The aim of this report is to discuss and compare two different entrepreneurs examining different factors: experience and history of the entrepreneurs, reasons to get involved in entrepreneurial activities, and opportunities which enterprisers engaged.
Entrepreneurship might be stated as the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled (Trammell, 2015).
The entrepreneurs that are going to be analysed are Michael Saul Dell and Amancio Ortega. The first one is an American billionaire magnate, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, which was first established in 1984. Dell is a US multinational computer technology company that develops, sells and fixes computers and related products (Dell, 1999). Ortega is a Spanish billionaire businessman, founder of the Inditex fashion group. Inditex is a Spanish brand first established in 1985, includes several fashion brands such as Zara clothing. (www.forbes.com).
Background
An entrepreneur could be defined as a person who sets up a business or businesses, bringing on financial risks in the hope of profit (www.lexico.com). Michael Dell comes from a wealthy family in Texas and enrolled at the University of Texas in 1983 (Dell,1999). It might be asserted that the businessman showed since an early age, traits that could be linked with entrepreneurial personality such as profit orientation and ability to take calculated risks. Personality could be described as the combination of characteristics that form an individual's distinctive character. The presence of dell’s traits might had led the entrepreneur to his success, which could be represented by his past experiences. Firstly, during High School Dell earned $18000 finding new customers for newspaper subscriptions for the Houston Post, in one single year (Dell,1999). During the first semester of College, the businessman was already selling upgraded pcs from his dorm room. However, he decided to leave College to concentrate on his business. (Dell,1999).
On the other hand, Amancio Ortega comes from a village in Spain. Due to financial problems, the businessman left school and started working at the age of 14 as a shop assistant. As Dell, Ortega showed a wide variety of characteristics associated with entrepreneurial personality such as self-efficacy and mind flexibility. Ortega’s confidence has been proven since 1950, when the entrepreneur set up his first business in Galicia, organizing women into sewing cooperatives. Additionally, the entrepreneur demonstrated flexibility, by progressively building new ideas, which made it possible to respond to consumer demand quickly. (astrumpeople.com).
Motivation could be defined as a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way (www.lexico.com). Two motivational factors might be stated as push and pull factors. Michael Dell’s entrepreneurial motivations may be represented by pull factors such as having a desire for independence, self-fulfillment, and seeing an opportunity (Dalborg & Wincent, 2014). Furthermore, what inspired Michael Dell would relay in his passion (www.inc.com). Passion has been described as the strong positive feeling of desire to make a difference through meaningful actions; Research has highlighted the significant importance of passion for founders in order to promote creativity, perseverance, and innovation (Dalborg & Wincent, 2014).
Although pull factors might have been most of Dell’s driving force, entrepreneurs may also be pushed towards self‐employment because of negative external forces and worsening economic conditions, which encouraged entrepreneurial ambitions (Zwan, et al., 2016). Amancio Ortega’s entrepreneurial motivations might be related to push factors. Indeed, the economic situation of his family was a driving force for Ortega (Rampton, 2015). Push motivations may generally arise from the risk of unemployment, individuals’ general dissatisfaction with their current situation and lack of alternatives (Zwan, et al., 2016). However, push factors don’t exclude the presence of pull factors. It could be argued that Ortega’s desire of innovation, described as a pull motivator (Carter, 2003), constitutes a factor that has guided the entrepreneur up to the present time ( (Ortega, 1998). Innovation could be stated as the process of transforming an idea or invention into a good or service that generates value ([www.businessdictionary.com)](http://www.businessdictionary.com%29/).
Opportunity can be described as a time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something (www.lexico.com). Dell own his success to the idea of selling computers directly to the customers, erasing the reseller’s market (Bosatani,2019); Opportunities exist as an objective phenomenon waiting to be discovered, or as a creation or perception made by individuals (Renko, et al., 2019). However, creating an internal opportunity could be considered a separate but overlapping phenomenon. Shane and Venkataraman (2000) understood that opportunities’ recognition is a subjective process, although, the opportunities themselves are objective phenomena (Dalborg & Wincent, 2014). It could be stated that Dell’s opportunity recognition happened as a result of personal knowledge, which enabled him to spot the opportunity. According to the Austrian economist, for individuals to perceive an opportunity, need to require knowledge of the market needs as well as knowledge of the means to satisfy those needs opportunity (Renko, et al,. 2019). Indeed, it can be stated that Dell knew that customers may have problems with distributors or retailers and that, at the same time, the indirect channel system could not last. For this reason, the entrepreneur developed a new technique known today as “the direct model of selling”, which revolutionized the industry (Dell,1999).
On the other side, Ortega’s success came from the idea of making quality clothes accessible to everyone (astrumpeople.com). It could be argued that, as Dell’s one, the Spanish businessman’s opportunity was spot as a consequence of information own by the entrepreneur, which helped him to recognize the opportunity. For instance, Ortega was able to understand that only wealthy individuals could afford to purchase fine clothing thanks to a decade of work experience in the retailing environment (www.profitmagazin.com). Furthermore, also Amancio met the Austrian’s view of perception opportunity. The entrepreneur knew that the market needed more affordable clothes. For this reason, Ortega started making his own products purchasing cheaper fabric. Contrarily to Dell, Ortega ‘s opportunity recognition could have been influenced by active search. An example could be stated on the attitudes of Ortega of actively seeking to meet clients desires and so increasing the demand (astrumpeople.com).
Concluding, it might be argued that the two entrepreneurs come from a different background having two opposite economic and educational history. Dell’s motivation could be stated as mainly pull factors, whilst Ortega’s motivation came from a combination of push and pull factors. Moreover, both businessman’s opportunities recognition was a result of knowledge previously owned, although, it may be stated that Ortega was influenced by active search. The entrepreneurs had both huge success despite their differences; This might let us understand that education is not the only way to succeed and that winners like Ortega might prove it.