Week 12 Reading Reflection

1)    What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

I’m currently in intro to management and we recently discussed planning and the importance of planning. Strategic planning was also discussed in specifics. But we didn’t discuss the lack of strategic planning, so I found this section extra interesting. The author states 5 reasons that entrepreneurs lack strategic planning. All of these seem realistic as to why an entrepreneur would skip the planning process, but I think that these 5 things need to be overcame by the entrepreneur, or the entrepreneur would need some assistance in the planning process because of how important it truly is to the start up of a business.  

2)    Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I found the distinction between entrepreneurial and strategic actions a bit confusing. I feel like they are so closely linked and related that its difficult to separate them like the author does. He clearly defines each as its own entity, then even goes in with a diagram which helps clarify the distinction and overlap much better. The diagram definitely helped me in understanding the differences and similarities between entrepreneurial and strategic actions.

3)    If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask the author to explain these “Fatal Visions” to me a bit more. I would ask him why entrepreneurs fall prey to these fatal visions and why they can’t just overcome them with some assistance. But we are all human, so these fatal visions do make sense.

I would also ask the author what is the importance in transitioning from an entrepreneur to a manager? Early in the text book the author mentions that typically, entrepreneurs are not setting out to be a manager. Most of the time, they just like to start up the business and have others manage it for them. So it’s interesting that the author has an entire section on the transition from entrepreneur to manager.

4)    Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I thought that everything the author said was correct, and have no disagreements. The author used reliable information and factual data to explain different marketing segmentation and to back up the points that were disclosed in the reading.