The world of entrepreneurs, leadership and management gets blurry. In this article, we talk about some of the differences between an entrepreneur and a manager. For context, an entrepreneur is someone who takes risks and starts a business. A manager is someone in a corporate setup or an established company responsible for specific targets and outcomes. A manager’s role might appear limited compared to an entrepreneur. But the main point to understand is that they perform in very different environments. The same skills will not help you survive or thrive in the other field. I think we must establish the motive that the traits are dependent on the environment, culture and purpose of the business. Each role is special in its own place.
Who is a Manager?
As the name indicates, a manager is someone who manages resources to achieve specific outcomes in a certain timeline. The resources can include physical entities such as logistics, raw materials, etc. Most times, it refers to managing people who are in different roles. The types of management can be internal line management, supervision etc to ensure that the targets are met on time. The roles of managers are most valuable in environments of high certainty and time sensitivity. This skillset can be extremely valuable when you know the customers expectations, product outputs with efficiency as the most valuable trait. Strictly speaking this is where you start thinking about the distinctions between a manager and a leader.
Responsibilities of a manager
The leader’s role is more about vision, future thinking and elevating expectations. Managers’ roles are confined to known situations. Managers focus on improving productivity, reducing wastage and continuously strive to improve efficiency. If not for managers, we wouldn’t have had the benefits of organisation, scale and ability to expand quickly which has helped us at such a large scale. They help maintain stability, increase certainty and reduce chaos in an organisation -works perfectly well in a scenario where efficiency is the highest metric of success.
- Oversee operations, focuses on execution, resource allocation, and stability
- Enhances productivity, reduces risk, improves processes
- Provides structure, reporting standards, establishes KPIs for success
- Creates and manages rules for successful delivery
- Provides visibility and transparency of their stages of work to reach the final result
Who is an Entrepreneur?
I’m always biased towards entrepreneurs – they are the risk-takers in the world who’ve made changes happen. It doesn’t mean to say that all entrepreneurs are successful or good either. But they are vastly different from a manager. While managers work in areas of certainty, entrepreneurs work in uncertain fields with high risk. The definition of entrepreneurship tells us that it is all to do with risk. You can become an entrepreneur manager at some point when the company grows. At the start however, an entrepreneur is someone who has an idea, wants to find out whether it can be successful.
Responsibilities of an Entrepreneur
The main element of entrepreneurs is that they work in high-risk, high-uncertainty environments. In the starting stages of the business, the entrepreneur is an inventor, salesperson, marketing expert and even a designer. The number of skills required to be an entrepreneur keeps changing depending on the business and timing. Sometimes, an entrepreneur even behaves as a manager – however, that can happen when you’ve reached a product market fit. The requirements from an entrepreneur are:
- Identify opportunities, develop and progress an idea, define market potential
- Build a prototype, test its viability in the market
- Gain funds to support business growth and initial market traction
- Sell the idea to investors, early employees, customers and everyone you meet really
- Be a visionary, think and communicate the future, be comfortable in an uncertain environment
- Open to risks, change and learning continuously
Differences between Manager and Entrepreneur
Following the definitions of entrepreneur and manager, we know that the number of differences is unique and large. However, let’s start with the similarities. Unless we talk about these similarities, we won’t be able to get the most value from their differences. Both these roles are in a high-impact position and can powerfully influence the team and stakeholders. However, they operate in different fields and impact levels.
Similarities of Entrepreneurs and Managers
There are 4 key similarities I’d like to talk about with founders and managers. These similarities are all around developing and growing the business, managing stakeholders and efficient use of time. These similarities operate in areas where the outcomes are expected and can be measured objectively.
- Working with people, collaboration, and defining goals: This is required for both managers and entrepreneurs as you need to build and develop goals. You also must ensure that you adapt to the situation, and collaborate with other teams to ensure that the outcomes and timelines are not compromised
- Risk Management: Although the types of risks vary – both entrepreneurs and managers must work with risks. No project or development works in a completely planned manner. We will have to adapt to the changes in the environment and work with risks to reach our goals. Our ability to adapt and move quickly helps us
- Communication: This is pivotal for both people. We must communicate to the stakeholders – these will be different sets of people for managers and business owners. Ultimately, the job is to provide visibility to the outcomes and how they impact the final product. Unless we do it diligently, we are staring at higher rates of failure.
- Decision Making: Both parties are responsible for their teams and the decisions they take. The decisions impact people working with you and those who have invested in the project. Both must be taken into consideration while evaluating a decision
Entrepreneurs vs Managers Differences
The differences between these two roles are immense. The role of an entrepreneur stretches across the entire business. The manager on the other hand can either represent a team or a group of teams. Their remit tends to be limited compared to an entrepreneur. Founders also deal with risks that are higher and define whether a business will survive or not. Such personal risks are not a part of a manger’s life. Along with this, founders operate at high levels of uncertainty that can change approaches. Hence they have to be prepared to act quickly and break protocol often. Managers however operate in predictable environments where changes can be measured and analysed for risks.
The differences are summarised in a table below for easy recognition.
The main difference between a manager and an entrepreneur lies in the expectations of their role. An entrepreneur is the visionary who creates a business from an idea. This requires creative thinking, risk taking abilities that are in contrast with a manager. As a founder, you also have to put on multiple hats and do different roles in the startup. In other words, you don’t come into entrepreneurship with a specific job description. You don’t have many people to support you and hence you must pick up and do a lot of things yourselves. As a manager however, a company can afford resources to help you deliver a specific outcome.
Table of differences – Entrepreneur vs Manager
| Aspect | Manager | Entrepreneur |
|---|---|---|
| Roles and Responsibilities | Oversees operations, focuses on execution, resource allocation, and stability | Identifies opportunities, creates innovations, takes risks, and establishes new ventures |
| Risk and Decision-Making | Minimizes risk, follows established protocols | Embraces risk, makes decisions under uncertainty |
| Innovation and Creativity | Optimizes processes, enhances efficiency | Driven by innovation, seeks disruption and uniqueness |
| Long-Term Vision | Contributes to the organization’s vision through short-term goals | Pursues a long-term vision, focuses on the bigger picture |
| Adaptability and Flexibility | Adapts to maintain stability | Adapts to navigate ambiguity and change |
| Creating vs. Sustaining | Ensures continuity and incremental growth | Creates new ventures, seeks growth, might move on to new projects |
| Mindset and Attitude | Operational and structured | Risk-taking and visionary |
| Collaboration vs. Authority | Collaborates with authority within organizational structures | Collaborates, leverages networks and partnerships |
| Contribution to Business | Provides foundation for efficient execution | Drives growth, brings fresh ideas, shapes innovation |
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