When looking at the case data it becomes immediately obvious that the willingness to take risks is the main personality trait that distinguishes leaders and entrepreneurs from other people within the general population. Risks are an essential aspect for any entrepreneurial venture, since through them opportunities arise resulting in the potential for success.
Yet, what you have to understand is that the willingness to take risks should be tempered with careful planning and calculation so as to increase the chances for success and minimize the potential for failure. Risks should not be undertaken just for sake of taking risks, rather, risks should be calculated endeavors which are done in order to create an intended output that is the embodiment of the desires of the leader or entrepreneur that created them.
For example, when looking at the case data it can be seen that McFarlane did not simply wake up one day and decide that he would start his own company, instead what can be seen is that he had the necessary skills (he was the highest paid comic book artist in the industry at the time) to accomplish his goal. Thus, the risk of starting his own comic book company was tempered by the fact that he could actually develop his own series and since he brought other artists with him this further enhanced the viability of his plans.
Another personality trait that is related to idea of planning is that of being a visionary which entails looking at the “big picture” and the potential implications certain actions could have.
For example, when looking at the case of McFarlane paying $3 million for a baseball and establishing the McFarlane collection, it can be seen that meticulously creating it and spending so much money on baseball memorebelia was actually a calculated risk on his part. This was all done in order to become better integrated into the world of professional sports and, as a result, develop a potential business partnership which culminated in his exclusive contract to the toy licenses of various professional sporting teams.
By being a visionary, a leader or an entrepreneur looks beyond the initial results of doing a particular action and tries to imagine the long term consequences. For example, the money that a person puts into developing their own business now has the potential to pay off in large dividends later on in life. This is clear evidence of the necessity of developing a “vision” in order to become successful in a particular venture.
There are four characteristics that are in demand within modern day enterprises, namely: high market responsiveness, fast developments, low cost, and finally high levels of creativity, innovation and efficiency. It is based on this that companies need to be able to anticipate new technological trends in the market, develop themselves in a way that adapts to these changes and institute new operational procedures in order to ensure that the company continues to stay a viable entity.
It is no longer the case that business leaders can sit back and be idle in maintaining the current operational standards of their company. It is often necessary to continuously improve internal processes and develop new products to appeal to changing consumer tastes. Evidence of such a necessity can be seen in the case of Blackberry and Kodak.
Both companies used to be behemoths in their respective industries yet through the introduction of new technologies (i.e. the iPhone and digital cameras) and the fact that they neglected to sufficiently innovate along with new market trends resulted in significant drops in market shares. As a result, the future of both companies is questionable and is clear evidence of the necessity of anticipating technological trends within consumer markets and innovating as necessary.