The difference between corporate leaders and entrepreneurs:
Corporate leaders, Buchanan wrote, are often good at causal reasoning. They set a goal and diligently find the best way to achieve it. Entrepreneurs are often good at effectual reasoning. They start without concrete goals but constantly improvise and react creatively to contingencies.
Via David Brooks in the New York Times, citing an Inc article.
The research paper I wrote on Entrepreneurship at IFMR had the same difference. Effectual reasoning is quite the buzz word.