Page 8 - Phase 3 - Embedding entrepreneurial actions into school plans

Selling ideas and Sustainable innovation

Selling ideas

As we suggested in the first phase, salesmanship is a critical skill for all edupreneurs. It is one of
the skills often overlooked in strategic planning. An edupreneur needs to gain support from
his/her team when formulating and implementing the plan, thus salesmanship is the crucial skill
needed by any edupreneur. According to Kotter (2012), when a leader needs to sell ideas to his

team members, he/she needs to comply with the following four principles––

Principle Description

Showing the team the need to make changes with a
compelling object that they can see, touch and feel. This
Seeing, touching, and feeling
can be a sharing from a student, a colleague, or the
edupreneur himself.

Showing the team solid and dramatic evidence (e.g.
charts, figures, visualised data, etc.) that conveys the
necessity for change. In the context of education, this
Showing valid and dramatic evidence
can be a drastic change in students' performance, the
data of other schools, a decline in student intake, or a
decline of outstanding students' performance.

Complacency is one of the root reasons that colleagues
Looking for cheap and easy ways refuse to adapt to changes. Reducing the complacency
to reduce complacency
of colleagues could increase their urgency for change.

No matter if a team is in good spirit or not, complacency,
Never underestimate the existence of fear, and anger exist. An edupreneur needs to be able to
complacency, fear, and anger
help the team overcome these obstacles.

Sustainable innovation

Sustainable innovation is essential for any organisation to growth and sustain its vitality. According
to Garud et al. (2011), the following four factors should be considered to make an organisation stay
innovative:

Factor Action Effect

Constructing a blueprint for school Creating an extrinsic motivation for
Manifest structure
development teachers

Constructing Interaction opportunities
Relational processes Generating an innovative idea
for people within & across stakeholders

Reflecting and modifying the
Temporal dynamics Giving a moment of serendipity
innovative initiative

Regulative guidelines Compiling a clear instruction for work Actualising the innovative initiative

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