A review by Bayo Ogunmupe
This book is titled: Pathways to Effective Entrepreneurship, a guide to successful business. It is the first business manual from Chukwudi Sunday Nwosu, a great entrepreneur who studied both business administration and business management. He merged the two technologies in his book. Pathways for short, is a huge paperback with 509 pages, four parts, 18 chapters, 13 pages of references and 13 pages of indices. First published in 2015 by Guzman Nigeria Limited, Pathways is an inimitable guide to successful business entrepreneurship. It is a practical manual and useful resource that is invaluable in assisting small business owners.
The book encompasses the fundamentals of building a successful business enterprise. It is an invaluable companion to budding entrepreneurs, businessmen, researchers, professional bodies and non governmental organizations. Embedded in this volume are policies, strategies and drafts connected with starting and managing companies. Entrepreneurs and businessmen in need of capital, chief executives of ongoing firms looking for capital are well advised to buy copies of this book for their own success and survival. The strength of the book is its ability to furnish its readers with information with which to implement strategies and get identifiable results whether in a new business or the old ones.
Pathways addresses the gap in the provision of both tested professional and practical knowledge needed by business owners. It is compilation of research results on contemporary entrepreneurship. Part one covers: how to understand and undertake entrepreneurship. Here, two chapters are devoted to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship. Part two has eight chapters. Part three treats organic business functions; it has five chapters. In addressing part one, we shall be dealing with the concepts and differences between the entrepreneur and the manager. Nwosu also traces the historical development of entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
In part two, featuring the activities of entrepreneurs; forms of business organizations, opportunities in startups, the business plan and the internal and external sources of funding for the enterprise. Here, Nwosu enumerates capitalization of the company, the memorandum of association; sole proprietorship, types of partnership and the business name. Another issue strongly recommended by the author is the principles upon which companies are established. Thus, the differences between companies and cooperatives are analysed. He shows the sources of capital for cooperatives and the advantages of cooperatives over profit oriented companies.
For part three, the organic functions of business is explained. Part three spans chapter nine through chapter 11, ending at chapter 13. Within these chapters, the art and science of management were analyzed. Operations management was treated extensively in chapter 10. Also minded were the fundamentals of marketing. Product concept, product life cycle and branding were the products of research by economists highlighted by the author. Packaging and its role was given prominence in the array of skills which make businesses thrive.
In Pathways fourth and final part, covering chapters 14 to 18, Nwosu enunciates the modalities with which entrepreneurs develop and apply modern technology to gain success and profit. He discussed at length why businesses fail, demonstrating how the Nigerian environment, the role of regulatory agencies inhibit business enterprises. Without any fear of contradiction, one might suggest: The Roadmap for the diversification of the Nigerian Economy in the Age of Sustainable development goals, as another title for Pathways. This is the prism we expect every tier of government in Nigeria and the private sector to view this priceless book.
In concluding this review, I feel constrained to revisit the definition of the term: entrepreneur. Behind any innovative business must be an entrepreneur, a person possessing foresight, boldness and creative verve. The term: entrepreneur was first brought into prominence by the 18th century French economist Richard Cantillon. According to Cantillon, entrepreneurs are non fixed income earners with uncertain incomes. Shortly after, the French economist Jean Say added that entrepreneurs had to be leaders. Say (1803) defined an entrepreneur as an economic agent who unites all the means of production: land, labour and capital to produce a product.
By selling the product in the market, he pays rent for the land, wages to labour, interest on capital and what remains is his profit. An entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of low productivity into one with higher productivity and greater yield. He redeploys people, material and money and coordinates processes necessary for efficient large scale industrial and trade development. Hence, an entrepreneur is one who brings other people together in order to build a single productive organism. Which is why this book is capable of making its reader a successful entrepreneur.
The author, Chukwudi Sunday Nwosu holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's in management. He is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Administration and member, Institute of Certified Professional managers. He has the practical experience of working in newspaper production; having worked at The Guardian and Vanguard newspapers. And apart from being a self made entrepreneur, Nwosu is a member of the Gospel Business Men's Fellowship and president of Men's Ministries Fellowship Assemblies of God Church, Lagos. Nwosu is married to Blessing and are blessed with children.
