ESCP ALUMNI magazine - #203 - Septembre 2023 - 56

Campus ❙ École
Why entrepreneurs need
to make use of chance
Many of the products that are a firm fixture in our daily lives owe their existence to chance -
and the business acumen of the people who discovered them. René Mauer explains why
entrepreneurs should tap the potential of chance, and how to open the door.
René Mauer
professor Entrepreneurship
ESCP Business School
T
he Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi
owes at least as much to entrepreneur
Yngve Bergqvist as it
does to chance. Bergqvist realised the area's
tourist potential for the summer months.
However, as he explains, he was met with
naysayers when it came to tourism who said
it was too bleak, cold and dark in northern
Sweden during the winter.
But he stuck to his guns and planned a project
with ice sculptures, including an igloo
art gallery with art created out of ice and
snow.
And this is where chance comes into play:
when a group of people wanted to stay in
the village despite the cold winter night but
no warm cabins were available, Bergqvist
promptly offered to let them spend the
night in the art gallery igloo. The guests
loved it, and the ice hotel was born.
Chance creates potential out of
nothing
Yngve Bergqvist accepted chance as a friendly
prospect: he identified the potential
thrown up by an accidental development.
Building an ice hotel was never his goal, but
56 ❙
he recognised the idea when it arose and
followed it through to its final destination.
The same thing happened to the Post-it.
Originally, the focus was on the development
of an adhesive that did not stick as firmly
as hoped. However, this failed attempt
was used by a colleague of the adhesive
developer who wanted to mark passages in
the music book of his church choir. Normal
notes slipped, but with his colleague's glue
this no longer happened - the prototype of
the Post-it was born.
Bergqvist could have dismissed his igloo
guests' delight as a one-off. The church choir
singer could have kept his glue creation
to himself, as his own problem had been
solved. But both chose to take a different
path - paths trodden by people with an
entrepreneurial way of thinking.
How do we tackle chance?
The key question when entrepreneurs and
employees are tackling chance is: do they
embrace the chance and welcome its effects,
or reject it as uncertainty and a deviation
from the plan?
Initially, the decisive factor is the mindset of
how to deal with the occurrence of chance.
However, the more exciting question is
what behaviour can be adopted to give
chance a helping hand.
It would be tempting if chance were able
to come knocking more often, or at least at
the right moment. This would allow anyone
to come up with the next business idea or
innovation.
However, a key characteristic of chance is
that it occurs unexpectedly, and can only
ESCP Alumni Magazine numéro 203 ❙ SEPTEMBRE 2023
The key
question when
entrepreneurs
and
employees are
tackling chance
is: do they
embrace the
chance and
welcome its
effects,
or reject it as
uncertainty
and a deviation
from the plan?

ESCP ALUMNI magazine - #203 - Septembre 2023

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