I have seen through my experience and have heard from many that management skills and knowledge is necessary in today’s world. Due to the impact that Globalization had on the world and our lives, having management skills and learning will enable one to have an impressive working career (Ganiron 2014). Management courses are generally designed in such a way that students and professionals both can learn from them (Heagney 2016). All companies, be it small, medium or large, need managers to keep their business running smoothly. The trend of entrepreneurship has emerged in recent years (Burns 2016). People now are more interested in running their own business rather than working for other companies. Companies like Google Inc. too, encourages entrepreneurship among their employees (Drucker 2014). Considering these aspects I had decided that after the completion of my school I will join a management course that will enable me to develop skills that are needed for entrepreneurship and managing projects. Having decided that, I took admission in such a course that focused on developing skills that will enable me for entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and project management in general. During the tenure of the course, I learnt many topics and aspects, many of my existing skills were honed and some skills that we will need in my career were instilled within me. The whole course was divided into several units and the present unit is about skills and attributes needed for project management for business development.

            The present unit that is being discussed here is about the tasks as well as the decisions that surface during the life of an entrepreneur. Through this lesson it seemed to me that students like me will develop capabilities that will help us in managing projects in different organizations as well as a self-employed individual. The lesson mainly gives us the ability to align the process of project development to the main views and values of the organization so that a sustainable project management can be carried out. When the lessons started, I was introduced with the basic concepts and ideas about project management and entrepreneurship. I was then introduced with the different approaches to project management that aims to handle the initial stages of project or idea development (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). The idea of lean startups where companies invest smaller sum of money at the initial stages to see if the venture is a success or not as well as ideas about Business Model Canvas which enables an entrepreneur to determine the key aspects of the company, like, the suppliers, resources, key channels, key activities, cost structure of the company and determine if undertaking a new business venture is viable or not, were introduced (Mason and Brown 2014). The aspects that are social driven for a manager like teamwork, leadership and managing stakeholders, were also introduced in the course. In the later part of the units I learned about the process of project plan development. The key skills that I learnt throughout the lessons were teamwork, problem solving, communication, critical thinking, analysis and independent work. Throughout the process I was continuously encouraged to think outside the box and hone the skills that have already been attributed to me.

            From the learning module, I gathered many theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. Moreover, I acquired some characteristics that changed my viewpoints about many aspects regarding the smooth operation of organizational management and project management. Organizations may face several problems in its life cycle. There could be shortages or resources, there could be a lack of fund, suppliers and key stakeholders might create problems (Kloppenborg 2014). In an enterprise, the role of a project manager may be played by three personnel, the Entrepreneur, the Intrapreneur and the manager. The difference between them is slim but significant. An entrepreneur, as I gathered, is a person who takes the sole risk while handling a project as it is upon him that the success or failure of the project as well as the company depends. An Intrapreneur on the other hand is the risk taker but not the sole risk taker in the whole project. He is working as an employee of the company but is responsible for the planning and execution of the product. If the product fails he will also suffer some loss. Google Inc. encourages this kind of entrepreneurship where people work for the organization, give new ideas and develop the. People who give the idea have a small share in the income that the project or product will generate thus binding that person with the project and making them interested in the project. A manager on the other hand is only an employee. While managing a project he has nothing at stake and no risk has been taken by him. If the project fails, he still goes home with his salary at the end of the month. In case of most small and medium enterprises, the sources and funding is limited, thus the idea of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship has become extremely popular.

The part one of the unit gave me clear views about the fundamental ideas of Project management and entrepreneurship (Mason and Brown 2014). I learned that project management is mainly concerned with initiating a project plan, planning all the steps that will lead to the successful completion of the project, execute the project according to the plan, controlling the outcome, evaluating the results and finally closing the project within the time constraint given. It is the job of an entrepreneur to execute the whole project in a timely manner (Drucker 2014). A successful entrepreneur is well aware of the risks that the project posits and work around that to achieve maximum result (Zahra and George 2017). This is the first learning that we received during our course. In the second part of the course, I learned about different business models and plan execution methods. The lean start up business model gave me the knowledge of the ways to develop and execute a plan that has limited budget and resources. While working in companies that are highly innovative and goal oriented, this skill is extremely necessary (Blank 2013). Even in case of setting up my own business as I intend to do, this skill will help me start a business even if there is a small amount of fund available for the start-up. The learning of Business Model Canvas is especially helpful in creating the initial plan for a project execution (Meredith, Mantel and Shafer 2017). The model gives a clear view about all the important aspects that need consideration before a project execution plan is created. It gives a comprehensive picture of the key partners and suppliers that the organization have, the key activities that are required to deliver the intended, the key resources that are available in the organization, the proposed deliverable as per the organizational values, customer segments, the costing it will incur and the profit that it will generate (Crawford 2014). With this tool I, as an entrepreneur will be able to analyze the current situation of the business, the potential risks and threats posed by the new project and the possible outcome that I might hope depending on those facts. If I am working for any company, they will be able to use my skill to determine whether the proposed project is worth taking or not (Martin, McNally and Kay 2013). The two project management methods that I learned were Minimum Viable Product and Agile Project Management. The Minimum Viable Product is development of products that have just enough features that will satisfy the customers at the initial stage (Serrador and Pinto 2015). In Agile Project Management execution, first a trial or beta version is introduced to the market that is called the Minimum Viable Product (Conforto et al. 2014). The use and feedback from the customer is analyzed to determine the necessary changes that has to be made. Finally, a new and revised product is introduced that contain all the features that will make the product a success. This management process is good for long term projects and where the funding is limited. The organization does not need to invest a lot of money to create a product that may or may not work (Joyce and Paquin 2016). The organization saves time and money and the workers save labor. Learning about teamwork and leadership increased understanding within me. During the course my leadership qualities increased as did my team work. Project plan development gave me practical knowledge about the actual work. Learning about the different steps that I would have to follow to create a successful project plan gave me confidence that I will be able to plan a project successfully in future (Kerr, Nanda and Rhodes-Kropf 2014). In the course tenure many exercises were given that required teamwork, leadership and planning.

At the time, when I joined the course, I was feeling hopeful as well as apprehension because I was not sure about the outcome of the course. As the course went on, and I learned those things that will help me in future career prospect, I started to feel happy. I grew more confident and assertive in my approach. I developed leadership qualities and felt surer of the decisions that I took. Due to team work activities I learned different perspectives and how to handle conflict in a team. Now with the completion of the course, I have strong faith in myself and I truly believe that I will be able to take up entrepreneurial work easily. The expectations that I had from the coursework were fulfilled completely. Every aspect and outcome that the coursework described were completed.

The decision of learning project management and entrepreneurship is did not come suddenly to me. I wanted to achieve some skills and qualities that will help me in my future. After much discussion with people and deliberation I felt that this course will suit me best. From the beginning I have thought about running my own organization someday. For that I needed entrepreneurial skills. Other skills that I needed were leadership capabilities and understanding the team dynamics. All of these I learned through the course. There are other skills that are needed to successfully run a business. Skills like decision making, problem solving, analyzing any situation, communication and tackling problems that come suddenly. The negotiation skills that I acquired is extremely helpful and was one of the goals that I had in mind when I first started this course. Negotiation is a procedure that we go through every day. In organizations too, regular negotiations take place. During the execution of any project, the organization negotiate with the suppliers, the investors and try to find a common ground that will enable all of them to work together towards the execution of the process. In the project planning lessons we were taught about risk management. It is extremely related to organizations as well as our everyday life. Another skill that I wanted to learn was better leadership. I have always felt that better leadership can change scenarios that otherwise seem impossible to handle.

During the conduct of the course, many of my expectations were reshaped. When I started, I was expecting a comprehensive course where I will receive broad overview of the concerned topics. As I continued with the course I realized that that was not what the course was about. The course offered a detailed and in-depth knowledge about the topics as well as practical scenarios and activities that enabled me to relate the theory with real incidents. Now that I have learnt that the expectations that I had about the course has changed. Now, I believe that it will create a true entrepreneur out of me.

As conclusion, I can say that this course has instigated a genuine drive to learn more about Entrepreneurship and Project Management. I intend to take an advanced course to learn about them in more detail. Learning more about the topic will give credibility to me and also the organization I am working with.

References

Blank, S., 2013. Why the lean start-up changes everything. Harvard business review, 91(5), pp.63-72.

Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.

Conforto, E.C., Salum, F., Amaral, D.C., Da Silva, S.L. and De Almeida, L.F.M., 2014. Can agile project management be adopted by industries other than software development?. Project Management Journal, 45(3), pp.21-34.

Crawford, J.K., 2014. Project management maturity model. Auerbach Publications.

Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Ganiron Jr, T.U., 2014. The impact of higher level thinking on students’ achievement toward project management course. International Journal of u-and e-Service, Science and Technology, 7(3), pp.217-226.

Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.

Joyce, A. and Paquin, R.L., 2016. The triple layered business model canvas: A tool to design more sustainable business models. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, pp.1474-1486.

Kerr, W.R., Nanda, R. and Rhodes-Kropf, M., 2014. Entrepreneurship as experimentation. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28(3), pp.25-48.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Kloppenborg, T., 2014. Contemporary project management. Nelson Education.

Martin, B.C., McNally, J.J. and Kay, M.J., 2013. Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(2), pp.211-224.

Mason, C. and Brown, R., 2014. Entrepreneurial ecosystems and growth oriented entrepreneurship. Final Report to OECD, Paris, 30(1), pp.77-102.

Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2017. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Rasmussen, E.S. and Tanev, S., 2015. The emergence of the lean global startup as a new type of firm. Technology Innovation Management Review, 5(11).

Serrador, P. and Pinto, J.K., 2015. Does Agile work?—A quantitative analysis of agile project success. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), pp.1040-1051.

Zahra, S.A. and George, G., 2017. International entrepreneurship: the current status of the field and future research agenda. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.253-288.