University Report: Management Skills and Entrepreneurship Analysis

This report delves into the critical management skills necessary for entrepreneurial success, exploring the intricacies of business startup strategies. It emphasizes the importance of converting desirable business ideas into feasible commercial opportunities, while also identifying common pitfalls in new business model design. The report addresses the crucial aspect of risk management, offering insights into how entrepreneurs can effectively evaluate and mitigate potential threats. Furthermore, it underscores the significance of maintaining integrity, trust, and good governance for gaining a competitive edge. The report also highlights the essential skills needed for long-term business success, emphasizing the need for entrepreneurs to adapt to a competitive landscape. It discusses elements of a business model, including the operating model and value propositions, and factors that contribute to feasible business opportunities. By examining these factors, the report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs in today's dynamic business environment.

Running head: MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Management Skills and Entrepreneurship
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Abstract
The study develops the knowledgeable insights for achieving a successful business startup. In
addition to this, the study also evaluates the necessity of maintaining integrity, trust, and
governance to gain the competitive position. A Business Model consists of the necessary
elements that make a business more feasible to operate in a competitive scenario. It is an
important agenda to prepare an effective business model canvas that would create values for the
business. The entrepreneurs often fail to understand the exact way to manage the risks and
understand the risk factors that may influence the business. It is thus essential to manage or
evaluate the risk factors by developing a contingency plan. Regardless of the efficient venture
planning, it is necessary for the entrepreneurs to acquire certain skills for surviving in a
competitive business scenario. These skills would be effective enough in ensuring the business
success for a long term. Entrepreneurs are of the opinion that after spending money on website,
product and service, they can easily beat a path to their door. The case is true only in case of
first-time clientele but after that, it rapidly becomes an exclusive affair to attract and win
customers.

2
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. ‘Desirable Business Ideas’ must become feasible commercial opportunities.............................2
2. The Common Pitfalls in New Business Model Design...............................................................5
3. How Business Risks should be managed?.................................................................................11
4. The key Management Skills require for achieving a successful business startup.....................13
5. Importance of Trust, Integrity, and Governance.......................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................19

3
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Introduction
Entrepreneurs need to consider some of the specific concern while establishing a new
business venture. The study would specifically highlight the issues with the startups that may
lead towards failure of the businesses. The necessity of the managing the feasible commercial
opportunities would be discussed in this study. Furthermore, the study would identify the
common pitfalls associated with the new business model design. Every business experiences
some of the risks, which are needed to be managed strategically (Sakas, Vlachos and
Nasiopoulos 2014). The study would thus develop the knowledgeable insights for achieving a
successful business startup. In addition to this, the study would also evaluate the necessity of
maintaining integrity, trust, and governance to gain the competitive position.
1. ‘Desirable Business Ideas’ must become feasible commercial opportunities
A defined business idea stands for a concept that is generally used for making profits in a
business. It generally centers on the products or the service offered to the customers in exchange
of money. The business success depends on the fruitful and structured idea at the initial stage.
However, Davidson (2015) argued that in spite of the potentiality of making profits, business
ideas have no commercial values at the initial moment. Most of the startup businesses exist in an
abstract form. Developing the efficient business ideas result in making profits at the end. It is
important for the entrepreneurs to undergo a plausibility check to decide whether the business
idea is feasible and innovative enough to meet the market needs (Brinckmann and Kim 2015). A
promising business idea is developed by concentrating on several specific characteristics, such as
innovation, clear focus, relevancy, uniqueness, and profitability for the long run (Sakas,
Vlachos and Nasiopoulos 2014). The entrepreneurs require having the clear and concise

4
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
knowledge about the necessary components that makes the business feasible. There are several
factors that contribute to the feasible business opportunities. These specific conditions are
discussed further:
1. Real Demand
A business opportunity becomes viable when the market demand is real. The startup
business requires concentrating on the real market demands that would create more opportunities
for the long run (Karimi et al. 2016). This opportunity serves for satisfying the needs of the
business market. Moreover, the opportunity helps in resolving any problems that would be
feasible enough for establishing a startup business.
2. Adequate return on Investment
A business opportunity can be feasible if the return on investment is profitable. The
major focus of the business is to earn more profits. Therefore, the business opportunity generally
intends to pursue the strong possibility of yielding a proper return on investment (Wood and
McKelvie 2015). Similar to the real demand factor, the ROI is also concentrating on satisfying
the need and solving a real time problem.
3. Competitive
The next factor that makes a business opportunity feasible is the effective
competitiveness. The advancements in the current business scenario are quite challenging for the
business marketers (Sakas, Vlachos and Nasiopoulos 2014). Unless the business idea is unique,
every business ought to face the direct competitions with the other competitors (Bullough, Renko
and Myatt 2014). The competitive business ideas have the complete chance to acquire a

5
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
strengthened position in a business market. The business opportunity would thus be feasible if it
is competitive enough to beat the other business marketers and gain the customer base.
4. Accomplishing the Objectives determined by the Entrepreneurs
Every business has to set a vision and objective before conducting the business
throughout the year. In fact, prior to establish a business, it is essential to establish an aim that
would intend to achieve at the end. These aims and objectives are used in the business as
leverage (Karimi et al. 2016). In order to make a business feasible enough in the competitive
scenario, it is important to meet the objectives of the business.
5. The competence skills of the entrepreneur and team
Another most necessary factor for making a business feasible is the competence skills of
the business entrepreneur and the entire team. A business opportunity becomes worth pursuing
by the commendable competence of the entrepreneur and effective management team (Sakas,
Vlachos and Nasiopoulos 2014). A strong business team has the ability to develop the suitable
and feasible business opportunity. The sharing ideas and experiences are helpful enough to
manage the market needs and requirements for making the stronger business approach.
The above factors are quite important for ensuring the feasible business approaches in a
competitive position. One of the major concerns of the business entrepreneurs is to manage the
sequential planning for developing a startup business. Use of the effective skills would help in
managing the entire set up. However, it is necessary to gather the sufficient tangible and
intangible resources to accomplish the business goals and become successful.

6
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
2. The Common Pitfalls in New Business Model Design
A Business Model consists of the necessary elements that make a business more feasible
to operate in a competitive scenario. It is an important agenda to prepare an effective business
model canvas that would create values for the business. According to Nabi et al. (2017), a
business model consists of two major elements, such as an operating model and the value
propositions. Both of these elements include three sub-elements. The model of value proposition
model generally concentrates on several specific questions. It is necessary to clarify the product
and the target market to offer this product or service. It usually reflects explicit choices based on
three specific dimensions.
Figure 1: Elements of Business Model
(Source: Bcg.com 2017)

7
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
First is the target segment, which determines the target market and the needs of the
customers. Second is product and service offering, which describes the product and service
specifications that can satisfy the needs and requirements of the customers. Third is revenue
model, which ensures the method of compensating the offerings. On the other hand, operating
model concentrates on the values of the products and services that would ensure more profits for
the business (Niehm et al. 2015). It generally captures the unique business ideas to create more
values for the customers. There are three critical areas for the operating model that create
impacts on the startup business. First is value chain, which indicates the demands of the
customers and the in-house operations to meet the demands. It also specifies the product
outsourcing process. Second is cost model that configures the assets of the organization and the
costs for delivering the value added products and services to the customers. Third is
organization, which deploys and develops the workforce strength for enhancing the competitive
advantage. In spite of these effective elements, the business models implementations can go
wrong in many ways. These major pitfalls in the business model are as follows:
Portfolio Bloat
The bottom-up innovations and the coordinated work structure are necessary for a startup
business. The portfolio bloat occurs when a company has become bogged down in numerous
numbers of bottom-up innovations and uncoordinated functionalities (Rahman and Day 2015).
Undertaking too many innovations at one time can be riskier for the business. In most of the
cases, it leads towards unbalanced, bloated, and overlapping portfolio of the experiments. It is
noticed that none of these initiatives receives the adequate amount of the resources due to which
the entire functions can go wrong. Moreover, the process would fail to win the favor of the
senior management.

8
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Resolving the Irrelevant Customer Job
The business model may fail if it develops a value proposition for an irrelevant customer
job, which is not beneficial for the company. Even when the customers are not much caring
about any particular product value, it may lead towards failure of the business model. In a startup
business, this mistake is widely known as the failure to achieve product-market fit. Rezaei-Zadeh
et al. (2014) explained that the business model survives on the long-term product market-fit. The
mistakes become prominent by an overly focused on services or products along with the features
and the technologies. The business entrepreneurs require concentrating on one aspect at a time.
For example, if an entrepreneur wants to focus on feature, it is necessary to understand the basic
needs and demands of the customers. It is also necessary to understand the features that may
harm the perspective value of the customers. If once the entrepreneur understands the specific
demands of the customers, it is necessary to determine that the services or products are
sufficiently alleviate pains (Robinson and Stubberud 2014). It would also ensure that the product
and service value would create the substantial gains.
Establishing a flawed Business Model
Apart from the issues with the inadequate product-market fit, the entrepreneur may face
the challenges in establishing a flawless business model. An efficient entrepreneur needs to adopt
greater technologies and a supportive business model for developing values for the offered
products and services. If the business model is flawed, the technologies, value propositions, and
customer demands would be affected in a significant manner. It is recognized that in some of the
cases, the value propositions generate more costs than generating the expected amount of
revenues (Sousa 2017). In such time, it can be stated that the business model is flawed and is not

9
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
structured properly. As a result, it can be assumed that the business would inevitably disappear
instead of developing the most successful value propositions. However, it has been observed that
in spite of undertaking many of the safer approaches, the entrepreneurs sometimes fail to pick the
appropriate revenue model or a proper pricing strategy (Welsh, Kaciak and Minialai 2017). The
entrepreneur should not underestimate the costs incurred from the resources, activities, and the
necessary partnerships for creating and delivering the value propositions to the target customers.
Furthermore, the business model would be considered as flawed if the entrepreneur fails to
establish the appropriate channel to reach or deliver the values to the target audiences. Moreover,
it can be suggested that establishing the effective relationships with the customers would create
more values for the business (Hatten 2015). The business entrepreneurs require concentrating on
one aspect at a time. For example, if an entrepreneur wants to focus on feature, it is necessary to
understand the basic needs and demands of the customers. It is also necessary to understand the
features that may harm the perspective value of the customers. If once the entrepreneur
understands the specific demands of the customers, it is necessary to determine that the services
or products are sufficiently alleviate pains. It allows retaining the customers successfully and
ensuring growth of the customer base. Finally, the business model would be considered as
flawed if the entrepreneurs would focus more on wrong activities or they lack access to the
adequate resource and key partners. The lack of proper partners and resources would create
hindrance to reliability deliver, create or capture values for the longer time. It is essential to
concentrate not just on the business, but on the customers’ demands as well.
Negligence towards external threats in the Business Model Environment
Sometimes, it has been observed that the business model innovations may fail in spite of
resolving the relevant customer jobs and remarkable business model designs. The next failure

10
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
source is from the external environment. The most obvious threats are faced from the external
competitors who are much potential and providing the best offers to their target customers. It
becomes difficult to the entrepreneurs to understand the next value added services initiated by
the competitors that would make the customers anytime switch the brands or company (Johnson
et al. 2013). In addition to this, it is noticed that the desired gains, pains, and customers’ jobs
evolve over time. Especially, when the competitors offer the new and innovative products, and
the substitutes become most demanding, the customers make a move towards purchasing
products from other companies. The changes brought to the macro environment along with the
shifts to the technological, cultural, societal, regulatory, and socioeconomic trends are creating
the significant impacts on the business model viability (Jones and George 2015). It becomes
important to keep the focus on such viability that is created for near and distant future. Most
successful entrepreneurs thus scan the business model of the competitors continuously to stay
more competent of impending threats to their existing business models.
Poor Execution of the Business Model Innovation
It has been noticed, in spite of structuring a flawless business model, it can still be a
failure if it is not executed properly. The resources of the company, such as human resources,
physical resources, and capital resources are sometimes not aligned adequately or appropriately.
Many companies focus on measuring and monitoring a lot of things, but usually do not use these
factors at the initial stage of developing the business model (Kasemsap 2016). It is necessary to
monitor the critical success factors to follow that would lead towards developing the effective
business model. In such cases, the business entrepreneurs require ensuring the appropriate
alignment of the resources around the model. The effective execution of the business model
would improve and refine the business models by reinventing them in a sequential way.

11
MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Apart from these basic aspects, the business model would also fail due to some of the
basic factors. Considerable market problems is one of the most effective and considerable
factors. The small businesses usually face the failure if the market is not feasible for the target
customers and the company. The lack of the product closure and specifications is quite
insignificant for the business. In many of the cases, it has been observed that the entrepreneurs
fail to gather the sufficient information about the business due to the inadequate market research.
Therefore, it becomes essential to conduct the feasible market research and develop the value
propositions for the products and the services. However, it is important to gather the insightful
ideas about the needs and preferences of the customers. The ineffective timing or the lack of time
management plan is also one of the considerable factors for the business failure at the starting
point. In spite of the potentiality of making profits, business ideas have no commercial values at
the initial moment. Most of the startup businesses exist in an abstract form. Developing the
efficient business ideas result in making profits at the end. It is important for the entrepreneurs to
undergo a plausibility check to decide whether the business idea is feasible and innovative
enough to meet the market needs. It is thus essential to develop a strong management team with
the greater knowledge about the business functions. Accordingly, the business would ensure the
considerable success in future.
3. How Business Risks should be managed?
The business risks generally occur from different areas, both from the external and from
the internal sources. The entrepreneurs often fail to understand the exact way to manage the risks
and understand the risk factors that may influence the business. It is thus essential to manage or
evaluate the risk factors by developing a contingency plan (Martín-Rojas, García-Morales and
Bolívar-Ramos 2013). This contingency plan deals with the risks when it starts affecting the