1. Describe the international entrepreneurship that has taken place at Infusion
International entrepreneurship refers to the skills, knowledge, competencies found in the field of cultural awareness and behavior aimed at establishing an individual or enterprise as an entrepreneur in the global context (Nicole et al., 2010). Most organizations and individuals believe that entrepreneurship is the prime factor for growth, job-creation and inner fulfillment. Some people believe that entrepreneurship is just the ability to start a new business, but, in the real sense, entrepreneurship has to encompass the ability to understand and utilize some key competencies such as innovation, creativity and risk-taking (Pavlos et al., 2009). Entrepreneurship is a key factor for ensuring that an individual has inner fulfillment and employability. With the current technological advancements, globalization has taken the world by storm, thus increasing the need for entrepreneurship competencies at an international level. For a business to decide on running at an international level, the individuals must be able to demonstrate intercultural intelligence.
At Infusion, the business currently runs at an international level, meaning that it is an example of international entrepreneurship. Upon inception, Infusion started off as a small local business based in New York. The first international entrepreneurship idea came up during the late 2000, when the Brill decided to incorporate S-Squared Solutions into the business, and he asked Somani and Fernandez to run the Canadian branch (Christopher & Melissa, 2011). Brill and Johnson had a brilliant idea of going international, and that can be seen in their decision to incorporate another company (S Squared Solutions) in their new business in Canada. This is because intercultural intelligence is crucial when starting a business in another country. In this case, they used a company that already existed to ensure they had an excellent base for starting. Also, they targeted financial institutions in Canada such as Bank of Montreal and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Also, Infusion went ahead to partner with Microsoft, a renowned international entrepreneur multi-billion enterprise, thus ensuring that it kept on learning and benefiting in its new global venture.
2. How can Infusion remain nimble and innovative enough to compete along with constantly emerging technology, despite its maturing organizational structure?
Infusion already has a maturing organizational structure, meaning that it is adapting to the best practices that have been put, in place, to achieve the business goals. When a business matures, the leaders and other stakeholders may find the traditional structures becoming quite rigid (Nicole et al., 2010). Somehow, maturation may lead to job security among the employees, although it is still risky to be too rigid especially with the current global competition brought about by technological advancements. Such rigidity leads to inflexibility because most of the organizational structures are usually set, especially the salary levels and communication channels (Pavlos et al., 2009).
Regardless of the maturation of the organizational structure, Infusion can still remain nimble and innovative enough to compete along with constantly emerging technologies. Innovation refers to the application of new ideas to an organization’s production and processes in order to increase the value of the business (Pavlos et al., 2009). In most cases, there is usually product innovation and process innovation. Infusion should first understand that innovation is essential now more than ever due to the growing global competition among companies and organizations around the world. Innovation can be used to create some form of strategic competitive advantage within a business (Pavlos et al., 2009). Instead of competing at the normal dimensions of price, product features and customer service, Infusion can differentiate itself from other players in the market by exploiting unarticulated market need to create competitive differentiation. This can be done by combining the market knowledge and technological advancements to conduct their business (Nicole et al., 2010). For instance, Infusion can use online technology to deliver custom training to various financial institutions within the USA and internationally. Also, due to the increasing number of employees internationally, Infusion can outsource various human resource services such as hiring and payments. This can put the company at a competitive edge against similar companies in the market.
3. How can Infusion ensure opportunities for staff to engage entrepreneurship and pursue rapid personal growth?
Infusion can ensure opportunities for staff to engage entrepreneurship and pursue rapid personal growth through engaging of employees through the company’s entrepreneurial spirit. Fortunately, this aspect of engaging the employees can take Infusion to greater heights of prosperity due to the positive energy that the employees would demonstrate. This is because there is a link between employee engagement and productivity within an organization (Pavlos et al., 2009). Infusion can engage the employees more to ensure that they remain real, and they are able to maintain a personal connection with the company. Being involved in a service industry, Infusion should ensure that the employees are engaged enough to maintain healthy and productive relations with customers. Engaging employees refers to the act of changing their behavior and attitudes in such a way that they all know what is expected of them and the results that are anticipated by the company (Pavlos et al., 2009).
Infusion should also ensure that it trusts its employees enough because trusted employees are usually competent in their fields (Nicole et al., 2010). An outstanding example is what the company did in Infusion Angels with the employee named Tyler Davey (Christopher & Melissa, 2011). Tyler was given an opportunity to work with Microsoft, and due to trust that he had been given, he went ahead to approach Somani in order to start a much broader support, development and hosting business, a move that saw the Infusion’s mapping practice being born!
Infusion can encourage staff to engage entrepreneurship and pursue rapid personal growth through various roles of entrepreneurship. It should first invest in staff development through management of personal and professional goals. This can be done through training, group activities and conferences that will make the staff feel entrusted with responsibilities. The company should also encourage flexibility amongst the employees. Flexibility is not the same as accommodation since a flexible person ensures that all the company benchmarks are met through increased productivity (Pavlos et al., 2009). Also, for Infusion to create an entrepreneurial environment for the staff, it needs to make them extremely team-oriented, align incentives with retention and ensure that the whole company sticks to its core values even in difficult economic times.
4. What path forward would you recommend for Infusion?
Infusion should engage more in innovative practices to ensure that it stays ahead of the competitive international market. Innovation is necessary especially to ensure that it can compete with similar local companies based in other regions such as Canada and Poland. This can only be successful if the company operates at a technologically savvy level, considering that the company deals with technological issues that are quite advancing at a high rate.
Also, the company should engage the employees even more to ensure that they remain productive in their work and that they know what is expected of them at any given time. This will ensure that the employees continue to grow both professionally and personally. Productive staff coupled with innovative practices will ensure that Infusion can run profitably against the prevailing competitions at a global level.
References
Christopher, W. & Melissa, D. (2011). International Entrepreneurship at Infusion. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation.
Nicole E., C., Patricia P., M., & Benjamin M., O. (2010). The emergence, advance and future of international entrepreneurship research — An introduction to the special forum. Journal Of Business Venturing, 26625-631.
Pavlos, D., Irini, V., Emmanuella, P., & George, N. (2009). International entrepreneurial culture—Toward a comprehensive opportunity-based operationalization of international entrepreneurship. International Business Review, 21708-721.
