Most young entrepreneurs today emerge with innovative ideas and want to work in start-up enterprises and later look forward to the commercial success of such enterprises. However, most entrepreneurs begin working at a startup and face complexities and uncertainties in managing project. This chapter examines the current trend in innovative projects and start-up management, and discusses various managerial skills to run a start-up enterprise. Most startups function under individual leadership environment, and employees are accountable for the success of the project. The work dynamics, project appraisal, and strategic moves that are required for the success of start-up enterprises are discussed in this chapter with focus on local-global business convergence perspectives.
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The growing competitive dynamics among firms are engaged in working with diversified business projects to drive high performance and gain competitive advantage in the market. Managing multiple business projects breeds uncertainty in project operations, causes failures, and damages the corporate credibility. The conventional project management no longer guarantees the success of complex business projects such as technology driven new products. As companies contemplate sustained growth in the global marketplace, it is essential for them to manage their business projects efficiently by minimizing the risk and maximizing the project output. In an effort to design, develop, and manage client-led business projects, companies working as original equipment manufacturers (OEM) should learn managing projects with lean techniques to avoid the cost and time overrun lowering the performance of the project output towards productivity, competence, market competitiveness, and profitability.
Consumer centric innovation is carried out by the companies to deliver convenience, high perceived value in reference to application, satisfaction, and monetary gains in reference to the competitive differentiation. Consumer led innovations are driven by the 4A-factors comprising awareness, availability, affordability, and adaptability reviewing the innovation lifecycle, sustainability, and scope to upgrade the technology embedded in the innovations. Industry focused innovations are largely directed towards building new markets, acquiring new clients, achieving market leadership, and reinforcing corporate image in business-to-business market environment. Most of the innovative business projects are developed around the objectives of enhancing productivity with zero defects through lean manufacturing operations. Hence, most companies are employing automation using robotics led innovation and improved controls and measures. Industrial innovations have random growth in the marketplace driven by the emerging ‘start-ups’ across the countries that offer new insights to the companies for their business growth. The upcoming ‘start-ups’ extensively work with the information technology and offer digitization led innovative solutions that offer competitive advantage and unique business proposition to the companies. However, economic viability of the innovation appears to be an up-hill challenge for small start-ups.
Innovation projects require balanced management of both the technical and behavioral issues. In the marketplace today, speed of strategy implementation is important to gain the first mover advantage but at the same time only the companies that are able to make right strategic choice are found fit to do business in the international destinations. In order to achieve these attributes, companies need to develop right business projects, engage in carrying out stage-gate business projects meticulously, and carry out project process. Successful companies invest enormous resources on developing sustainable business projects considering competitive gains within the company, market, or industry.
Most start-up enterprises in the emerging markets develop project design and operations process across the local business cultures, distinguishing the requirements to carry out business projects successfully within niche and test is performance by implementing the project plans carefully and analyzing innovation eco-system and convergence practices of global-local innovation endeavors. The right decisions support for planning and implementation of business projects in terms of their economic viability and technological feasibility should be taken by the start-up enterprises to help in lowering the risk with the measurable results. Such efforts in managing innovative ideas by the start-up enterprises would help them to sustain in the international marketplace and attract rapid commercialization. In the growing market competition in the twenty first century, the corporate success depends on breaking through the innovation oriented business projects, and analyzing the right information for building marketplace strategies. This innovation process should be integrated across different economies and market environments through local initiatives and commercialization for reaching sustainability and managing market competitiveness in reference to emerging markets. However, it is evident from the failures of several corporate initiatives that companies are unable to manage business projects efficiently. The major challenge among the start-up enterprises today is to drive new insights towards developing competitive business project designs and breakthroughs to manage them considering the time, territory, target, and tasks management, and assure business gains and market competitiveness in the local-global marketplace.