Start with What You Have: Lessons on Effectuation Workshop

Across markets, new ventures face steep odds: about 30% fail within the first two years, and roughly 50% don’t survive past five, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024/2025. What’s more, fear of failure is on the rise: nearly half of people who see good business opportunities say they hesitate to act because of the risk involved.

Contrary to popular belief, the reality highlights a crucial truth: entrepreneurship is about learning to work with uncertainty, rather than avoiding it. 

That mindset was at the heart of our latest workshop, Start with what you have, get more done with less: The Entrepreneurial Way, hosted last month at BISM, and guided by Joe Tabet, Entrepreneur Advisor and INSEAD Lecturer. Read more to discover key takeaways.

Understanding Effectuation: The Entrepreneurial Mindset in Action

Effectuation, a framework developed by Professor Saras Sarasvathy (2001), describes how expert entrepreneurs make decisions when the future is unpredictable. 

Instead of waiting for perfect plans or external funding, they start with what they already have - their skills, network, and available means - and co-create opportunities through action and partnerships.

Joe reminded participants that entrepreneurship isn’t about predicting the future or taking reckless risks - it’s about being comfortable with uncertainty and knowing how to mitigate “affordable loss” instead of betting everything on one idea.

Joe invited participants to look beyond the myth of the “risk-taking entrepreneur.”

He used the rise and fall of WeWork as a vivid example: Adam Neumann played the game big and left with hundreds of millions, but many investors lost because they didn’t understand the rules of uncertainty under which they were playing.

These discussions anchored a key takeaway: in entrepreneurship, controlling downside matters more than predicting returns.

Dinner Parties: Effectuation in Practice

One exercise contrasted two ways of planning a dinner party.  

The causal way starts with a menu, then searches for the ingredients, tools, and people needed to execute it.

The effectual way starts by checking what’s already in your fridge, who might bring what, and co-creating the experience as it unfolds.

That mindset shift, from prediction to co-creation, is what allows entrepreneurs to move forward even in high uncertainty.

The Five Principles of Effectuation

Throughout the session, Joe unpacked the five principles of Effectual thinking and challenged participants to apply them through interactive group exercises and reflection:

1. Start with who you are, what you know, and whom you know – focus on your existing assets before chasing external opportunities.
   
   
2. Invest only what you can afford to lose – view uncertainty through the lens of controllable downside, not speculative returns.
   
   
3. Build partnerships with self-selected stakeholders – co-create value instead of competing for it.
   
   
4. Embrace surprises – use unexpected events as opportunities to adapt and innovate.
   
   
5. Shape the future through your actions – because the future isn’t discovered; it’s built by those who act.

Joe also encouraged participants to reflect on who they are as entrepreneurs and leaders.

Each profile builds differently, and understanding your type helps you play the right game.

Key Takeaways for Leaders and Entrepreneurs

• Understand the game you’re playing - before you scale, know your rules, limits, and level of uncertainty.
• Entrepreneurship is a way of being, not a job title. It’s about how you think, decide, and build over time.
• Autonomy and self-awareness are essential: know who you are, what you want, and why you’re doing it.
• You don’t need more resources - you need more resourcefulness.

The workshop ended with participants designing their own action plans - a roadmap to apply these principles within their teams and organizations.

Reflect, Reframe, and Join us

If this sounds like a conversation you wish you hadn’t missed, we have great news. 

Our next masterclass will be hosted by Richard Parsons, Founding Partner at True Agency, on 19 November, exploring how to balance short-term wins with long-term growth.