The competitive edge of risk entrepreneurs

Product cycles are too short; markets are deregulating too rapidly. Innovative products and services relentlessly flood the marketplace. Often fielded by previously unknown companies, these new products cause severe market turbulence and unexpected discontinuities. For companies to prosper in this competitive environment, merely improving the efficiency of processes will not substitute for lagging revenue growth. This is especially true for companies that depend heavily on IT. For them, it means finding innovative means to develop systems, such as adaptive development, lean development, and the like. It also means finding new ways to align business strategy and IT, ones that allow any misalignment to be corrected quickly. Only if a company knows how to take calculated risks will it survive in this competitive environment. This is where risk entrepreneurialism comes in. Risk-entrepreneurial companies aggressively pursue risks that others cannot, squander few opportunities, and exploit the mistakes of their competitors. They represent the most competitive form of business that exists. These companies rarely make mistakes, and when they do, they take corrective action immediately. They are constantly positioning themselves to anticipate innovation in their operating environment.