Application of Project Management Approaches to Entrepreneurial Ventures

This report examines the application of project management approaches in entrepreneurial ventures. It covers opportunity analyses, business problems, and competition plans. The manufacturing industry is the focus, with target consumers and revenue streams discussed. Strategies for gaining market share from competitors are also explored.

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A REPORT ON APPLICATION OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACHES TO
ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary……………………………………………………………3
Opportunity Analyses………………………………………………………….4
Business Problem………………………………………………………………4
Ideas of Solving the Problem………………………………………………….5
Industry or Sector being addressed……………………………………………6
Target Consumers……………………………………………………………..8
Competition Plan………………………………………………………………9
Opportunity Exploration………………………………………………………10
Evaluation of the Ideas………………………………………………………..11
Role of Project Management in Exploring Opportunity………………………11
Approaches of Exploring Opportunity………………………………………...12
List of References………………………………………………………….......14

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Executive Summary
The report provides a clear examination of the application various project
management approaches in the contemporary world. Conversely, the main project
management approaches have been explored, discussed and their usage in the corporate
world have been considered as well as. However, the term project management can be
described as the practice of initiating or starting a plan, execute the same plan, controlling of
the plan and closing up the work in achieving a given goal as well as meeting specific success
which are related to the project same.

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Opportunity Analyses
Akter et al. ( 2016, pp.113-131), is that opportunity analyses is a logical and
systematic way of examining as well as evaluating the external business environments for the
purpose of identifying marketplace acceptance, market need and desire, and the various
economic aspects in the production of the new commodities (Akter et al. 2016, pp.113-131).
Analyses of opportunity can also be done to expand the existence of product in in the market,
or for the expansion of the products profitability.
Business Problem to be solved
According to Barry and Meisiek (2015, pp.153-175) is that the business problem
being faced by most organization at this time is the cash flow and time management. Flow of
cash is the essential business element of both the well established businesses and small
businesses to survive in a competitive market. However, most of the entrepreneurs are
struggling to pay their bills whereas they are awaiting the arrival of cheques (Barry &
Meisiek 2015, pp.153-175). The part of the challenge or problem curtails from the delaying
of invoicing, which is the mutual in the business world. The problem of managing cash is
commonly associated with longer period of waiting for the invoices to be approved. For
example, a company can perform a certain job to any organization, the after sending the
invoice the company will have to wait for about thirty days or more in order to receive the
payment is being owed (Carlsson et al. 2015, pp.29-35). However, the company is waiting to
be paid it has to cater for other expenditures or expenses including payment of workers’
salaries and wages, contactors, electricity bills to office rent or premises tax. It means that
waiting to be paid by another company that owed a company, can make it impossible for the

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running of another company (Barry & Meisiek 2015, 2015). Thus, leading to a problem of
cash flow management within the company.
Time management is a biggest and delinquent problem in the entrepreneurial world
being faced by the business at the moment. Some of the problem to be realized by the
company include failing on managing of distractions, failing on planning and failing on
analysing or examining (Brynjolfsson & Mcafee 2017, p.3). Failing to manage distractions
resulting from emails and clients phone calls and colleagues who need advice from other
colleagues should be stop within the company in order to maintain conducive working
environment. Also, making of appropriate planning is an essential instrument towards time
management, hence the company is required to make plain such as setting priorities, setting
of deadline and effective workers working scheduling. Eventually, evaluation of the time to
be spent on a certain task within the company will reduce the amount of time that can be
wasted by employees. Hence, analysing critical the time spent in planning and scheduling
will largely help the company to work on its time management (Brynjolfsson & Mcafee
2017, p.3).
Ideas of Addressing the Problem
The business problem identified in the section above can be addressed through the
ways highlighted in this report. Hence, the solution to the problem of cash flow management
have to be properly and appropriately budgeted and planned for a good way. There are the
critical in terms of maintaining the cash flow, although most of the time they cannot be relied
on to save a company from stress of cash flow management. Hence, one method of managing
and improving cash flow is acquiring of the deposit or down payment for the services given
or product sold on credit (Carlsson et al. 2015, pp.29-35). The deposit will help to manage the
cash flow since it will enable a company to cover some of its expenditures which are

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associated certain project and sales as well as the profit for the company (Chua, Roth &
Lemoine 2015, p.189). By company requiring a deposit from the service offered or products
sold on credit will be an assurance to the company that it will not be left alone to pay other’s
bills. Hence, by putting together the down payment received and part of the company profit
the business will be able to pay its expenses comfortably.
Another idea strategy of solving the above business problem, is requesting quick
invoices in order to receive fast payments. It is advisable to invoice client’s company within
the fifteen days, which is typically half of the normal invoice duration. It means that is a
client’s organization is late on payment the service provider company will have at least two
weeks to address the issue and be able to pay before the mature of next month’s bills
(Carlsson et al. 2015, pp.29-35). Also, a company can require an immediate payment on the
deliverance of the services or products, as it a trend that is being used by most of the
company in the corporate contemporary world. However, in this digital regime or era where
clients or companies can pay their invoices in split of seconds using their phones it will not
be stretch to demand for instant payment.
In addition, the company may address this problem from the outside of an equation. It
means that the company have to ask its own suppliers and vendors to invoice the company
within forty-five to ninety days to allow enough time for the company to receive its payments
as well as for the cheques to mature or clear (Tapscott & Tapscott 2016, p.77). This idea is
only possible where suppliers and vendors are willing to work with the company once the
company account department explain the strategy to them as well as good relationship
between the vendors, suppliers and the company.
On the other hand, managing of time problem can be solve be making time, and liking
of money as well as being smart on day to day spending of the company. By creating a list of

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goals, the company should at least have a list of lifetime goals, which can be broken down as
monthly goals, then be broken down again into weekly goalmouths. The weekly goalmouths
should then be broken down into particular tasks by the end of a given day. In such manner,
what will be on the company task list will be accomplish because it all will be done, hence
enabling the company to remain on track at all time (Vidgen, Shaw & Grant 2017, pp.626-
639). The second, thing that the company should done is elimination of objectives which are
not in line with the company goals, it is advisable to delegate the objectives instead of
eliminating them as well. Lastly, some of the tasks resulting from the objectives should be
delegates to other individual’s within the company for their absolute completion.
Industry being addressed
The being addressed is manufacturing industry (Tapscott & Tapscott 2016, p.77).
However, it is termed as the production of process of production that which involve use of
chemical chemicals, tools, machines and labour in order for the commodities to be created.
For example, in car manufacturing industries they have to give to combine labour with
machines to create quality automobiles.
The reason why the market is considered to be attractive are because of various
aspects which have been discussed below in this section (Vidgen, Shaw & Grant 2017,
pp.626-639). Some of the aspects include growth of the manufactured marketplaces, short
and long term profit, level of market competition within the marketplace, cost of entering into
the market, and political stability and support from the government to the manufacturing
companies.
Growth rate of the marketplace
The aspect suggests that in manufacturing industry the rate in which rate of market
growing is increasing rapidly (Wright & Nyberg 2017, pp.1633-1661). The key reason why

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this rapidly growth is being experienced is because consumers demand are in the increase all
over the globe. For instance, people have tendency of buying new manufactured vehicles
instead of ones in the market (Opara-Martins, Sahandi & Tian 2016, p.4). In order, to meet
this demand companies in manufacturing sector are working hard to meet their clients’
demands.
Short and long-term profit
The aspect of market attractive news that must be put under consideration by most
organization. Because, the primary aim of any organization is to make profit hence, is the
profit to be made in a short period of time or over a long period of duration. In the
manufacturing industry, entrepreneurs tend to make a lot of profit because the marketplace of
the sector permits them to do so (Womack &Jones 2015, pp. 639-789).
Level of competition within the marketplace
It is an aspect of market attractiveness, which suggest that before investing in any
type of industry it is good to know its level of competition. The higher the level of
competition the lower the profit another low the competition the higher the profit. However,
in the manufacturing industries specifically in automobile automobiles manufacturing the
number of companies can be counted (Wright & Nyberg 2017, pp.1633-1661). Thus, there is
existence of low level of competition in the marketplace that facilitates high level of profit
generation.
Cost of entering in the marketplace
In the manufacturing sector the cost of entry in the market is not higher compared to
other industries. The aspect of low cost of entry in the market has enable most entrepreneurs
and investors to consider manufacturing as their investment option.
Political stability and support from the government

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These two factors of marketplace attractiveness are normal correlated. Where there is
political stability the environment will attract most investors and entrepreneurs who will
bring more jobs to the local. Whereas, if the government offers support to its investors in any
industry the business environment will be attractive (Price &Wrigley 2016, pp.92-105).
Hence, in manufacturing sectors governments of various state and countries are giving
support. Support can be reducing the rate of taxation, giving free land to companies as well as
subsidies to reduce the cost of production. By, offering such things the government is
encouraging individual's to invested, and for people to invest there must be political stability.
Target consumers
The target consumers within the industry will be defined in the following aspects explained
below. The group that the industry will be based on age and gander, size of consumers’
income and lifestyle preferences. The age and gander of clients’ will be the main aspect in
manufacturing industries’ because different people of various ages have different demand on
terms of taste and preference (Carless 2015, pp.963-976). On the gander aspects, both male
and female gender have different demand hence the manufacturing industry can fulfil them
by consider whether one is old or young. The consumers’ sizes of income also affect the
demand in the manufacturing industries. Thus, those clients who have high income are
preferred by companies in the manufacturing sector because they have the ability to purchase
things in bulk (Reason, Løvlie & Flu 2015, p.901). Lifestyle preferences, various people have
different ways of life. Thus, the manufacturing industry is targeting both people with simple
and complex lifestyle because the manufactures make all categories of commodities that can
suit their lifestyle demands.
Revenue streams are the sources in which the companies in manufacturing industries
will be able get their funds. These sources include recurring, project and service revenue
streams. The recurring revenue will be generated by manufacturing over and over because it

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is continuous. It will be used by manufacturing companies that give services. Manufacturing
industries, regularly track the record of their recurring revenue on monthly basis or on yearly
basis. Project revenue will be based on the predictable of the sales of the manufactured goods
(Reason, Løvlie & Flu 2015, p.901). The revenue on this basis is obtained from the
consumer’s transaction cost. Service revenues model handles the time of sale of the company
to its workers.
Strategies of getting the market share of the current competitors
The first plan is that company will look at new sales trends in the manufacturing
corporate contemporary world (Pitt et al. 2015, pp.89-99). Companies in the manufacturing
industry should have to be aware that in the current market consumers are no longer brand
loyal as it was in thirty years ago. Hence, they need to work harder to maintain their clients’
trust as well as be able to satisfy them. By, paying close attention to what other competitors
are doing the market or what strategies they are using.
Tracking of manufacturing competitors is other strategies that can be used get the
share of competitors market hold in the market (Pitt et al. 2015, pp.89-99). Tracking
competition of other companies in manufacturing industry can be a great advantage because
its help ones company to save money and time. By, noting the company failures and success
will allow the company to identify the type of marketing initiatives and the product that will
resonate with the organization consumers.
Following of industry leaders on the social media platform, will be another ways of
outdoing other companies in the industry (Price &Wrigley 2016, pp.92-105). Social media
such as YouTube, give broad information on everything that is happening in the
manufacturing industry. It is also another great way of learning what kinds of people are

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influencing the industry in which the company is operating (Oyemomi et al. 2016, pp.5222-
5227).
2. Opportunity Exploration
In the manufacturing industry is concern with the building of the innovation portfolio
concerned with the opportunities that will form the organization basis in the future. At
opportunity exploration stage, there are various identification and prioritizing of opportunities
based on the target market as discussed on the first part of this report (Moreau & Engeset
2016, p.25). However, the report also indicate various benefit of exploiting opportunity in the
entrepreneurial corporate world. These benefits include, direct alignment of innovation on the
organization strategy, identification and prioritizing relevant market drifts and the implication
of the market trends, developing insights regarding to untapped clients’ needs and,
identification and analysing the key and primary technology trends and the implications of
the technology on companies’ products and services (Opara-Martins, Sahandi & Tian 2016,
p.4).
Evaluation of the Idea
There are various ways in which idea can be evaluated if it can work in relation to the
manufacturing industry (Ledford 2015, p.308). Some common ways of evaluating if the idea
can work in this report include accessing to consumers, ability of validation, ability of
generating cash flow and accessing the size of marketing opportunity.
Accessing to consumers, if the company cannot get enough clients development in a
given period, it will means that the idea will take much time or even hard to be implemented
(Miklian 2016, p.321). However, if there is existence of relationship between the clients and
the idea of the company it will be easy to access buyer of the idea. Second way of evaluating
the idea in this report is ability to validation. It is important for the company in manufacturing

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industry to be confident in pursuing viable affecting the business. The stronger the validation
of the idea the strongest the idea of the company (Kohler 2015, pp.63-84). The third
techniques of idea evaluation use in this report is the ability to generate cash flow and be able
to access the size of the marketing. Cash flow aspects of idea evaluation indicates that a
company need a lot of capital or fund in order to execute its idea. Henceforth, if no enough
fund the idea will not be implemented. On the other hand, size of the market in which the
idea will be executed on also matter a lot (Kohler 2015, pp.63-84). For instance if the
company idea is to be built in a big market, then the company should also be big.
Roles of Project Management in Exploring Opportunity
The role of project management to be carried out by the project manager according to this
report will be planning on the activities, organizing of project team to carry out a task,
delegation of team, controlling the time or regulation of time, and monitoring of the
opportunity or project progress (Gilhooly, Ball & Macchi 2015, pp.451-981). The main role
of project management in exploring of opportunity is setting up the impacting strategy which
include the full list of activities which are significant for the opportunity. Organizing the team
involve focus on elaboration of spreadsheets, whiteboards and long checklist to project team
members (Green 2017, p.56). The delegation of team means that the project manager will
have to specify the role of each team member in order to avoid inter-group conflicts between
the members. Another, significant role project management is controlling of the time during
the discovering of the project (Knapp, Zeratsky & Kowitz 2016, pp.451-571). It constitutes of
the following features: objectivity, process, approximating of duration, scheduling
development and controlling the developed schedule. The final role is monitoring of the
project progress. It is where the project manager is mandate to know the step which have
been taken and steps which should be taken in the discovery of the opportunity.

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Appropriate Approaches of Project Management in Delivering the Opportunity
The main approaches in delivering opportunity include DBB or Design Bid Build, DBOM or
Design Build Operate Maintain and, BOT or Build Operate Transfer (Drutman 2015, p.45).
DBB, it constitute of the opportunity owner developing a contract documents with the project
manager, while DBOM it comprises the operational aspects and maintenance of the
opportunity in its original aspect (Coleman et al. 2016, pp.2151-2164). Finally, BOT
represents the complete integration of the opportunity deliverance has it being governed by
operations, financing as well as the maintenance of the opportunity.

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List of References
Akter, S., Wamba, S.F., Gunasekaran, A., Dubey, R. & Childe, S.J., (2016). How to improve
firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment?
International Journal of Production Economics, 182, pp.113-131.
Barry, D. & Meisiek, S., (2015). Discovering the business studio. Journal of Management
Education, 39(1), pp.153-175.
Brynjolfsson, E. & Mcafee, A., (2017). The business of artificial intelligence: what it can--
and cannot--do for your organization. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 7, pp.3-11.
Carless, D., (2015). Exploring learning-oriented assessment processes. Higher Education,
69(6), pp.963-976.
Carlsson, A., Hjelm, O., Baas, L., Eklund, M., Krook, J., Lindahl, M. & Sakao, T., (2015).
Sustainability Jam Sessions for vision creation and problem solving. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 98, pp.29-35.
Chua, R.Y., Roth, Y.& Lemoine, J.F., (2015). The impact of culture on creativity: How
cultural tightness and cultural distance affect global innovation crowdsourcing work.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(2), pp.189-227.
Coleman, S., Göb, R., Manco, G., Pievatolo, A., Tort‐Martorell, X. &Reis, M.S., (2016).
How can SMEs benefit from big data? Challenges and a path forward. Quality and Reliability
Engineering International, 32(6), pp.2151-2164.
Drutman, L., (2015). The business of America is lobbying: How corporations became
politicized and politics became more corporate. Oxford University Press, p.45
Gilhooly, K.J., Ball, L.J. & Macchi, L., (2015). Insight and creative thinking processes:
Routine and special, pp.451-981
Green, M., (2017). Inside the multi-generational family business: Nine symptoms of
generational stack-up and how to cure them. Springer.p.56

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Knapp, J., Zeratsky, J. & Kowitz, B., (2016). Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new
ideas in just five days. Simon and Schuster, pp.451-571
Kohler, T., (2015). Crowdsourcing-based business models: how to create and capture value.
California Management Review, 57(4), pp.63-84.
Ledford, H., (2015). How to solve the world's biggest problems. Nature News, 525(7569),
p.308.
Miklian, J., (2016). Mapping business-peace interactions: Five assertions for how businesses
create peace, p.321
Moreau, C.P. & Engeset, M.G., (2016). The downstream consequences of problem-solving
mindsets: How playing with LEGO influences creativity. Journal of Marketing Research,
53(1), pp.18-30.
Opara-Martins, J., Sahandi, R. & Tian, F., (2016). Critical analysis of vendor lock-in and its
impact on cloud computing migration: a business perspective. Journal of Cloud Computing,
5(1), p.4.
Oyemomi, O., Liu, S., Neaga, I. & Alkhuraiji, A., (2016). How knowledge sharing and
business process contribute to organizational performance: Using the fsQCA approach.
Journal of Business Research, 69(11), pp.5222-5227.
Pitt, M., Monks, T., Crowe, S. & Vasilakis, C., (2015). Systems modelling and simulation in
health service design, delivery and decision making. BMJ Qual Saf, pp.89-99 bmjqs-2015.
Price, R. & Wrigley, C., (2016). Design and a deep customer insight approach to innovation.
Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 28(2), pp.92-105.
Reason, B., Løvlie, L. & Flu, M.B., (2015). Service design for business: A practical guide to
optimizing the customer experience. John Wiley & Sons. p.901
Tapscott, D. and Tapscott, A., 2016. Blockchain revolution: how the technology behind
bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world. Penguin, pp.45-77

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Vidgen, R., Shaw, S. and Grant, D.B., 2017. Management challenges in creating value from
business analytics. European Journal of Operational Research, 261(2), pp.626-639.
Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T., 2015. Lean solutions: how companies and customers can
create value and wealth together. Simon and Schuster, pp. 639-789
Wright, C. and Nyberg, D., 2017. An inconvenient truth: How organizations translate climate
change into business as usual. Academy of Management Journal, 60(5), pp.1633-1661.