Critical Analyses of an Entrepreneur from Canada
Introduction
Success is considered as a common desire by many individuals around the world, however not everyone is able to achieve the success they desire. Becoming successful is not something that anyone can achieve over a short period of time, instead it is something that requires dedication, commitment, hard work and constant determination. Along with such mentality and ethics, having the right personality traits also plays a major role towards success (Mitchell, Mitchell, Seng, p. 332, 2014).
The entrepreneur selected for this paper to critically analyze is Muneeb Mushtak, a Canadian entrepreneur of Pakistani origin who at a young age was able to start two reputable firms in Canada, AskforTask and Airzai Aromas. The paper goes on to discuss the entrepreneurial traits and characteristics where the ones that are being highlighted are needed for achievement, Creativity and Innovator, Tolerance for ambiguity and Self-confidence. Later part of the paper discuss opportunity recognition and idea development process. It has been discussed how being a high ability individual makes him stand out as an entrepreneur and have included the kinds of innovation which associate with his businesses.
Background
Muneeb Mushtaq, a Canadian of Pakistani origin is the entrepreneur who was born into a middleclass family in the port city of Karachi, Muneeb's parents migrated to Canada when he was 15 years old (HelloPakistan, 2020). He pursued his graduate studies from the University of Toronto in business, where he realized that his interest was in technology. He combined the two and initiated an online marketing company with his brother and eventually sold it two years after its inception (Sunday, 2020). His second company, Askfortask.com, an idea which came about after an episode in his own home. He was faced with a scenario as are many people on a regular basis and that was in finding a handyman. The faucet broke in his house and he ended up hiring a plumber through a website without vetted workers. He was left with paying three times the price for a job which was completely unsatisfactory, and he had no place to even leave a review. Muneeb discovered this opportunity and developed an app which would connect on demand home services for help around the house with reviewed taskers. From the ease and comfort of your home, one can get a plumber or handyman at their doorstep (Tucker, 2014). It is also currently the second largest on-demand service app in Canada (Muneeb Mushtaq, 2020). His final venture was on creating Airzai Aroma, the first patented smart-home diffuser. Furthermore, as the Covid situation came about, he utilized his resources and developed premium sanitizers specifically for frontline workers.
Entrepreneurial traits/characteristics
For any entrepreneur to be successful, a lot is dependent on his personality traits, as an individual’s mind set and their working attitude are greatly influenced by their inherited characteristics. Below are some of the characteristics that are discussed with regards to Muneeb Mushtaq's Entrepreneurial journey.
Need for achievement
This trait is related to setting up high standards for oneself and to obtain excellent results. It is directed towards competition, by being on top (Phillips and Gully, 1997). Muneeb's behavior can be distinguished by the fact that in each venture he would set out to try something completely innovative and worked on it till it received the desired results. The case of Ask for Task can be considered here, which is the second most used app in Canada. His interview states, this has to do with him constantly taking feedback from his customers to refine and correct any glitches.
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Creativity and Innovator
The ability to generate or discover out of the box ideas with solutions and is often referred to as divergent thinking (Runco, 1991). In the case of Muneeb's venture, his ability to make speedy decisions in times of crisis can be attributed towards his success. For e.g. due to the pandemic, he lost out on an investment worth $2 million in his new smart home fragrance line. He immediately converted this situation as an opportunity. Within a very short duration, his team developed a unique and innovative product known as an all-natural Air and Surface Disinfectant under the banner of AIRZAI Care, which was timely for tackling the current crisis.
Tolerance for ambiguity and Self confidence
This is defined as the ability of an individual to be able to cope in an uncertain and unpredictable situation (Furnham, 1995). Muneeb has shown through his leadership that he can adapt well to change and has a team of people who are there to support and assist him when such a situation arises. His self-confidence emanates from the fact that he gives back to the community by participating in TedEX events and is known to collaborate with entrepreneurs to guide potential startups. He is actively involved in delivering lectures to university graduates by taking part in podcasts.
Opportunity Recognition and Idea Development Process
This involves identifying the gaps in the market and making the best out of them. According to (Shook et al., 2003) it begins with entrepreneurial intent, followed by opportunity search and discovery for venture creation and finally opportunity exploitation activities. Intent is when entrepreneurs perceive about the opportunity and create a new business concept matching with their existing resources and business needs (Shane, 2000). Muneeb Musthaq and his brother Nabeel were business graduates from Toronto University. Muneeb had a passion for technology and therefore made the most of his existing talents and developed a business which combined both of his skills. He had an entrepreneurial mindset, and at the age of 20 coming from a family of migrants, he was able to work his way up through diligence and hard work by availing an opportunity which presented itself in his own home. As the article states, that high-ability individuals are those which prefer to work as an entrepreneur as compared to low-ability individuals will remain in traditional employment and prefer managerial jobs (Shepherd et al., 2015).
There are different types of innovation, namely, incremental innovation, disruptive innovation, sustaining innovation and radical innovation (Kylliäinen, 2020). Taking the case of Muneeb Mushtaq's entrepreneurial journey, it can be deduce that his work has all been about creating value and developing innovative solutions. With regards to AskforTask, one can say that it would come under Disruptive Innovation by creating a value added product which provided an improved service to the customers. Those looking for convenience and reliable handymen for their house work related problems can get connected to vetted/reviewed workers to solve their issues at the price they want. With regards to his second business which is Airzai Aromas, it would come under Sustaining Innovation they were able to create slight changes to their original product and develop a line of air purifying diffusers, satisfy the demands of the market.
Type of Business and Competition
Running a business is never an easy task, it requires a lot of hard work and full of challenges. For the success of any business a lot is dependent on its business model and competition (Mitra, J 2012). For one of Muneeb's business's, Askfortask, it is an online platform that hire people for day to day handy work such as a car wash or changing the pipes. They take 15% after the completion of the task as their share. It has generated a revenue of $16.6M and carried out funding of up to $500 thousand since it was founded in May 2012. It has a number of competitors, including TaskRabbit, Handy and Zaarly (Askfortask, 2020).
Cost Leadership
This pertains to having the lowest cost in the industry. Being a highly competitive market, the companies have more or less the same pay for example depending on the kind of work. For example, a regular handy man carrying out basic duties on Taskrabbit and Askfortask is charged at $18/ in the Toronto region.
Differentiation
Is giving customers something that sets them apart from their competitors in the marketplace. The purpose of the differentiation strategy is to increase competitive advantage (Starasts, 2014). The company offers a service which differs them from others in that it does not hire taskers themselves but simply connect them to Askers in a secure way.
Technological leadership
A technological leader is one that is able to adapt to technological innovation. Such a leader will ensure that the business will revolve around technological advances by linking business and technology (Mehta. M, 2013). For example, Muneeb states that once a customer complained that their webpage doesn't have a payment system which allows them to pay through credit card. Within a week he was able to ensure that this facility was developed along with PayPal and cash.
Recommendations
AskforTask and Airzai Aroma are both doing well in their respective fields. The strategies that can be recommended to the entrepreneur based on the business and the industry it exists in are. An app of this nature is required world over, for example in many undeveloped countries are currently going through a digital revolution and having a one stop solution dedicated for day to day tasks would be a promising business particularly in countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and India. Along with expanding into other markets, another recommendation would be to merge with other service providers or acquire other businesses that can be added under the same umbrella in order to offer wide range of services to the same target market. There are several smaller scale businesses’ that have been set up, such as Taskrabbit, Handy and Zaarly that can be acquired in order to expand the range of services. It would be beneficial to the company if they consolidated and created a firm on a larger platform and benefit from economies of scale.
References
- com. 2020. Interview With Renowned Pakistani-Canadian CEO, Muneeb Mushtaq, Viewed on 9th August 2020, <http://hellopakistanmag.com/hello-pakistan/heres-canadian-pakistani-businessman-helped-protect-people-pandemic/>
- Sunday, T. and Sunday, T., 2020. Up Close And Personal With Pakistani-Canadian CEO Muneeb Mushtaq - Sunday. Viewed on 10th August 2020 <https://sunday.com.pk/pick-of-the-day/up-close-and-personal-with-pakistani-canadian-ceo-muneeb-mushtaq/>
- Mishra, C.S. and Zachary, R.K., 2015. The theory of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship research journal, 5(4), pp.251-268.
- Tucker, E., 2014. Askfortask Acts As Odd-Jobs Matchmaker For Canadian Job-Seekers. Viewed on 12th August 2020, <https://globalnews.ca/news/1308093/askfortask-acts-as-odd-jobs-matchmaker-for-canadian-job-seekers/>.
- com. 2020. Muneeb Mushtaq. Viewed on 14th August 2020, <https://muneebmushtaq.com/>.
- Phillips, J.M. and Gully, S.M., 1997. Role of goal orientation, ability, need for achievement, and locus of control in the self-efficacy and goal--setting process. Journal of applied psychology, 82(5), p.792.
- Runco, M.A., 1991. Divergent thinking. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
- Furnham, A. and Ribchester, T., 1995. Tolerance of ambiguity: A review of the concept, its measurement and applications. Current psychology, 14(3), pp.179-199.
- Shook, C.L., Priem, R.L. and McGee, J.E., 2003. Venture creation and the enterprising individual: A review and synthesis. Journal of management, 29(3), pp.379-399.
- Shane, S., 2000. Prior knowledge and the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. Organization science, 11(4), pp.448-469.
- Kylliäinen, J., 2020. Types Of Innovation – The Ultimate Guide With Definitions And Examples. Viewed on 14th August 2020, <https://www.viima.com/blog/types-of-innovation>.
- Mitchell, J. R., Mitchell, R. K., Seng, B. R (2014) Handbook of Entrepreneurial Cognition. Edward Elgar Publishing: UK.
- Mehta, M (2013) The Entrepreneurial Instinct. McGraw Hill: USA.
- Mitra, J (2012) Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development. Routledge: USA.
- Shepherd, D.A., Williams, T.A. and Patzelt, H., 2015. Thinking about entrepreneurial decision making: Review and research agenda. Journal of management, 41(1), pp.11-46.
- 2020. Hire House Cleaning, Moving, Handyman Services Across Canada.. viewed on 12th August 2020, <https://www.askfortask.com/>.
