Enter the precious ship of entrepreneurship

I was delighted to be the keynote speaker at the first-ever Entrepreneur Seminar held in Kandy last Saturday.

- Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri

It was heartening to see a lot of start-ups, small and medium-scale enterprises being represented by aspiring men and women having one thing in common. That is to go, grow and glow. In an environment where the relevance of entrepreneurs to the economic growth of Sri Lanka is extremely high, is the emphasis adequate? Today's column is an attempt to highlight salient features of entrepreneurship in the context of Sri Lanka.

Overview

"If you just work on stuff that you like and you're passionate about, you don't have to have a master plan with how things will play out," so said Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

It highlights the mind of an entrepreneur. It is interesting to investigate what entrepreneurship is all about. The textbook description tells us that it is the capacity and willingness to develop, organise and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. The most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the start of new businesses.

As we know, in economics, entrepreneurship combined with land, labour, natural resources and capital can produce profit.

Entrepreneurial spir it is characterised by innovation and risk-taking and is an essential part of a nation's ability to succeed in an ever changing and increasingly competitive global marketplace. It includes identifying opportunities and transforming them into viable ventures, involving innovation, risk-taking, and a drive to create value.