Book considers entrepreneurs – good and bad
Thu, 08 Aug 2013 15:32:00 BST
Entrepreneurs take all forms including that of Chicago gangster Al Capone
As people view the cover of the new book on entrepreneurship by the University’s Emeritus Professor of Entrepreneurship, many will find it hard to understand why Chicago gangster Al Capone is staring right back at them.
However, as Professor John Thompson (pictured with his Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion) argues in the recently published 3rd edition of Entrepreneurs: Talent, Temperament and Opportunity, entrepreneurship takes all forms – good and bad.
Co-authored by international consultant Dr Bill Bolton, the 3rd edition of this stimulating and refreshed textbook offers a new look at all things entrepreneurial, whilst examining what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
In a subject which has offers a plethora of books, the authors offer a different focus, indeed, seeing everything through the eyes of the entrepreneur and, appropriately, the book welcomes a foreword by former TV’s Dragons’ Den panellist and successful businessman Theo Paphitis.
Mr Paphitis (pictured giving Professor Thompson his honorary award) is close friend of John Thompson’s and mentored students with the latter on the University’s BA(Hons) Enterprise Development degree, which uniquely welcomes students that have already started a business.
The book is split into two parts. Part One builds an understanding of the entrepreneur as a person based on the key factors of talent and temperament and introduces a unique framework for understanding and exploiting entrepreneurship. The process of starting and growing a business and the infrastructure and environment in which the entrepreneur has to operate, are described in detail.
Part Two tells the stories of famous entrepreneurs to help readers understand the subject. This includes classic entrepreneurs, such as Henry Ford, through to social entrepreneurs and even anti-social entrepreneurs such as Al Capone (pictured).
The textbook has received much acclaim, including from Donald Clifton, late Chairman of Gallup International Research and Education Centre and a past chairman of the Gallup Organisation.
But why Al Capone?
“Entrepreneurial people are to found in all walks of life and not just business,” argues Professor Thompson. “Successful master criminals are entrepreneurs really in the way that they behave – and for a long time, Capone was just that. His story is fascinating as it took an equally enterprising law enforcement officer to shut down his illegal breweries in America’s Prohibition era.”
Originally from Barnsley, John Thompson started as a marketing lecture at Huddersfield in 1972, but later switched to teach strategy after completing his MBA. He was awarded the Chair of Entrepreneurship – funded by Mr Roger Bale, the father of an ex-student – in 1997.
Through his work with the Duke of York’s Community Initiative, Professor Thompson was responsible for two visits to the University by His Royal Highness The Duke of York and was presented to Her Majesty The Queen at the Kirklees Media Centre in 2007. In 2009, he received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion. (Pictured: John Thompson receiving the award for Enterprise Promotion from Lord Lieutenant Ingrid Roscoe).
Professor Thompson has held visiting appointments in Australia, New Zealand and Finland. His textbook Strategic Management will be published in its seventh edition later this year.
