Reflection On Entrepreneurship And Business Planning Course
Through this Entrepreneurship and Business Planning (“EBP”) course, I have come to understand how businesses have tweaked and evolved their marketing strategies to achieve their company’s goals. This project is the combinations of effort of every group member which make me feel very energetic in having the opportunity to apply every knowledge and skills that I have learnt during the lectures into use.
I believe that our venture was both externally and internally stimulated. Externally simulated being the fact that we recognized an opportunity in the sale of a water-bottle due to its outreach to the different communities. Internally simulated being we recognized the issue of having a bulky water bottle, bringing inconvenience to students, sportsmen and people with active lifestyle and hence, we have decided to sell water bottles that are inflatable in nature. We have went through the financial feasibility analysis before the commencement of the project, performing the necessary budgeting, gathering of financial data through online research and the potential and viability of the venture. All these factors were taken into consideration to determine the feasibility of our product. Being part of a large seven-member team was difficult to handle initially. On planning for the meetings, not every of us were able to meet at the stipulated date and time. From there, we learnt to accommodate and squeezed out periods between our classes to have a quick discussion to obtain updates on the project and the subsequent steps to take. Although not all members were present for every meeting, all of us did our assigned parts at our own time and pace. We respected each other and trust that each of us will complete our own task with the best conscientious effort. I feel that this was an important learning point that I have gained from interacting with the team, that it is important to place trust in our members, and do not question their capability. This is critical in boosting collaboration among members, and bringing out the optimal outcome for the project.
As our team was made up of Swedish students as well as Singaporean students, we experienced a vibrant and internationalised perspective during the project discussions. Being part of an international team has also exposed me to the different cultures and way of doing things from students of different nationalities. This is especially beneficial to an entrepreneurship project where culture vibrancy and the unique experience of students from different nations help to spur creativity and innovation. This has also made me learned that although a group can be made up of people from different background, age, religion and race, it is up to us to make use of the different strengths possessed by different people, and build it to the group’s advantage. Not only is an internationalised team beneficial for school project group, but it may also turn out to be highly-rewarding for our career in the near future.
Working in groups and working individually are extremely different. Group work emphasizes on communication and group cooperation. At times, cooperation might be tough to achieve, especially when there are too many leaders in the group. Too many opinions in the group could disrupt the team from progressing and even result in heated arguments if not handled properly. Thankfully, we handled the many ideas patiently and together as a group, managed to generate the best idea. Cooperation might be tricky to achieve, even trickier in a large group, but I believe that we can reach a win-win situation if we try our best to understand the perspective of our group members.
Overall, the course was very educational and the project was good as it stimulated real-life entrepreneurship in today’s world.
