Chapter 1

1. How do you define entrepreneurship, new entrepreneurship education and

paradigm?
Entrepreneurship can be defined as the desire of one to make a difference in their lives
and lives others by giving something of value to oneself and others. Entrepreneurship is
a way for individuals to grow and improve their local communities
2. Has entrepreneurship development in academic curricula evolved over the
years? Give examples.
8. What role has venture capital played in this economic transformation?
9. It is often argued that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. How and why has
the entrepreneurial revolution affected this stereotype? What are its implications?
10. What has happened to large and established companies as a result of this surge by
entrepreneurial upstarts?
Chapter 2
1. What is entrepreneurial leadership?

Business leaders are often critical over the lack and quality of decision-making
being taken within their organisations. They become frustrated when seemingly
straightforward decisions are referred upstairs or, worse still, avoided. The net result
is often a dismayed customer, a loss of revenue and the emergence of a bigger
issue. Designed for medium and large organisations (MLE), the OBD Entrepreneurial
Leadership programme helps develop the entrepreneurial skills and mind-set of key
staff, to help them stay competitive in a fast changing world. We believe the
entrepreneurial philosophy is at the heart of all successful businesses, big or small.
Put simply, the entrepreneurial philosophy means thinking of your business as if it
were your own. When managers get back into the business having completed the
programme, they do so with greater confidence, which then pervades the
organisation as a whole.

2. What is the difference between a manager and a leader?

3. Define the seven major themes that characterize the mind-sets, attitudes, and actions
of a successful entrepreneur. Which are most important, and why? How can they be
encouraged and developed?
4. Entrepreneurs are made, not born. Why is this so? Do you agree, and why or why
not?
5. Explain what is meant by the apprenticeship concept. Why is it so important to young
entrepreneurs?
6. What is your personal entrepreneurial strategy? How should it change?
7. What is one persons ham is another persons poison. What does this mean?
8. Can you evaluate thoroughly your attraction to entrepreneurship?
9. Who should be an entrepreneur and who should not?
Chapter 3

1. Can you define what is meant by classic entrepreneurship and the high-potential
venture? Why and how are threshold concepts, covering your equity, bootstrapping of
resources, fit, and balance important?
2. How many additional metaphors and paradoxes about entrepreneurship can you
write down?
3. People dont want to be managed, they want to be led. Explain what this means and
its importance and implications for developing your own style and leadership
philosophy.
4. What are the most important determinants of success and failure in new businesses?
Who has the best and worst chances for success, and why?
5. What are the most important things you can do to get the odds in your favor?
6. What criteria and characteristics do high-growth entrepreneurs, venture capitalists,
and private investors seek in evaluating business opportunities? How can these make a
difference?
7. Define and explain the Timmons Model. Apply it and graphically depict, as in the
Google example, the first five years or so of a new company with which you are familiar.
8. What are the most important skills, values, talents, abilities, and mind-sets one needs
to cultivate as an entrepreneur?
Chapter 4
1. In what ways does looking through a sustainability lens change how an entrepreneur
approaches a new venture opportunity?
2. Explain how thinking like a molecule is related to the entrepreneurial process.
3. Why has the clean commerce domain become one of the hottest for venture capital
investors?
4. How has the communications revolution become a major driver of entrepreneurial
thinking and opportunities in sustainable, green business models?
5. How can entrepreneurs use the increasingly stringent product, raw material, and
manufacturing process laws (particularly in Japan and in Europe) to their advantage?
Chapter 5
1. What is the difference between an idea and a good opportunity?
2. Why is it said that ideas are a dime a dozen?
3. What role does experience play in the opportunity creation process, and where do
most good opportunities come from? Why is trial-and-error learning not good enough?
4. List the sources of ideas that are most relevant to your personal interests, and
conduct a search using the Internet.
5. What conditions and changes that may occur in society and the economy spawn and
drive future opportunities? List as many as you can think of as you consider the next 10
years.
6. Evaluate your best idea against the summary criteria in Exhibit 5.8. What appears to
be its potential? What has to happen to convert it into a high-potential business?
7. Draw a value chain and free cash flow chain for an existing business dominated by a
few large players. How can you use the Internet, personal computer, and other

information technology to capture (save) a significant portion of the margins and free
cash flows?
Chapter 7
1. What are the differences among socially responsible ventures, social ventures, and
enterprising nonprofits?
2. Why are corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities not considered to be part of
the domain of social entrepreneurship?
3. What are three characteristics of wicked problems?
4. What is meant by the concept of double bottom line with regard to socially focused
investing?
5. What is an example of a wicked problem facing humanity, and what types of
opportunities might arise for social entrepreneurs in that space?
Chapter 8
1. What is a business plan, for whom is it prepared, and why?
2. What should a complete business plan include?
3. Who should prepare the business plan?
4. How is the plan used by potential investors, and what are the four anchors they are
attempting to validate?
5. What is a dehydrated business plan, and when and why can it be an effective tool?
6. Explain the expression, The numbers in the plan dont matter.
7. How can entrepreneurs use the business plan process to identify the best team
members, directors, and value-added investors?
8. Prepare an outline of a business plan tailored to the specific venture you have in
mind.
Chapter 9
1. What are the differences between an entrepreneurial
leader and an administrator or manager?
2. How do founders grow their ventures beyond $10
million in sales, and why is the team so important?
3. Define the stages that most companies experience as
they grow, and explain the leadership issues and
requirements anticipated at each stage.
4. Describe what is meant by team philosophy and
attitudes. Why are these important?
5. What are the most critical questions a lead entrepreneur
needs to consider in thinking through the team issue?
Why? What are some common pitfalls in team building?
6. What are the critical rewards, compensation, and
incentive issues in putting a team together? Why are
these so crucial and difficult to manage?
7. How does the lead entrepreneur allocate stock ownership and options in the new
venture? Who should
get what ownership, and why?

8. Can you compare and describe the principal differences in leadership, management,
and organization
between the best growing companies of which you
are aware and large, established companies? Why are
there differences?
9. What drives the extent of complexity and difficulty of
issues in a growing company?
10. What would be your strategy for changing and creating an entrepreneurial culture in
a large, nonentrepreneurial firm? Is it possible? Why or why not?
Chapter 10
1. What conclusions and insights emerged from the
ethics exercise?
2. Why have ethical stereotypes emerged, and how have
they changed?
3. Why is ethics so important to entrepreneurial and
other success?
4. Why do many entrepreneurs and CEOs believe
ethics can and should be taught?
5. What are the most thorny ethical dilemmas that
entrepreneurs face, and why?
6. Describe an actual example of how and why taking a high
ethical ground results in a good decision for business.
Chapter 11
1. Entrepreneurs think and act ingeniously when it
comes to resources. What does this mean, and why is
it so important?
2. Describe at least two creative bootstrapping
resources.
3. Why will the Internet become an increasingly important gateway to controlling
resources?
4. In selecting outside advisors, a board, consultants,
and the like, what are the most important criteria,
and why?
Chapter 12
1. Can you describe the difference between the franchisor and the franchisee? How are
these differences
strategically aligned to create a competitive
advantage?
2. We describe franchising as a pathway to entrepreneurship that provides a spectrum
of entrepreneurial opportunities. What does this mean to you?
3. What are the most important factors in determining
whether franchising is an appropriate method of
rapidly growing a concept?

4. What are the five components of the franchise relationship model? Can you describe
the interactive
nature of these components?
5. Why do you think the public franchisors consistently
outperform the S&P 500?
6. What would be the most attractive aspects of franchising to you? What is the least
attractive part of
franchising?
Chapter 13
1. Define the following and explain why they are important: burn rate, free cash flow,
fume something, time
to clear, financial management myopia.
2. Why is entrepreneurial finance simultaneously both
the least and most important part of the entrepreneurial process? Explain this paradox.
3. What factors affect the availability, suitability, and
cost of various types of financing? Why are these
factors critical?
4. What is meant by free cash flow, and why do entrepreneurs need to understand this?
Chapter 14
1. What is meant by the following, and why are these
important: cover your equity; angels; venture capital;
valuation; due diligence; IPO; mezzanine; SBIC; private placement; Regulation D; Rules
504, 505, and
506; and ESOP?
2. What does one look for in an investor, and why?
3. How can founders prepare for the due diligence and
evaluation process?
4. Describe the venture capital investing process and its
implications for fund-raising.
5. Most venture capitalists say there is too much money
chasing too few deals. Why is this so? When does this
happen? Why and when will it reoccur?
6. What other sources of capital are available, and how
are these accessed?
7. Explain the capital markets food chain and its implications for entrepreneurs and
investors.
Chapter 17
1. Why have old hierarchical management paradigms
given way to new organizational paradigms?
2. What special problems and crises can new ventures
expect as they grow? Why do these occur?
3. What role do the organizational culture and climate
play in a rapidly growing venture?

4. Why is the rate of growth the central driver of the

challenges a growing venture faces?
5. What do entrepreneurs need to know about how
companies get into and out of trouble? Why?
6. Why do most turnaround specialists invariably discover that management is the root
cause of trouble?
7. Why is it difficult for existing management to detect
and to act early on signals of trouble?
8. What are some key predictors and signals that warn
of impending trouble?
9. What diagnosis is done to detect problems, and why
and how does cash play the central role?
10. What are the main components of a turnaround plan,
and why are these so important?
11. What is the chain of greatness, and how can entrepreneurs benefit from this
concept?
Chapter 18
1. What are the entrepreneurial implications of not appreciating or understanding the
role and contribution
of families to the economies of our communities and
countries?
2. Describe the advantages of a more formal approach
for each of the roles families play in the entrepreneurial process. Give a few contrasting
examples
from a family firm with which you are familiar.
3. Define family enterprising, familiness , and relationship capital and relate each of
them to the Timmons
Model of the entrepreneurial process.
4. Choose a family firm with which you are familiar and
plot them on the mind-set and methods model. Describe the firm in light of the mind-set
and method
definition. Make six recommendations for what they
could do to become more enterprising.
5. How do the six dimensions for family enterprising
relate to one another? How do they enhance family
enterprising? Describe how the six dimensions can
be used to stimulate positive family dialogue.
6. If a family is trying to find their competitive advantage, how can the familiness
assessment approach help them? How is the familiness approach a more
formal application of the entrepreneurial process?
How can the familiness approach change the family
dialogue?
7. Given the familiness assessment of Backerhaus Veit
in the chapter, describe why Sabine should or should
not partner with Toby to implement his business

plan. Describe the familiness action steps that they should take if you say they should
launch the business. Describe the familiness reasons for why they
possibly should not launch the business.
8. Assess a family firm with which you are familiar on
the familiness resource and capabilities continuum.
Describe what action steps they need to take to enhance their competitive advantage as
a family
organization.