Entrepreneurship and ICTs: The Art of Making Things Happen
It's not about formal skills and it's certainly not about your shape or your size. What it is about is making things happen: having the attitude of mind to deal with impossible problems, being able to mould a team and squeeze money out of investors. That's the low-down on ICT entrepreneurs as contained in a CD-rom called 'Entrepreneurship and ICTs: The Art of Making Things Happen'. The CD-rom, produced by the organisation Balancing Act (http://balancingact-africa.com), aims to help entrepreneurs who want to launch a business in the ICT sector or who are already running an ICT business and want to find ways of developing.
Entrepreneurship and ICTs: The Art of Making Things Happen
It’s not about formal skills and it’s certainly not about your shape or your size. What it is about is making things happen: having the attitude of mind to deal with impossible problems, being able to mould a team and squeeze money out of investors.
That’s the low-down on ICT entrepreneurs as contained in a CD-rom called ‘Entrepreneurship and ICTs: The Art of Making Things Happen’. The CD-rom, produced by the organisation Balancing Act (http://balancingact-africa.com), aims to help entrepreneurs who want to launch a business in the ICT sector or who are already running an ICT business and want to find ways of developing.
The publication is a comprehensive reference kit for anyone already in or wanting to enter the ICT field in Africa, but would also be valuable reading for anyone interested in the African ICT sector.
Through an easy-to-use, step-by-step, HTML-based navigation system, the CD begins by describing what it means to be an entrepreneur, looking at both the positive and negative aspects – from the freedom of being your own boss to having to mortgage your house. If you’ve been there, you’ll know the score.
There are a lot of good ideas out there – and bad ones, explains the CD in a section entitled ‘Starting with the good idea’. This useful section looks at how ideas are generated and how to avoid the bad ones, giving examples of those that have worked and looking at the growth of the ICT sector in Africa and the trends and associated ideas related to mobile phones, wireless technologies and smart cards.
“Africa lacks people who are prepared to think creatively about using technology: they exist but they are too few in number. It needs to find ways of encouraging this next wave of ICT entrepreneurs to make a difference to how business is done and in so doing also begin to change how life is lived on the continent,” says the CD.
Everyone knows that a great idea is not a measure of success and that if not developed properly, it will lead nowhere. This is where the CD comes into its own by giving an insight into what is needed to turn a good idea into a business venture. In ‘Planning a Business Idea’, the CD asks critical questions central to formulating a business idea and gives an outline structure for presenting that idea. There is also a section on the skills needed, including management, finance, technical and sales.
The Art of Making Things Happen does not ignore the relevancy of entrepreneurship for civil society organisations and NGOs. It argues that some of the same attitudes and approaches that inform putting together a for-profit business can be helpful for the not-for-profit sector.
It points out that entrepreneurially-minded individuals often run some of the most successful not-for-profit organisations.
“The discipline of asking who the users of a not-for-profit service might be is not so different from trying to identify paying customers. The intended user group might not pay for the service but you’ll need to know as much about them as you can if your work is going to be successful and connect with their needs,” says the CD.
Further sections include the importance of strategic alliances and services and a useful section providing sources of information that can be followed up on – ensuring that the learning curve does not stop when the CD-Rom in your computer drive stops spinning.
An added bonus on the CD are back issues of Balancing Act’s newsletter. The back issues on the CD-Rom are to help all those users who want to make regular use of past information without the expense of going online. The CD-Rom contains a search engine that will allow you to use key words to find subjects, countries or companies that you are interested in. News Update is produced by Balancing Act as part of its mission "to facilitate the development of content for the internet and other new media technologies in Africa that will have an impact on people's lives and that they will want to use, with a particular focus on cultural content".
* If you would like to order copies of this CD, you can send a cheque or money order for £35 or US$50 (includes postage and packing) payable to Balancing Act to Balancing Act's News Update, 71 Crescent Lane, London SW4 9PT, UK. e-mail your message to [email protected].
ENDS