Entrepreneurial Management and Leadership - Individual Reflection - Assignment Example

The research assignment elaborated on the leadership and management skills of the entrepreneurs at the University of Florida International Centre (UFIC). Several theories and facts regarding entrepreneurship and leadership have emerged from the context of the research work. This summary will throw light on such theories and facts.

Entrepreneurship within a Corporate Setting

In the contemporary world, the degrees of competition among commercial institutions have significantly increased. At this juncture, only good leadership skills among institutional leaders and efficient entrepreneurial management can help an institution thrive in market competition and lead in the industry (Sabharwal and Wali 178). A corporate organization can only succeed in maximizing productivity with the essence of good efficiency in all its factors of production. However, among all the factors, entrepreneurship acts as the underlying driving force, that helps a corporation to operate competently, through the proper amalgamation of all other resources in business. Thus, within a corporate setting, the need for entrepreneurship is indispensable.

Types of Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Good quality of entrepreneurial activities is crucial for the success of any corporate organization. So, it is highly rational to foreground the various opportunities via which an organization can enhance its entrepreneurial skills. Senior managers or entrepreneurs are present in every organization. Nonetheless, enhancing entrepreneurial skills involves ways through which new ideas, as well as promoters in the business, can emerge, along with the essence of effective entrepreneurial management. These opportunities or ways are:

• Encouraging freedom in feedback in workplaces; the employees must be encouraged to contribute new ideas in business.
• Top grading entrepreneurial attributes of the existing senior officials in the firm.
• Entrepreneurism exercised by leaders in the organization must follow norms of collaboration, not fear. They should be humble and patient while exercising their duties on subordinates.
•  Learning from the success stories of other organizations in the industry is also a method to upgrade the entrepreneurial attributes of an organization.
• Empowering hardworking and efficient employees at work with additional responsibilities can help an organization frame new ideas in business, which might be developed by these gifted employees.
• The organization must concentrate on the core competencies of the business. This acts as a catalyst to enhance the entrepreneurial power of the concern.
• The employees of the organization must try to bear certain upcoming risks in business if that entails lucrative business profits.

With the contribution of all the above initiatives, an organization can enhance its entrepreneurial and leadership skills and hence, widen the scope of its products and markets in business (Casson 124).

Challenges Faced while developing Entrepreneurial Opportunities

When a corporate organization enhances its entrepreneurial opportunities, then it also faces several challenges in business. These challenges might hinder the proper promotional growth of an organization. These challenges are:

• The presence of strong labour unions often generates problems for entrepreneurs in an organization. These unions often bargain the freedom of entrepreneurs in business.
• Lack of proper financial reserves in an organization often forces entrepreneurs to be risk-averse in business. The officials in such situations face circumstances, where they can promote new ideas, but due to lack of proper funds, they fear undertaking risky initiatives in business (Brown 166).
• Strict government regulations and policies in a particular industry often force corporate firms to be less productive at their work. Under such situations, the government authorities impose heavy restrictions on companies, thereby reducing their market power in the industry.
• Lack of proper motivation at work might make employees of an organization less productive.
• Ways to Overcome the Challenges

Challenges are bound to arise when an organization tries to enhance its managerial and leadership attributes. However, there are effective ways through which organizations can easily overcome such upcoming challenges in business. These are:

• The existing entrepreneurs of an organization must frame new, productive business expansion projects for the company as borrowing finances from financial institutions for such lucrative projects would be easier. With the assistance of adequate finance, the company can sufficiently incorporate new ideas in business.
• Stringent policies of the government can be sustained if organizations try to exhibit their strong liberal competitive business missions and visions in the industry. Moreover, the company should also abide by the anti-trust principles in its business, thereby winning the overconfidence of the public regulating authorities. Under such situations, the government authorities are found to become more liberal towards an organization.
• A company must introduce new incentives and reward schemes for its employees. If employees are provided with equal scopes of progress and their learning opportunities in an organization are enhanced, then the degree of job attrition rate significantly falls. Under such circumstances, the bargaining powers of the labour unions in an organization are also seen to decline.
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• Required Skills and Resources within an Entrepreneur

It should be noted that new ideas in business development and good entrepreneurial management in an organization can only be achieved with the active contribution of the existing leaders or entrepreneurs there. The labour, capital and land resource for a firm must be adequate and effective. Provided all other productive resources of the business are efficient, certain skills of the leaders or entrepreneurs can significantly assist in rendering a corporate organization more competent in a dynamic industry. The required skills are:

• Honesty
• Good delegating capability
• Effective communication
• Confidence
• Good power of commitment
• Positive attitude
• Creativity
• Proper intuition
• Proper power to inspire. 

The context of the assignment had stated that, with the above few changes and initiatives, an organization can always enhance its business in the long run. It was correct to conclude that the “no fear of failure’ policy must be imbibed in the mindsets of the entrepreneurs of UFIC. This would help the institute to carve new pathways of development in order to become more powerful in the industry (Bose 222).