Shivani Gupta
Exponential growth is the holy-grail for start-ups. And most start-ups are built around creative, driven individuals, passionate about the business. Why then in spite of the brilliant founders of start up’s do we not see them all boom into large business successes? While their product or service is truly unique, financially viable and attractive to the market place, many have stumbled in their attempt to translate that nascent success into a large sustainable rapidly growing organization.
As the volume of business increases, the operational challenges multiply and often times the firms begin to crumble under the weight of their ownsuccess, unable to match market expectation and failing deliver the same product or service at scale. Why is the same group of start-up founders, unable to replicate their initial success at scale? What is the missing ingredient that can bring a method to the seeming chaos and madness of exponential growth to ensure that it is sustainable ? Streamlined repeatable processes are the key and driving their usage, application and adoption is the art & science of Project & Portfolio Management. The discipline of project management offers a framework, tools and techniques to success right from ideation through planning, execution and delivery. Raising money and deploying it effectively is perhaps the most foundational aspect of a high growth business. Project and Portfolio Management offers tools that provide a dispassionate view of the best places to invest the money as well as the optimal sequence for such investment uncovering hidden linkages between various priorities of the business. Cost evaluation, cost forecasting and cost control assist in predicting the future financial outcome of an initiative- be it a minor project or a startup organization. The cost budgeting process includes measuring and managing investment costs which is covered in detail in project management armory for professionals. Startup owners/resources can leverage budgeting and cost management skills extensively covered under project management that add an immense and unparallel value to the ability to drive business successfully.
As firms grow in size, communication challenges arise. One of the key components of Project Management armory is Communication management that guides about various methods, channels and types of communication and how can it be leveraged for meeting expectations of your team members / stakeholders. Entrepreneurs can certainly utilize other knowledge areas of Project Management specified in PMBOK by PMI (Project Management Institute- www.pmi.org) like Time management, Quality Management and Risk management and Procurement management for building their startups and achieving business goals. Risk identification and its qualitative and quantitative analysis is of tremendous importance while making financial decisions in a business. A well-planned risk response plan can minimize the impact of unforeseen situations. Some of the risks that startups can encounter are legal risks, financial risks, resource and manpower risks, political risks, operational uncertainties. These risks can have minor or major consequences. The important factor here is to understand the probably of occurrence of the risks, impact and design a risk response strategy. Various techniques like Monte Carlo analysis, qualitative- quantitative risk analysis help cover detailed view of these various kinds of risk and uncertainties and plan risk avoidance, mitigation and acceptance plans. Time is Money and Time management, which is an important project management skill-set, is the key to make sure that products/ services are made available to customers competitively. Accurate estimates help drive coordination of multiple dependencies and projects in terms of marketing efforts, procurement deals, manufacturing processes etc. Project management skills emphasize on importance and techniques of estimating activities/ tasks and are an essential toolkit at the hands of entrepreneurs for schedule management and streamlining various parallel or sequential initiatives they had to lead as part of the process. From procurement of raw materials to launch of new product, adhering to quality standards to recruitment of resources- knowledge of project management principles help in all and hence Project management knowledge is the secret ingredient when you start your business or scale your startup. Establishing and implementing an appropriate procurement strategy is key to control and effectiveness of sourcing goods and services. Innovative startups are instrumental in shaping the future of procurement. Project procurement management is a crucial skill-set that allows organizations to negotiate contracts per their best interests and requirements and could enhance certainty of better-quality offerings. Entrepreneurs are always looking to crack better deals whether it’s in terms of procuring goods and services or planning and managing their outsourcing portfolios. The expertise to handle the process of sourcing, requisitioning, ordering, expediting, validating, and reconciling procurement is second to none and projects management is a great way to enhance and master these skills. On the whole, project management is a must have package for entrepreneurs, startups and all types and forms of business organizations.
(The author is Forbes Business Council Member and 2021- President of PMI South Florida).