Why would Asterix and Obelix be a successful entrepreneurial founding pair?

Résumé du document

In this essay, our purpose is to prove that diversity in an entrepreneurial team often leads to success and that, reciprocally, failures may often be explained by the narrow-mindedness resulting from a too homogeneous partnership. When we talk about diversity, we talk about complementary intellectuals, with cultural and technical assets and backgrounds. If there is diversity, there should never, ever, whatsoever, be any misunderstanding when it comes to the goals and strategy of the new firm, and if possible a convergence in the partners interests. However, there is no magic solution in entrepreneurship or we would all be rich; the point is that the more diversity, the more knowledge, the bigger the networks, the more the financial resources, hence our conclusion advocating a thorough dual-competencies training of the entrepreneur, making the existence of entrepreneurship studies even more relevant. This research essay is three-fold: the first section raises the issue of diversity leading to successful entrepreneurial adventures, the second section looks at several cases in which too much homogeneity necessarily leads to failure, and, last but not least, the third section focuses on looking for entrepreneurial success, going over family businesses and very well educated entrepreneurs, in order to validate our initial statement.

Extraits

[...] Folker When He and She Sell Seashells: Exploring the Relationship Between Management Team Gender-Balance and Small Firm Performance Journal Of Developmental Entrepreneurship Vol No.4 December generations of successful entrepreneurs in the family can be a very valuable asset22. Their father, who had set up his own ‘related' business after working for his father for twenty years, was instrumental in making them understand the value of healthy sibling-relationships, as well as teaching them the trade, from a very early age. While benefiting from this experience, the brothers still developed capabilities in different, but complementary, areas finance, marketing and operations management leading them to run a successful business with an annual growth-rate of roughly over 5 years, earning them a place in Inc.com's top-100 growing businesses of 1999. [...]

[...] Meindl, Margarita Mayo and Juan Carlos Pastor Shared Leadership In Work Teams: A Social Network Approach Instituto de Empressa Working Paper Reginald A. Litz and Cathleen A. Folker When He and She Sell Seashells: Exploring the Relationship Between Management Team Gender-Balance and Small Firm Performance Journal Of Developmental Entrepreneurship Vol No.4 December Empire of the Sons, Inc. Magazine, May 1999 (http://www.inc.com/magazine/19990501/780.html) 20. Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos, FastCompany Issue 85 August 2004 (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/85/bezos_1.html) 21. Alcatel Telecom transforms technicians into managers, Training & Management Development Methods; 2003 Appendix Source: Andrea B. [...]

[...] But on the other hand, for an organisation to effectively capture the effects of complentary assets and learning, through the sharing of tacit and articulated knowledge, there needs to be a common frame of reference. In terms of leadership, a good collaboration would involve partners focussing on their individual expertise, whilst as an extra activity implementing strategy together17. This could serve as the glue holding the organisation together. A certain homogeneity amongst partners has several positive effects, such as increased trust, less conflict, and better communication C. [...]

[...] Marco van Gelderen, Maryse Brand, Mirjam van Praag & Wynand Bodewes' “Some advances in the explanation of entrepreneurial intentions” TO BE PUBLISHED SOON, 2004-2005; d. Marco van Gelderen, Lidewey van der Sluis & Paul Jansen' “Learning Opportunities and Learning Behaviours of Small Business Starters: Relations with Goal Achievement, Skill Development, And Satisfaction”, Erasmus Research Institute of Management Report Series, 2004; e. Andreas Rauch & Michael Frese' “Psychological approaches to entrepreneurial success: A general model and an overview of findings”, unknown source MIT Open Course Ware MIT Sloan School of Management Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial Organization Dr. [...]

[...] What do academics think of diversity being a key to entrepreneurial success? On the one hand, there is most of the time a need for partners: the technical complexity of nowadays' projects urges the one who had the initial idea to build a team of skilled and team-wise people around him5. As an example and confirmation, in the mushrooming sector of biotechnologies, building a team with the necessary skills to ensure the credibility of the new venture is key to a good entrepreneurial start. [...]