I have reflected on my personal experience with a non-entrepreneurial company (Delancey Street Foundation) in this paper. It specifically elaborates the customer service assistance of Delancey Street Foundation and how it could have entrepreneurially responded to its customers’ needs.
The entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial are differentiated by key characteristics such as innovation, risk taking, innovation and leading (Young, Dimitratos, & Dana, 2009). Non-entrepreneurial is inclined towards non-innovative ways, lacks money management, avoids risk taking behaviors and follows others rather than leading (Fayolle, 2014). I have experienced numerous of organizations that are working under the supervision of other companies.
Delancey Street Foundation, which is a non-entrepreneurial organization working to help substance abusers, homeless, and ex-convicts in the United States. The organization provides online assistance to people across the United States through its hotline numbers. Delancey Street Foundation is operational since 1971. It is currently operating in New York, Los Angeles, North Carolina and New Mexico. My roommate is volunteering for this organization. The majority of the operations of the organization are directed to the public healthcare and social welfare institutions. The organization is providing numerous of social welfare service to cater the needs of the society in terms of its customer service orientation
The customer needs are constantly changing specifically when it comes to delinquency related issues. The social concerns regarding substance abuse, convictions, and homelessness are substantial problems for society. I believe that the services of the organization are limited to specific operational hours and affects the level of customer service as its clients may require services at out of office timings too. The organization can entrepreneurially respond to these issues by making its service more effective. Moreover, the organization lacks information technology structure. The organization can cater customer needs by developing new systems and software with the help of law enforcement agencies and courts to get details of affected customers.
In my opinion, the organization can take a step ahead to support children and their families by making pathways for victims (Bhargava, 2008). Providing people with shelter because they are homeless is not only solution. The organization can rather expand its operations by referring individuals to different organizations that would give them employment opportunity and earn for themselves (Young, Dimitratos, & Dana, 2009). I think that currently, the organization is responding its customers for their short-term needs.
The organization can rather develop in-house working opportunities for homeless people that are staying at the facilities provided by Delancey Street Foundation. It will not only provide the organization an opportunity to give financial support to people but also support them to overcome their financial problems. Furthermore, there are other assistance services that the organization can improve related to delinquency issues. I believe the organization can entrepreneurially deal with the concerns by participating in different events. For example, the organization can sponsor sports events, musical shows, charity programs and other events. It would help the organization to generate funds that would allow the organization to help more people.
Also, there can be other training and internship programs that can be started at the organization by hiring fresh graduates of social work to help others. There can be an online portal to be developed by the organization to provide support to people and society. It will improve customer services because the use of social media applications and mobile applications would allow the organization to reach larger audience and provide an easy way of communication. Moreover, online advertisement on various relevant sites would help the organization to generate funds.
References
Bhargava, S. (2008). Entrepreneurial management. California: SAGE.
Fayolle, A. (2014). Handbook of research on entrepreneurship: What we know and what we need to know. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Young, S., Dimitratos, P., & Dana, L. P. (2009). International entrepreneurship research: scope for international business theories. Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 2(1), 31-42.
