Who's Steering the Ship? A new study says you are the captain of your own destiny.
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Psychics predict the future. Entrepreneurs make their ownfuture.
At least that's what a recent study from the University ofWashington in Seattle suggests. Instead of trying to predict howmarkets will behave, entrepreneurs launch companies with littleregard for market predictions and focus instead on the issues theycan control.
Saras D. Sarasvathy, an assistant entrepreneurship professor atthe University of Washington Business School, conducted the studyof 27 entrepreneurs, whose companies grossed between $200 millionand $6.7 billion annually. While companies varied in type andindustry, Sarasvathy found that overall, entrepreneurs eschewpredictions, preferring instead to create their own marketpossibilities by making good decisions in the areas they cancontrol.
Says Sarasvathy, "To the extent that you can control thefuture, you don't need to predict it." The challenge, ofcourse, always comes in controlling the future. "Theinteresting thing to realize is that the future is the result of alot of decisions we make," says Sarasvathy. "Thedecisions people make are what create the future."
What does this mean for entrepreneurship training-especially inMBA programs, which focus largely on predicting market forces?Sarasvathy says professors like herself should emphasize thedevelopment of proactive decision-making and failure management,rather than failure avoidance: "[In this way], you startcontrolling and creating markets, controlling and creating firms,controlling and creating economic possibilities."
