In the Philippines, entrepreneurship is seen to be an alternative to employment. Instead of having a boss, you could be your own boss, manage you own finances and take charge of your time. With this, setting up a sari-sari store, sell Banana Que or owning several jeepneys could be considered entrepreneurial ventures. It provides a steady flow of income and a comfortable life for the owner, at least for the next several years until someone else opens up a nearby sari-sari store or the jeepneys are still new and is not so costly to maintain. The danger of this mindset is subtle but deadly. It lulls the owner into a false sense of security and the business stagnates and doesn't grow. And just like all things in nature and in life, things that doesn't grow, dies. Entrepreneurship in the Philippines fails to grow because they lack a vital quality, the concept of continuous growth and innovation. For this, it is not enough that they just be entrepreneurs, they must become technopreneurs. Whereas the term usually refers to geeks who became entrepreneurs, we will redefine it so Filipino entrepreneurs can become technopreneurs even without a Bachelor of Science diploma.
Definition #1
An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company, enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. Technopreneurship is usually defined as entrepreneurship engaging in a technology related business. This could be in the field of Information and Communication Technology, Biotechnology or other fields in science and engineering. Simply put:
Technology + Entrepreneurship = Technopreneurship
This is true but I believe that the definition is inadequate and confusing.
Definition #2
In this blog, I am defining "Technopreneurship" as the formation of a company that innovatively use technology to gain an 'unfair' sustainable competitive advantage. Let's take for example a web-based company. With the original definition, all companies that uses the Internet to engage in business is a technology-based enterprise. However, with the second definition, we will only consider a company 'technology-based' if it derives an 'unfair' sustainable advantage from the use of a particular technology.
The term 'unfair' is very much different from 'illegal'. It refers to the 'twist' in the business concept of the technopreneur that gives him a clear advantage over his competitors. This could be in the form of a new product or product feature, a superior marketing strategy, an efficient manufacturing methodology or a quick distribution and sales system.
An additional requirement is the 'sustainability'. The 'unfair' advantage must be sustainable. If a company lowers its price to attain a competitive advantage, that strategy is not sustainable. However, if he lowers his price because a technical innovation lowers his production cost, the strategy is sustainable and he gains an enormous competitive advantage. Our revised simple definition is:
Technology + Entrepreneurship = Technopreneurship
with an 'unfair' sustainable competitive advantage
A technology-based enterprise is one that derives a competitive advantage from the direct or indirect use of technology; i.e., a very good example of this would be the Apple iPod. It has a number of innovation, the most significant of which is 160Gb 1.8 inch harddisk drive that is much smaller than your average 3.5" harddisk has a 40Gb capacity. Many people, even techies, was fascinate by this and was left at awe and wonder how Apple was able to do that. This sense of wonderment led to purchases, thus began the iPod legend. United Parcel Service or UPS is able to offer one day delivery anywhere in the world because of their sorting and delivery facility that could process up to 1,000,000,000 parcels a year. If you look at the big companies now, most of them has an 'unfair' sustainable competitive advantage brought about by the use of technology.
But one advantage of our new definition is that it doesn't limit technopreneurship to really high-tech stuff or to business we normally relate to as 'technology-based'. For example, an internet cafe is not considered a technology-based enterprise even if it uses computers in its business operation. However, with our new definition, it could be considered a technology-based enterprise if the computers and/or the computer network is configured much differently than ordinary internet cafe businesses. If Mang Arnold uses Linux clusters as a powerful central server and just uses thin clients for customer terminals, he could drastically reduce cost while improving system performance. This is not normally done by Internet Cafe owners and, if he does this, it will give him an 'unfair' sustainable advantage and he could be called a technopreneur.
Aling Iska, the owner of a Barbeque stand could also become a technopreneur. Instead of just waiting for pedestrians to approach her barbeque stand, she could take advantage of the call/text unlimited promo of Sun Cellular. Everyday, she could call or text her clients if they want to order barbeque. Of course not all her clients will order but enough will do and this will help her earn more. By using technology, albeit a technology available to everyone, she gains an 'unfair' sustainable competitive advantage over other magba-barbeque. Thus, unknowingly and arguably, she could be called a Technopreneur.
This redefinition is important because we want to encourage innovation. Although we would like technology-leap kind of innovation, it is not yet possible with the current economic and technological state of the Philippines. We need to start where we are and innovate what we can and continuously grow from there. Building a Culture of Innovation is critical in the implementation of the Philippine Technopreneurial Revolution and it begins with this -- a redefinition of Technopreneurship.
But one advantage of our new definition is that it doesn't limit technopreneurship to really high-tech stuff or to business we normally relate to as 'technology-based'. For example, an internet cafe is not considered a technology-based enterprise even if it uses computers in its business operation. However, with our new definition, it could be considered a technology-based enterprise if the computers and/or the computer network is configured much differently than ordinary internet cafe businesses. If Mang Arnold uses Linux clusters as a powerful central server and just uses thin clients for customer terminals, he could drastically reduce cost while improving system performance. This is not normally done by Internet Cafe owners and, if he does this, it will give him an 'unfair' sustainable advantage and he could be called a technopreneur.
Aling Iska, the owner of a Barbeque stand could also become a technopreneur. Instead of just waiting for pedestrians to approach her barbeque stand, she could take advantage of the call/text unlimited promo of Sun Cellular. Everyday, she could call or text her clients if they want to order barbeque. Of course not all her clients will order but enough will do and this will help her earn more. By using technology, albeit a technology available to everyone, she gains an 'unfair' sustainable competitive advantage over other magba-barbeque. Thus, unknowingly and arguably, she could be called a Technopreneur.
This redefinition is important because we want to encourage innovation. Although we would like technology-leap kind of innovation, it is not yet possible with the current economic and technological state of the Philippines. We need to start where we are and innovate what we can and continuously grow from there. Building a Culture of Innovation is critical in the implementation of the Philippine Technopreneurial Revolution and it begins with this -- a redefinition of Technopreneurship.
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