What's your entrepreneurial strategy? Discussion on some of the well known theories by Peter F. Drucker

Entrepreneurship is the talk of the town all over the world and Nepal is not an exception. Every week there is some kind of capacity development happening around Kathmandu valley helping youth turn their ideas into reality. These events are really helpful in providing a launchpad for newbies enthusiast about the startup. However, the question remains, how many of us are actually aware of the entrepreneurial strategy?

According to Peter F. Drucker, there are four entrepreneurial strategies which are not mutually exclusive but sometimes can be used together. We have tried to present a quick snapshot of such strategies below:

1) Being "Fustest with the Mostest": This is a strategy where you either hit a target or miss it altogether. It requires an ambitious aim; otherwise, it is bound to fail. Your aim should be to create a new industry or a new market although you are not aiming to create a big business right away. It always starts with a permanent leadership position.

2) "Hitting Them Where They ain't": This strategy is also known as Creative Imitation or Entrepreneurial Judo. It is considered less risky than being "Fustest with the Mostest" as it is not an innovation in itself. What creative imitator does is exploit the success of others, they do not invent a product or service. The innovative products are not perfect or at times lack things that makes it less customer friendly. Creative imitator, simply, tweaks few product features from the customer perspective and present it in the market. It starts out with markets rather than with products, and with customers rather than with producers. It is both market-focused and market driven.

3) Finding and occupying a specialized "ecological niche":  This strategy aims at obtaining a practical monopoly in a small area. It aims at making successful practitioners immune to competition and unlikely to be challenged. There are three different niche strategies, each with its own requirements, its own limitation, and its own risks under "ecological niche".

• The toll-gate strategy: It is occupying the market so small that even rivals are not attracted. However, these type of market is hard to find. Once the objective of toll-gate strategy is achieved, company becomes mature. Only growth possible is when its end users grow. It can also go down fast. It can become obsolete almost overnight if someone finds a different way of satisfying the same end use.

• the speciality skill strategy: It is occupying the market with specialized skills which is innovative and so unique that rivals find it hard to imitate. Such specialized skills put companies so far ahead in the field that it was hard to challenge them. Skill itself has turned to a industry standard. Once it becomes a standard, there will be competitors piling up to take the market share, so, it is must for companies to continue fine tune its skills.

• the speciality market strategy: It is strategy to occupy market with specialized knowledge of the market variables and consumer rather than product or service itself. It is found by looking at a new development with the question, What opportunities are there in this that would give us a unique niche, and what do we have to do to fill it ahead of everybody else? This is only area where speciality skill strategy differs from speciality market strategy. Otherwise, they are similar.

4) Changing the economic characteristics of a product, a market, or an industry: Strategy itself is an innovation here. The product or service it carries may have been in market for a while but this strategy converts this old, established product or service into something new. How they do it by changing its utility, value (price), adaptation to the customer's social and economic reality, and delivering what represents true value to the customer.

So, what's your entrepreneurial strategy? If you hadn't decided one, please give a thought as it will help you determine your policies and practices to enter the competitive market.