Qualities and functions of an entrepreneur

Correct answer: B. Sampling bias

A market sample should reflect the relevant population as fairly as possible. Including only supporters excludes dissatisfied, uncertain, or neutral people, so the results may make demand and approval look higher than they really are. This systematic distortion is sampling bias, not high reliability or complete market validation.

Correct answer: C. Stakeholder coordination

Customers, employees, and suppliers are stakeholders because they are affected by or contribute to the business. Collecting and combining their different perspectives helps the entrepreneur coordinate interests and make a more balanced product decision. This is more specific than communication alone and does not mean that the decision is being avoided or indefinitely delayed.

Correct answer: D. Cash-flow management

Cash-flow management tracks when money enters and leaves the business. A growing business may have good sales but still lack cash if it must pay suppliers and workers before customers pay. Monitoring receipts, expenses, and payment timing helps maintain solvency. Branding, blanket price cuts, or unplanned expansion do not solve the immediate cash constraint.

Correct answer: A. Goal-oriented discipline

Breaking a large goal into measurable steps makes the work easier to organize and progress easier to monitor. Each completed step provides evidence of movement toward the final objective and encourages regular effort. This builds goal-oriented discipline; it does not create disorder, dependence, or indecision, because the plan clarifies what should be done next.

Correct answer: B. Value proposition design

A value proposition explains the main benefit a product promises to a chosen customer group and why it is useful or different. Here, durability is presented as the reason customers should value the product, rather than low price. Inventory, recruitment, and accounting concern operations or finance, not the product’s central customer benefit.

Correct answer: C. Lack of strategic alignment

Departmental goals should contribute to the organization’s central purpose; otherwise teams may work hard in different directions or use resources on activities with little strategic value. Linking goals creates strategic alignment and coordination. The problem is not necessarily low production, excessive control, or too much customer service, but the absence of connection between levels of planning.

Correct answer: D. Crisis communication planning

Crisis communication planning prepares the organization to give clear, accurate, and timely information when an unexpected problem may affect customers. It reduces rumours and confusion and helps preserve trust. Although communication may support reputation, the specific situation is not ordinary promotion, recruitment, or production control; it is planned communication for a crisis.

Correct answer: A. Evidence-based independent judgement

The entrepreneur evaluates the idea using evidence about the intended customers rather than accepting it because it is fashionable or popular. This shows independent judgement supported by facts. Rejecting one unsuitable idea does not mean fearing the crowd, lacking creativity, or avoiding every risk; it means choosing according to market evidence.

Correct answer: B. The measures were incomplete and quality indicators are also necessary

A target may measure quantity, speed, or revenue without showing whether customers received good value. Falling satisfaction indicates that the performance system missed an important quality outcome. The entrepreneur should add customer feedback, repeat business, or service-quality measures rather than assuming success is complete or blaming the team immediately.

Correct answer: C. Appropriate task allocation

Appropriate task allocation matches the requirements of a task with the employee’s skills, interest, and realistic availability. Such matching can improve performance, motivation, and completion reliability. It is more specific than simply dividing work and is not only motivation; product distribution concerns delivering goods, not assigning internal responsibilities.

Correct answer: D. Customer segmentation and service design

Customer segmentation groups customers with similar needs or characteristics, and service design creates an appropriate offering for each group. Giving every customer exactly the same service may ignore meaningful differences in expectations. Recruitment, accounting, and uniform production do not explain why service levels are being adapted to customer needs.

Correct answer: A. Persuasive communication

Persuasive communication helps others understand a proposal and voluntarily support it through reasons, evidence, and relevant benefits. It respects the listener’s ability to decide. Pressure or threats would be aggression, while overconfidence and dependence do not describe the method of explaining logic and value.

Correct answer: B. Demand forecasting

Demand forecasting estimates how much customers are likely to buy during a future period. If the estimate is too high, the business may produce or purchase more stock than it can sell, increasing storage costs and waste. Improving forecasting can make inventory decisions more accurate; recruitment, complaints, and motivation do not address the mistaken demand estimate.

Correct answer: C. Supply risk management

A backup supplier reduces dependence on one source and provides an alternative if delays continue. This is a contingency measure within supply risk management. It can protect production and customer service from interruption. Marketing, pricing, and customer segmentation may be important elsewhere, but none directly manages the risk of unreliable supply.

Correct answer: D. Respectful leadership

Respectful leadership addresses poor performance clearly while protecting the employee’s dignity. Private feedback can make honest discussion easier, and an improvement plan explains how performance can change. This is not weak control or indecision; it is constructive accountability. Nor is it anti-profit, because developing employees can support better long-term results.

Correct answer: A. Logical caution

When two sources of information conflict, logical caution means checking the evidence, clarifying definitions, and collecting additional information before reaching a conclusion. This improves the quality of the decision. It is not fear or laziness, and it is not necessarily indecision because the entrepreneur is taking a purposeful step toward a well-supported choice.

Correct answer: B. Performance feedback

Performance feedback tells employees what they achieved, which standards were met, and where further improvement may be useful. Even capable employees need this information to learn, stay aligned with goals, and maintain good performance. Recruitment, pricing, and distribution concern other business activities and do not provide the missing information about work results.

Correct answer: C. Efficiency analysis and process improvement

Effectiveness means reaching the target, while efficiency means using time, money, materials, and energy wisely. Since the target was reached but waste increased, the entrepreneur should examine the process, identify the source of waste, and improve it. Raising the target or removing employees without analysis could worsen the problem rather than solve it.

Correct answer: D. Multidimensional performance evaluation

Multidimensional performance evaluation uses several kinds of outcomes rather than one financial measure. Profit shows an economic result, while customer and environmental effects show whether the product creates value responsibly and sustainably. Considering all these dimensions is broader than financial or customer-service evaluation alone and is not short-term thinking.

Correct answer: A. Courageous communication

Courageous communication means addressing an uncomfortable issue directly while remaining clear, respectful, and focused on improvement. Avoiding the conversation would leave the problem unresolved, while aggression would involve hostility or disrespect. The entrepreneur’s willingness to speak honestly and constructively therefore shows courageous communication.

Correct answer: B. Standardization and expansion preparation

Documenting a successful operating system creates standard procedures that can be taught and repeated in another branch. This supports consistent service, easier training, and controlled expansion. Although documentation is a form of record keeping, the purpose here is broader: standardizing operations and preparing the business to scale, not merely storing records.

Correct answer: C. Customer-focused objectivity

Customer-focused objectivity means separating personal taste from evidence about what the intended customers need and value. A business decision should serve the chosen market, even when the entrepreneur personally prefers something else. Confidence, perseverance, and risk-taking may be useful qualities, but they do not specifically describe this objective customer-based choice.

Correct answer: D. Goal realignment

A target is useful only when it contributes to the wider business purpose. If a departmental or short-term target is achieved without supporting the main objective, the entrepreneur should review priorities and realign the target, measures, and actions. More sales, a new logo, or more employees may not solve the strategic disconnect.

Correct answer: A. Long-term balanced thinking

Long-term balanced thinking means considering present needs without damaging future capability. The entrepreneur satisfies current customers but also protects service capacity, so the business can continue serving people later. Courage, low ambition, and risk avoidance do not explain this combination of immediate action and future planning.

Correct answer: B. Confidence, creativity, leadership and accountability make planning, decisions and control effective

Entrepreneurial qualities guide how functions are performed. Confidence supports decisions, creativity helps generate solutions, leadership coordinates people, and accountability encourages responsible control. Money and machines are resources, but they cannot replace these human qualities. Therefore, option B correctly connects personal qualities with practical entrepreneurial functions.