Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Is it just Profit Motive ?

Wasserman talks about what motivates entrepreneurs? Is it Money? Or Control? Or is it that some entrepreneurs are expecting to get rich. Others want to grow and control a new venture. But most would probably answer: "both."In his paper called "Rich versus King: The Entrepreneur's Dilemma," suggests ways that entrepreneurs can work toward being both rich and royal.

Profit motive was competing with other motivations, most prominently the control motive. Most of the founders I have studied started off wanting to become both Rich and King—"Rich and Regal," if you will. This desire is reinforced when they see such prominent Rich and Regal entrepreneurs as Larry Ellison of Oracle Corporation, Marc Benioff of SalesForce.com, and Phil Knight of Nike. What's ignored is that these people are so well known precisely because they are the exceptions, the rare founders who are able to achieve both. Many others I've studied who tried to achieve both have ended up making some decisions consistent with Rich motivations and others consistent with King motivations, and in the process of mixing the two, ended up with neither.

Interesting observations ,but I guess money remains a motivator till an organization grows to a critical size and then it’s the organization growth and competitive ability of the firm which becomes the critical motivator for the entrepreneurs.

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