FIFTYFIFTY Business from Entrepreneurship

Taking the RISK out of Risk-taking

This book is an attempt to provide insights into so many questions arising from the fact that business and entrepreneurship have come to be recognized as related fields of inquiries, theories and practices. Within the last two to three decades, quantitative methods have been brought to bear on the study of business and entrepreneurship. Tried as many have, to separate business from entrepreneurship, the obvious is presented by the submission of this book that any business enterprise created from or established on entrepreneurship principles has a higher probability of survival than the business enterprise that has no such foundation.

The title of this book thus draws from the fact that business and entrepreneurship are fifty percent theory and fifty percent practice, on one hand, while on the other hand, it also establishes the fact that the success of a business enterprise is predicated upon the entrepreneur's understanding and application of the principles of entrepreneurship in the business enterprise.

Entrepreneurship is about taking risk, since the entrepreneur is expected to muster resources together to transform the opportunities identified into innovative products that will solve the societal problems. However, in taking risk with his resources, the entrepreneur tries to take away the risk by paying attention to all the variables and yardsticks that could make the risk manifest, thus taking the RISK out of risk taking. It is therefore fifty-fifty as the business enterprise emerges from entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur takes the risk away from taking risk.