Entrepreneurship - Project Management

Quite recently I came across a line which reads like this: "Successful entrepreneurs are born with project management skills and the rest try to learn". The more I ponder over the line, the more it sounds to be true.

Success lies in execution. Entrepreneurs are known to be dreamers or visionaries. At the same time, successful entrepreneurs are known to excel in execution while achieving their dreams.

Let us pause for a while on the definition of "Entrepreneurship Venture". It is no way different from a "Project" definition. It has a definite start date, end date, goal, objectives and uniqueness; same as the characteristics of project definition that we corporate managers do understand. It has unforeseen risks and changes in scenarios. It demands adaptation to the changes while mitigating risks. It asks for alternate thinking while not losing the sight of the milestone. The business needs a structured process to follow in meeting its purpose and hence the lessons from project management discipline and associated methodologies are the perfect tool set for any size of business.

Once the venture is ready to take off , one should have a documented plan in terms of goals, objectives, milestones, resources, activities and interdependencies. That is a perfect place to deploy project management principles. During the execution, vigilance over resources, especially time and material which are scarce for the entrepreneur needs continuous review and monitoring. It helps the venture to know the inventories and to be on top of the touch points with employees, suppliers, prospects and customers. Thus, the execution process becomes efficient while focusing on optimization. A structured process that is fit for the purpose, brings in importance of estimation and review of those estimations during the execution cycle.

Apart from tools like Critical Path Analysis, GANTT chart etc, Project Management discipline instills a social culture in the work environment equipped with techniques like team building, leadership, motivation, group dynamics, ideation and innovation. The Entrepreneur thus builds effective teams and gets the things done through consensus.

As someone says "to be a good Project Manager ones needs to behave like an Entrepreneur", it is equally true that "to be a good Entrepreneur one needs to be a good project Manager".