Entrepreneurial Traits with an Example of Entrepreneur for Each Trait

1.1 Integrity and reliability (Pua Khein-Seng)

The Integrity word came from the Latin adjective. Integrity is the fundamental values that employers seek in the employees that they wanted to hire. A person who has integrity lives his or her values in relationships with workers, customers, stakeholders. Trust and honesty are central to integrity. Those people who are acting with honour and truthfulness are also a basic principle in a person with integrity. Reliability is the ability of a person or system to perform and maintain its functions in routine circumstances, as well as hostile or unexpected circumstances.

         Integrity and reliability are the glue and fiber that bind successful personal and business relationships and make them endure. Investors, partners, customers and creditors alike value these attributes highly. Integrity and reliability help build and sustain trust and confidence. Small-business entrepreneur, in particular, find these two characteristic crucial to success.

       Example of entrepreneur, who showed this trait is Pua Khein-Seng, is arguably one of the inventors of USB flash drive. In an interview with The Star, the CEO of Phison Electronics Corp based in Taiwan claims to have corporate the world’s first single chip USB flash drive. He is even regarded as “father of pendrive” in Malaysia. When Pua is dealing with huge obstacles, his passion has helped him overcome the hurdles and also his staff, shareholders, and partners always give him a lot of support. Pua proved his integrity and reliability value by saying that “You need a team as it is not a one-man show. You need to have your core technology and values to stay competitive.” To him, it is a simple principle: “Don’t treat others the way you wouldn’t want others to treat you. Your staff will like you more if you treat them like your friends. They will not like to work for you if you treat them as part of a money-making machine.”

1.2 Initiative (Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong)

(Initiative- Dictionary Definition: Vocabulary.com, 2015) defines that initiative is all about taking charge. An initiative is the first in a series of actions. Initiative can also mean a personal quality that shows a willingness to get things done and take responsibility. An entrepreneur with initiative has a tendency to view, analyze a situation and take action proactively before something happens. They usually take chances attempt to do something, in spite of the possibility of failure. They strive continuously and do not give up on anything that will be explored in the fields have not been explored by other entrepreneurs.

         The late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong was an entrepreneur who showed the trait of initiative. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong was the founder of Genting Group.He was a simple man, already in his 45s, eventually took on the initiative of executing his dream project in 1964. The idea of building a mountain resort was first conceived when Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong was having a dinner in Cameron Highlands. When he was enjoying the soothing cool breeze of the Cameron Highlands, an idea to build a mountain resort for everyone to enjoy the cool mountain air hit him. He was the first person to build a mountain resort nearer to the capital country Kuala Lumpur. Many regarded his idea as an impossible dream, but Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong held on firmly onto his idea and carry on with his project. He said, “The Genting project fitted my idea of an ideal business: Nobody else was interested in it, which meant no competition.” After doing some research, Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong found Gunung Ulu Kali at a place called Genting Sempah to be an ideal location for his plan. During the Genting project, he devoted all his time, money and resources. On the other hand, he was risking his life several times to complete this project. He was functioning as project manager, engineer, financial controller, laborer and troubleshooter during the construction of Genting Highlands. The foundation stone for the First Hotel was laid on 31 March 1969. The whole Genting project was completed in January 1971.

       In conclusion, Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong displayed great initiative to turning his dream resort into reality. His dream to build a mountain resort was done with a huge success. His great initiative had developed popular hill resort of Genting Highlands.

1.3 Versatility (Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah Fook Ling)

(Versatility- Dictionary Definition: Vocabulary.com, 2015) states that the word versatility describes having many different skills or qualities. Versatility allows someone to adapt to many different situations. The noun versatility derives from the Latin word versatile, meaning "turning, revolving, moving, capable of turning to varied subjects or tasks." For example, an entrepreneur who has a versatility can adapt to different work situations and complete his/her tasks. A versatile entrepreneur is turning easily or readily from one subject, skill or occupation to another.

Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah Fook Ling was an entrepreneur who showed the trait of versatility. Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah was founder f the Sunway Group. He began his career as an accountant at a motor assembly plant in Malaysia. He founded and started the Sunway Group in the year 1974. This showed that Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah was a versatile person because he turned easily from one occupation to another, which from an accountant to an entrepreneur. On the other hand, he showed his versatilility in expanded and diversified Sunway Group from its initial tin-mining company to a conglomerate with core businesses in property and construction. With the efforts of Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah, Sunway Group now has grown into a conglomerate encompassing 12 business divisions such as property, construction, hospitality, retail, leisure, commercial, trading and manufacturing, building materials, quarry, healthcare, education and real estate investment trust (REIT) (Matayun, 2014).

         As a conclusion, Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah was a versatile entrepreneur who had the versaility to the diversified Sunway Group from a tin-mining company to the top property developers in Malaysia. Today, Sunway Group is well-known as a formidable multinational conglomerate under the category of property construction, with a multitude of established businesses in more than 40 locations worldwide.

1.4 Decisive (Larry Page)

Decisiveness is defined as being “characterized by firmness and decision.” It means that being decisive where we are capable to decide. However, the leadership is to encourage people to able to make a key decision effectively under every circumstance. As a simple word, decisiveness is both a skill that can be cultivated evens an internal state that we can summon when it needed. 
       Basically, decisiveness does not mean being stubborn, arrogant or hasty because it is only the ability to decide with speed and clarity. In any situation, the ability to make decision is crucial for instance the situation of doctor an emergency room or the high school graduate debating. So without any clear decisions, there can be no action and no results (Young, 2009).
        One of the examples of decisive entrepreneur is Larry Page who is the founder and chief executive officer of Google. After the Doer (venture capital firm) invested $12.5 million capital fund for Google as the purpose of expansion and they suggested that hired an outside person to replace Page as CEO due to the inexperience reason. But the obvious decision of Page was proposed himself as the CEO of Google, however the final decision is not like the desired result of Larry where the new CEO had been hired which was Eric Schmidt. After 10 years went by, although Google under Schmidt had successfully grown into the third-largest technology company in the world and the revenues grew from less than $100 million to almost $30 billion, but Larry had made the decision quickly and clearly that where he would take the post for the following year. The reasons due to Larry believed that he could handle it well and nobody can understand better than him where the Google’s ambitions, its ethics, and its worldview. So under his leadership, the company will be even harder to predict (Levy, 2011).

1.5 Perceptiveness (Bill Gates)

A perceptive entrepreneur knows how to guide a small business by keeping an eye on political and economic developments (Destiny, 2013). Perceptive entrepreneurs can distinguish between ideas that are most likely to succeed, the nature of innovations that would provide the solution that the market is waiting for lap up and the people who can deliver the required innovative solutions for the market and the organization. 

       Jeffry Timmons, one of the most respected commentators on the topic of entrepreneurship, has defined the term in his book The Entrepreneurial Mind as “the ability to create and build something from practically nothing.”

         For example, Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft, the world’s largest PC software company, with Paul Allen. Today he is consistently ranked in the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. At 13, Gates took an interest in programming the General Electric (GE) system in basic, and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He is perceptive enough, in the interest of the users can play games against the computer; he wrote his first computer program on the machine. He implemented a game called tic-tac-toe. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he said, “There was just something neat about the machine.” Gates did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spend a lot of time using the school’s computers. Gates and Allen saw the release of MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, which was an opportunity to start their own computer. He dropped out of Harvard and talked decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him to start a company.

1.6 Ability to learn from mistakes (Michael Dell)

Many individuals shy away from the game of entrepreneurship because of the fear of making mistakes. They perceive mistakes as bad because mistakes sometimes cost money and pain; so they avoid it like a plague. But successful entrepreneurs see mistakes as a learning tool; they see it as an opportunity to learn something new (Ajaera).
        Successful entrepreneur are not afraid to make mistakes and face failure. In fact, they understand that it’s all a part of the game, and they use each and every failure and very mistake that they make as a learning experience. The cold, hard truth is that every entrepreneur will end up making mistakes, some small and some big, and will fail numerous times. But each of these incidents will be a learning experience for a successful entrepreneur, and each of these instances will be an opportunity for him/her to emerge better and stronger (Kinley, 2013).

      Example of entrepreneur who showed this trait is Michael Dell. He is founder and CEO of Dell Inc., one of the world’s leading sellers of personal computers (PCs). He quotes that: “Recognize that there will be failures, and acknowledge that there will be obstacles. But you will learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others, since there is very little learning in success.”

      Dell defied conventional wisdom that consumers would not purchase computer equipment over the telephone and built a billion-dollar company doing just that. Through his direct method of offering low-cost, custom-configured personal computers directly to customers. Dell changed the competitive dynamic in the computer industry. Notable for a natural business talent coupled with a willingness to share power, Dell carried the company through growth and economic difficulties. He innovated operating processes, took risks, learned through his mistakes, and built Dell Inc. from a college dormitory operation to a global corporation (Tradii, 2005).

1.7 Foresight (Tan Sri Dr Anthony Francis Fernandes)

(Foresight-Dictionary Definition: Vocabulary.com, 2015) states that the noun foresight is used to describe successful planning for the future. The word foresigtht is made of two parts: fore, which means "before," and sight, which means "to perceive." An entrepreneur who has foresight after perceive things with their eyes: this is a vision or sight. But a vision also describe what someone thinks will happen. So foresight is planning before they happen.

           Example of entrepreneur who showed the traits of foresight was Tan Sri Dr Antony Francis Fernandes, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Asia and founder of Tune Group. Tan Sri Dr Tony Francis Fernandes was known for his foresight where he bought the then loss-making Air Asia and then transformed it from a small and struggling airline to become one if the fastest-growing and most successful low fare airlines in the world. Tan Sri Dr Antony Francis Fernandes had the certain intuition and judgmental powers. He can anticipate situations that may arise. He purchased Air Asia in December 2011 from its Malaysia owner DRB-Hicom for a token or RM1 and took up the airline's RM40 million debts. He set Air Asia Group's vision as "To be the largest low-cost airline in Asia and serving the 3 billion people who are currently underserved with poor connectivity and high fares." In order to achieve he vision, he introduced a low fares and non-frills airline, Air Asia to Malaysians with the tagline "Now everyone can fly", which is aimed at making flying affordable so everyone can fly. He can predict that the lowest fares of Air Asia airline will make it become a profitable airline. This proven by Air Asia repaid that debt in less than two years with the driven by Fernandes and the help of his partners. The Air Asia airline quickly reached profitability within two years because of its cheap fares, high-quality service, and quick turn arounds. Air Asia now has been voted as the worlds best low-cost airline and unprecedented six years in a row, from year 2009 to 2014. 

        In a word, Tan Sri Dr Antony Francis Fernandes was an entrepreneur with foresight. His foresight and vision have turned Air Asia to become the budget airline pioneer in Asia and the largest low-cost airline in the world.