Page 129 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

118 Thomas S. Lyons, Gregg A. Lichtenstein, and Nailya Kutzhanova

establishment of a new, complementary function whose exclusive pur-
pose is to create a pipeline of highly skilled entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneur Development Sub-System of the ELS brings together
three major sets of activities in support of developing entrepreneurs’ skills
so that they can move their companies through the stages of the business
life-cycle more efficiently and effectively:

1. Talent scouting
2. Opportunity scouting
3. Performance coaching

Using a variety of tools and techniques tailored to the specific context,
the ELS provides a talent scouting function. Both aspiring and current en-
trepreneurs are identified and brought into the system. The chief prerequi-
sites are proper motivation and a goal of growing one’s business. The en-
trepreneurs are oriented to entrepreneurship, especially if they are just
starting, and to the ELS. Those who are in the pre-venture stage are helped
with identifying a market opportunity, developing an offering, and prepar-
ing to launch their venture.
The opportunity scouting function of the Entrepreneur Development
Sub-System of the ELS involves the use of “scouts” responsible for identify-
ing market opportunities. These scouts scour the community, looking every-
where, including shop floors; hospitals; university, private, and government
laboratories; and unused patents, among other sources. These opportuni-
ties are then assembled into an “opportunity register,” which can be used to
match opportunities and potential entrepreneurs.
Care is taken to ensure that each entrepreneur has a skill set appropriate
to the identified opportunity. This is essential to the long-term success of
the new enterprise. As an example, it takes a more sophisticated skill set to
run a chain of restaurants than it does to operate a single restaurant. An en-
trepreneur in the ELS who is a restaurateur will not be rushed into running
a chain of restaurants until such time as his or her skills are up to the task.
Another part of the opportunity scouting function is the pursuit of oppor-
tunities for strategic alliances among companies in the system to capture
new business as a group.
Performance coaching involves classifying entrepreneurs by skill level, us-
ing the assessment tool discussed above. Entrepreneurs are then clustered
by skill level into “Success Teams”; thus, there is a Rookie Success Team, a
Single A Success Team, and so forth. Assembling entrepreneurs at like skill
levels for coaching purposes is crucial as we have found that they interact
better when they are in true peer groups.
Each success team is assigned a “performance coach.” This individual
helps each entrepreneur in the team prepare a “game plan” for developing