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© 2011 SUKAD Dubai Knowledge Village | Block 4 | Office F14 | P.O. Box 500241 | Dubai | UAE |Tel: +971 4 367 1976 | Fax: +971 4 367 2804 | E-mail:
[email protected] 1 Entrepreneurship&Project Management theMissing Link Abstract There has been a great deal of emphasis on entrepreneurship and the need for more and moreentrepreneurs in the region to help create jobs for the future of the region. There is also a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement for new entrepreneurs but are we forgetting something? It isgreat to have the spirit but is spirit enough? Do our prospective entrepreneurs know to howtotake their dreams from the idea into effective operation? Is business planning over emphasized or isit enough?This article will offer an opinion and try to answer these questions and offer a suggestion on what ismissing. It is the author opinion that project management is the missing link that could make thecrucial difference between success, challenge, and even failure. The N eed for Entr ep r e n eu rs Various sources and global studies show that small & medium organizations/enterprises (SMO/SME)have huge contributions to economies around the world in term of gross national product andemployment. Studies in the Middle East show that SME contributions in our region are lower thandeveloped countries. However, many in government and private sector leadership recognize theneed to change this in order to deal with the tremendous challenge of the needs for job creationacross the Arab World.Initiatives like Celebrations of Entrepreneurship (CoE 2010) by Abraaj Capital and supported byAramex and many others support and encourage the need for entrepreneurs. Other initiatives likeSME100 by Dubai Department of Economic Development and the Khalifa Fund expanding into thewhole UAE are also examples of such initiatives. There are other initiatives across the Middle Eastfrom Lebanon to Jordan and other countries. All of these private or government initiatives share inplaying a role to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship but are it only spirit that we need? What ismissing? Let us say someone quit his/her job to become an entrepreneur than what?There are too many challenges facing an entrepreneur today some of it is legal structure andregulations. Other challenges related to the fear of failure and the stigma associated with that. Evenif we overcome the fear of failure we will encounter the challenge of availability of capital. Withcapital resolved or at least somewhat resolved than? Do we have the right infrastructure to help theentrepreneur launch the business? Do we have the necessary support? How about beyond thelaunch what support is available business / cash / logistics / management / etc. is available forsomeone following a dream but only to realize that realizing the dream is much more challengingthan expected. How do we help the entrepreneur small business owner sustain and grow? B u sin e ss Planning Most, if not all, venture capital, foundation, and other sources for funds --- in addition to businessschools and MBA programs focuses on a business plan as an essential deliverable / requirement toseek funds or start a business. Here we ask once again, is the business plan enough?It is our view that a traditional business plan is not enough. Quite a few business plans, that we calltraditional, focuses on the business aspects with a heavier focus on operation of the business. The © 2011 SUKAD Dubai Knowledge Village | Block 4 | Office F14 | P.O. Box 500241 | Dubai | UAE |Tel: +971 4 367 1976 | Fax: +971 4 367 2804 | E-mail:
[email protected] 2 question is: are these traditional business plans provide a proper focus on the venture (most call aproject) from idea to launch of the business? The Missing Link It is interesting to point out that many call a new venture a project, as we mentioned in the earliersection. We like the word project but most definitions of the word project come back to a projectmeaning something that is temporary. So is the venture temporary? We hope not!So is the word project the wrong one to use? Yes and No.The business is not a project --- it is a business, a venture so to be academic the word project is notthe proper one to use for the new business. Let us call it venture or business.Yet to launch the business is exactly what we call a project the launch project is to take the venturefrom the idea to operations.Our objective here is not to get into an English lesson rather to define the proper use of words inorder to have the proper context and fully understand the missing link.So what is this missing link? Well if launching the business is a project, than how do we manage it?Where is project management in managing the launch? The next section will provide a methodologyto follow in launching the business. A Pro p os ed S eque nc e Our proposed model will focus on the venture launch from idea to initial operation, using themissing link project management. Future articles could focus on the use of organizational projectmanagement to help build and sustain a small business and grow it.The proposed model, which is derived from the SUKAD Customizable and Adaptable Methodology for Managing Projects (CAM 2 P) , is a project life span model that divides the project life span intothree distinct phases; which we explain here. Business Concept The business concept is a crucial phase of the project that spans a period from the idea for theventure until an initial decision to go ahead and encompass a feasibility study. The idea owner islikely to be the entrepreneur who has an idea for a business that could be a passion, an incomeopportunity, filling a need, fixing a problem, among other driver for the business.This is the time for dreaming but one has to be careful that the dream is realistic and it is possible toachieve. It is highly risky for someone to launch a new venture without proper understanding of thechallenges and opportunities; although one could argue in rare cases that spontaneous action couldalso result in good profit.Therefore, the entrepreneur (small business owner to be) has to study the feasibility of his idea andfor this we think that existing business planning techniques are very important to use at this stage.However, in addition to the focus on the financials, competition, market demand, operation andother factors, the entrepreneur needs to also think about project management including proper BusinessConceptDevelopment of Business ConceptProject Delivery(Launching the Business) © 2011 SUKAD Dubai Knowledge Village | Block 4 | Office F14 | P.O. Box 500241 | Dubai | UAE |Tel: +971 4 367 1976 | Fax: +971 4 367 2804 | E-mail:
[email protected] 3 project management planning. Proper project management planning includes understanding of thestakeholders and their expectations and requirements, setting realistic time and cost targets, have afair understanding of the project and venture risks (threats and opportunities), in addition to otherfactors. D evelopment of the Business Concept The earlier phase emphasizes the feasibility study and the requirement for business planning. Withthe business basics in place, project management will become more important and the entrepreneurbecomes a project manager.So what we do now?The project manager/entrepreneur needs to think and act per two aspects, two sides of the samecoin. On one side she need to think about the project from idea to initial operations) but cannotignore post project completion, which would be leading and sustaining the business (operations). For the project aspect, the project manager needs to put in place all of the requirements in detailsfor launching the business, including defining the success factors, timeline, required resources,licensing, legal, financial/funding requirements and alternatives, regulations, budget for the launch,timeline, communication with stakeholders, procurement strategy, in addition to risks identification,assessment, and management. All of these activities focus on planning to taking us from the ideathrough project completion but primarily to produce a detailed plan that would give us thenecessary information to make the final decision on whether we should continue with the venture ornot. This detailed plan is used extensively in the next phase.For the business aspects, the project manager needs to start planning for operation readiness; whichmeans identifying all of the things needed once the business is operating; such as financial control,human resources, policies, operational processes, in addition to marketing and businessdevelopment. If the venture is not for profit, it would still require most of these activities but may bewith the addition of the needs for volunteers and volunteer management or the need for sponsors. Project D elivery (Launching the Business) With a plan for the project and a plan for operation readiness, it is time to start implementing theproject leading to initial operations. In this phase we implement the activities that we identified inthe detailed plan. For examples: in the plan we specified we need a permit, time to do the activitiesnecessary to obtain the permit. In the plan we defined the need for a marketing plan, it is time todefine the marketing plan and develop the necessary collaterals, whether print or online. The Proj e ct (I de a to InitialO pe rations) The B u sin e ss (O pe rations) © 2011 SUKAD Dubai Knowledge Village | Block 4 | Office F14 | P.O. Box 500241 | Dubai | UAE |Tel: +971 4 367 1976 | Fax: +971 4 367 2804 | E-mail:
[email protected] 4 Therefore, the primary purpose of Project Delivery is to perform all of the activities necessary toproduce the required deliverables that would be critical for the successful launch of the newbusiness and start initial operations.Throughout this document we discussed initial operations and operations as two independent termsand this is intentional. We use initial operations to define the period of time that starts with openingour doors as a business or a not for profit organization. We call it initial operations because as westart to offer services we might recognize that forms need to be adjusted, some documents might bemissing something, among other things that might not go as well as we planned. Therefore, initialoperations will allow us to make the necessary refinements before we go into steady and normaloperations. In some situations, we might eliminate initial operations and go straight into normaloperations in other scenarios we might have a soft start as an initial operations period; which wemight call also as a pilot period / trial period.Which approach to take, it all depends on the nature of the business and if it allows a trial period /initial operations or not. Abo u t t he A u t h or The author, Mr Mounir Ajam, is the CEO and Co-Founder of SUKAD FZ-LLC. He is an expert in projectmanagement with more than 25 years of global experience he is also an entrepreneur and a socialentrepreneur. Before SUKAD he founded Sumer Corporation in the United States and is also a co-founder of the Global Project and Process Management Association (GPPMA), a not for profitprofessional association.Mr Ajam can be reached via email
[email protected] he has a personal websitewww.mounirajam.com.SUKAD FZ-LLC is a company based in Dubai and specialized in integrated project and processmanagement solutions; URL:www.sukad.com. En d of Doc ume nt
