Week 12 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me the most in this reading was a lot of the reasons for lack of strategic planning have. The author states that one of these reasons is the lack of knowledge from the entrepreneurs, as well as the lack of expertise and skills. He says that entrepreneurs are usually generalists. Together these two facts surprised me because my perception was always that that's exactly the opposite of what entrepreneurs of, and this thought had always justified why I wasn't, or couldn't be, an entrepreneur. I thought entrepreneurs always were knowledgable in the field they were going into and of its market. I thought that what made entrepreneurs so successful and unique was their knack to take the general issues into a very detailed and specific solution. I also thought that this fact played into their open-mindedness, because they were so open to new ideas and beings, they always were one step ahead in thinking of the next best and helpful thing.
One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the short subsection about strategic positioning and the entrepreneurial edge. I wasn't sure if the author was trying to say that entrepreneurs don't come up with new ideas, but rather reinvent old ones, or if he was saying this was the case sometimes, or if he was just stating the fact that this is a good position to be in due to the fact that the exiting idea already exists and is successful and by making it better this can only confirm your inevitable success.
One question that I thought of during the section on the strategy matrix was how to you determine the "innovation" level and "risk" level. I found this theory very interesting and beneficial, and though the author defined these two terms in their relation to the matrix, I'm not sure if I quite understood how these characteristics are determined. How do you know if something has "high innovation" value or "low innovation" value? Is it just based off of how new and original the idea is? My second question has to do with the section on the entrepreneurial mindset and the author's goal in this section. Was he trying to point out how you can hear off the track of an entrepreneur and how to stay weary of that? And why is this a bad thing? Why should you not find a steady middle as a manager and entrepreneur? This way you can manage all the new ideas you have and see their potential all the way through.
In this same section is probably where I disagreed with the author most. I think that there should be a happy middle as an entrepreneur and manager. By finding this equal balance, you will be creative an innovative enough to continue growing and changing so that your company or brand doesn't dull and slowly fade away, while also not going to far outside the box for something that the public wouldn't be interested in and also an idea that could bankrupt your company. By finding this middle ground I believe this would ensure the success of your business, rather than lead to its downfall.