is doing in terms of product delivery, service principles, or even advertising in order to create a unique market positioning strategy. Without knowledge of what competition is performing in the industry, it will be impossible to innovate to make differentiated products