Reference no: EM132776141

Assignment - I as an Entrepreneur or Intrapreneur'

1. Introduction

A persistent assumption in the study of Entrepreneurship is that success can be planned. If entrepreneurs can produce specific results, then, by modeling along their paths of action, belief systems, and mental syntax, one should also be able to achieve. Another assumption is that as human beings, we are mentally conditioned collectivistically by national or group considerations and also individually by reflection. Thus, change can occur instantly or incrementally over a period of time, by a process of ego development, when the inner workings of the mind are invoked. It is an age-old observation in psychology that in any conflict between imagination and logic, imagination invariably wins. Human apperceptive forces are stronger than logic. Change, when attempted through a logical process with the conscious mind, as in formal strategic planning, is a long and arduous process, while strategy making in the entrepreneurial mode often surpasses this, making new behaviors seem as natural and automatic as the old ones did.

Your individual assignment is a play of your imagination where you vision yourself five years in the future and beyond, as it pleases you to do so. You imagine yourself either as an entrepreneur or as an intrapreneur in an organization where you will be realizing the satisfying utilization of all strengths gained along the way, including the MBA degree. What has to be written in the assignment is the description of the path you take on this imaginary journey. Some guidelines are given in Section 2. below, but you could deviate for improvement based on your own intuition. As this is also an academic exercise, and will account for 35% of the total marks in this course, the broad basis for marking is given in Section 3. below. Once the assignment is marked, it will be returned to you to be kept as a memento.
2. Basic Guidelines

a. Your Personal Philosophy on life, what would make you happy, the purpose of life, What would you love to do, what are your secret dreams for yourself, your family, your nation etc., What are your natural talents, what do people praise you for most, where have you excelled in the past, what is your work ethic, what would you stand for, what won't you stand for, what would you sacrifice for. Who would your new self have to be in order to realize all this?

b. A description of your life/work situation you envision in five years' time (where you want to be). Draw your life cycle curve starting from birth, with periodic lows and highs also showing where you are now, then project the curve into the future based on your vision. Write a personal vision statement and a mission statement. The vision statement based on values, and the mission statement being of a shorter time horizon and more work oriented. From the mission statement draw out the more quantifiable personal goals which are milestones to be achieved, under separate headings.

c. In relation to your mission, goals and objectives described, what personal factors (strengths) do you have now that would facilitate your achievement, and what personal factors (weaknesses) would impede your achievement, and as such need to be eliminated.

d. In relation to your mission, goals and objectives described, what factors in the changing environments of the future (opportunities) do you see that would facilitate your achievement and what factors in the environments of the future (threats) do you see that would obstruct your achievement.

e. What do you see as your strategies in terms of (i). Using your real strengths to capitalize on the imagined opportunities of the future, (ii). Eliminating your real weaknesses and gaining a new imaginary level of strength, and thereby capitalize on further imagined opportunities of the future, and (iii). Using your imagined new strengths to convert imagined threats of the future into still further imagined opportunities of the future.

f. Make an action plan for your imagination so that as it unfolds itself into reality, it could be monitored, or reoriented at any time, into a new future.