The Entrepreneurial Drama..(True Story of Hurdled Project.)Part 2

.....Continued from part 1..Analysis...

Asma moinuddin later decides to send an email to teacher to join a different group as kung fu idea is liu bowen idea and sends  the following  email to the teacher

>>> Asma Moinuddin 2010-10-01 14:57 >>>
Hello Leona!!
We have tried to take your suggestion and work with KUng FU idea(although we have less time) as it was exciting and also majority of people have chosen to work with it.
During our discussion today with kung fu idea there where certain issues we were facing problems for example weather or not to actually contact anyone or just present the idea as a business idea  during presention.Lot of us were confused. which built up frustration  in certain issues   during pretension and  during our discussions certain ethical issues were breached and also the Liu Bowen was not happy with my suggestions regarding (not making up things during presentation)and had lost his temper and had claimed that am unproductive and has shown an arrogant behavior towards me. Therefore which leaves me to state were i am unwilling to work with Liu Bowen and am sure he feels the same way about me  as well , as he clearly stated that he  is unhappy and is angry and feels i am unproductive and that i have not done any work and i feel he lacks work ethics towards me and i was in tears with his behavior towards me. As our differences are irreconcilable, therefore i do not wish that my unproductiveness and my suggestions should bring the group down, therefore i wish to quit working with Liu Bowen.
I would like to apologize to my group members and Liu Bowen  for this decision of mine, but i hope as they have witnessed the whole situation and have seen what has happened i hope they would understand my feelings and my values.
And i would like to request Leona if there’s any other group  i  can work with or would it be possible to further develop whatever idea i have and the amount of work i can do at my own pace to present during presentation.
 OR can i get points for the project if i do a report and not presentation (taking my case as exception as am only one left out).
Anup, Razzak and Liu Miao any one of you’ll can join me if you like or continue working  which ever you think is easier and beneficial  to do.
I am still thankful for Liu Bowen for trusting and cooperating with me and working with our initial idea chosen by him for a while and hoping that if we cant work together at least we could be friends.
Regards
Asma

To which Leona replies

 Dear Asma, Bowen Liu and team

During team work, conflicts can occur. And the more international the team is, the more conflicts might occur due to the different cultural backgrounds. Being at JIBS, you have come to a very international and diverse environment. We consider it an important and very relevant - though very challenging at times - part of the learning process to become used to working in international teams, and this actually prepares you very realistically to your later work environments. Thus, I understand your immediate reaction of wanting to give up and split up the group. However, imagine you were working at a multinational company and were staffed into a project team and assigned a certain task. You wouldn't be able to just quit there either. As this master program is supposed to prepare you for your future careers, whether as entrepreneurs or in existing organizations, we would nonetheless like to encourage you to give it another try. Can't you try to forget for a moment that you feel hurt and offended, and sit down together to face what has happened and gone wrong in the process? You come from very different backgrounds probably have different values and different expectations. But can't you try to accept those differences and define a basis on which you can still work together, despite all emotions that have been aroused? Just imagine you proud you would feel having overcome that challenge, managed to deliver the course project and jointly made this incredible progress! Tolerance and openness are important issues when being in an intercultural and diverse context, and being effective in such context needs to be learned - you cannot expect that to work from the start. But you are bright, ambitious individuals, so there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to persuade yourself to forgive and re-start.

So basically, I would very much like to encourage you to take this as an entrepreneurial learning opportunity, and I am sure that you would be very proud of yourselves looking back on solving this conflict, rather than running away from it. People are different, cultures are different, but all people are worth the same, and the differences can be a great asset!

Good luck!

Leona

Analysis:

All this while I was mad at Liu Bowen, but when I came back home I tried to rethink the whole situation and read an article on to deal with difficult and arrogant situations in Islamic way. I found out while reading that one must try to find out the cause of such arrogant behavior and I have come to the conclusion that Liu Bowen was only frustrated due to a VALID reason that the work is not done and the sudden change in plan has caused him restlessness, although he lost his temper, all he wanted was the work to be done.

Leona also stated

As this master program is supposed to prepare you for your future careers, whether as entrepreneurs or in existing organizations, we would nonetheless like to encourage you to give it another try. Can't you try to forget for a moment that you feel hurt and offended, and sit down together to face what has happened and gone wrong in the process? You come from very different backgrounds,probably have different values and different expectations. But can't you try to accept those differences and define a basis on which you can still work together, despite all emotions that have been aroused?

As Leona states “However, imagine you were working at a multinational company and were staffed into a project team and assigned a certain task. You wouldn't be able to just quit there either”.

According to Leona it is very true that certain situations and such conflicts are resolved by either the HR or the supervisor of the project.

It is the responsibility of the tutor or the mentor to intervene when a problem was brought in front of them. As I was incapable of resolving it and a authoritative presence would make a difference for both of us, in understandable words (it would have been great if Leona would have called Liu and me in her office and tried to talk us through it) ,for both LIU and ME and we would learn to work with each other again.

In the end the cause of this drama I still think was due the sudden change in the plans and our quick responses to events out of emotions, and the misunderstanding between the group members and impatience to act upon without a second thought that Leona just suggested and that it was not necessary to change the idea. Even after the group tried to reconsider the idea before Leona suggested.

However as I believe everything happens for a reason, I would first like to thank Leona for such a inspiring email and trying to resolve our conflict and second I have learnt that during times of confusion and arrogant situation during project work one must take control of oneself and deal with it with full of patience and calmness and that one should not come to a quick decision out of emotions.

The particular mail from the teacher was defiantly helpful to deal with our situation, although Liu Bowen was not sorry and we dint want talk to each other for a while after the conflict. However it made us work together not only in this project but also in the next one with Jönköping Kommun.
Therefore justifying the statements i had reffered to my previous blogs  that entrprenauring is learning (at all stages learning about unplanned changes)  and learning( to deal with such changes) is entrprenauring and also that learning happens more with  practice.

The Entrepreneurial Drama..(True Story of Hurdled Project.)Part 1

The reason am writing is an attempt to document certain issues that everyone faces or could possibly face during practicing entrepreneurship and the aspects  that are not taught but are learnt during practice and also I was not motivated enough to write about other things such as Business Planning and Entrprenaurial Creativity related to with the course work due to what I have gone through  . It the result of series of events which caused aggression in one team members  and caused tears to the one subjected to aggression and also bringing me to almost  quit working. This blog is an attempt to understand the cause of aggression and confusion and ultimately bringing hitches to a well progressed work, which I also think happens in most of project work related to many companies. Ofcourse a better handling of the situation either makes your project or breaks it. I felt as we are in the process of learning what entrepreneurship should be, and as I have always personally emphasized on practice rather than theory, I would like to drift a bit away from our main stream focus and write about the real lessons one must keep in mind during the hurdles through the process of entrepreneurial practice and the ways to deal with it. The names I have used are all real characters and I encourage readers to take this situation as only an example and as I have learnt from it wish the readers would benefit from it as well.

Actors: Liu Bowen,Asma Moinuddin,lu miao,Anup

 Scenario:

Coming up with business ideas

Idea 1:Good for You (Promotion of healthy food)

Idea 2:Kung fu(Promoting Chinese Art)

Business idea chosen by majority in the class: Kung Fu

 The idea creator fears that certain issues cannot be dealt with Kung Fu idea and chooses to go the Good for you idea.

 The team gathers and starts working on good for you idea about fruit salads

Comes up with a plan to execute the idea,

Liu Bowen ,Anup and Razzak come up the financial planning and calculate the pricing for fruit salads and Razzaks task of information about finding legal issues.

Asma Moinuddin and Miao are responsible for coming up with recepies and gathering calorific values of food and also questions to be asked in the survey on Friday

Asma Moinuddin task of website designing due until deadline that is Saturday morning

Incidents that trigger the drama

Thrusday 11:40: Booked a tutoring session with teachers. Feed back from teachers.

Leona states that the idea of fruit salad is not efficient enough as a venture idea and there are lot of food ideas and the idea must be more than just fruit salad.

The same day the group gathers right after the meeting and discusses further to develop the idea .

The idea is further developed into instead of fruit salad the concept of selling diet plan food to people registered under 20 to 30 day diet plans. And to integrate professional nutritionist into the website and diet plans. The group together also decides on design of the website.

Before we decided to divide task. The group also reconsidered the kung fu plan just in case to see what can be done.Asma moinuddin states that let us not waste the amount of time and effort we spent on good for you. However we still discuss the plan and come to a conclusion that its hard to draw financial planning and attract sponsors and Liu Bowen agrees to go ahead with Good for you idea.

Every one decides on what to do on their tasks and the tasks are divided as following

Liu: Financial statements and costs for finding a kitchen and legal issues

Miao and asma :finding nutritionist,diets plans and creating sample website.

Survay that’s was planned to be done the next day questions ready.

The mail that created PANICK

Thrusday from Leona Achtenhagen 09/30/10 9:43 PM 

Dear Asma, Bowen and group

We discussed more about your idea today, and we felt that there were quite a number of other ventures related to food already. We would very much like to see that some of the groups take advantage of the diversity and many cultural backgrounds we have in the class, and we therefore wanted to encourage you to re-consider the kong-fu idea, in case you were still uncertain about how to move forward with the good-for-you idea. Of course, time is running, but you still have a couple of days to show full action to develop the idea.

The choice is your's, of course.

Good luck!

Leona and Bengt

Within 38 minutes after the teachers mail LIU Bowen takes initiative to change the idea and come with a plan and even send it all the team members in such a short time.

And sends the following mail

we change our ideas ,Kong fu idea

our kongfu idea step to develop

(1)find teachers (my job,miaolu)

(2)find sponsors(my job,miaolu)

(3)search AD,TV about chinese Kongfu (ANUP , RAzzak responsible) 4-7minitues long

(4)price location(tommorrow we discuss) but you guys write something like price prelocation

(5)website(ASMA job)

(6)find chinese kongfuschool for summer camp (tommorrow we discuss)

jobs should be done tonight, thank you

Asma moinuddin is unaware about this as she does not check mail in the night.

Meeting at 11:00 A.M

Thinking that we are going to a survey asma arrives and finds out the sudden change in plans.

Since the suggestions were from the teachers, everyone agrees that we work on kung Fu.

Discussions regarding kunfu start.

Liu bowen has a sleepless night and comes up with instructions to go about the kungfu plan

Asma moinuddin agrees to create the design for website

The group is still stuck with financial issues regarding kung fu

Liu bowen says “am tierd” and he had sleep less night, and the rest of us very confused.

Liu bowen says contacting schools in china are future plan.

Anup comes up with an idea of just presenting the idea and mentioning that the group has tried contacting people, without even contacting anyone.

Asma moinuddin states that it’s a lie and we should not present something we have not done.

Liu Bowen gets frustrated and shouts at asma saying “I have worked until 3 a.m in the morning and you have done nothing and we re not lying ”.

Asma says “Comon! We are all worried and we are also working”

Liu Bowen gets more aggravated and states”you were supposed to do website for good for you did you do it?”

Asma moinuddin “ Why are you talking like that?”

Liu Bowen” because I worked until 3 a.m and am angry with you and you dint even do the website ?” in a loud voice (the website which would have currently been of no use ,and also the dead line was until Saturday morning)

Asma moinuddin is in tears and the rest of the group tries to calm the situation. Asma still in tears tries to leave the table saying “I cannot work like this right now”

Liu Bowen says ”We can do website by ourselves ”

Scene 2 Outside the library

The group comes out and the rest of group is trying to calm the situation.

Asma moinuddin says that” I am only frustrating with his behavior and the way you spoke”

“and that is not the way you speak to team members”

Liu Bowen with his cigarette in his hand and more aggravated “you should do the website ..did you do the website.?”asma blankly looks at him in surprise. He shouts again “ Did you do website .Show me now …”in loud voice (even after knowing that its not done yet)in front of the library

Razzak and Anup try to calm Liu Bowen down

Asma states again ”and that is not the way you talk to me and in that tone ”still in tears

Lu miao comes close to asma to calm asma down and says forget about it

I say to miao“nobody spoke to me like that before and i do not need to take this crap from him and I don’t have the heart to take it ”  In the back ground liu Bowen still rasing his voice ,Asma says I not talking to you and leaves  with lot of questions in her head........

Continued Part 2.............

What is Entreprenarship?Part2 (Per Davidssons View)

....Continuation

Per Davidsson from his Researching Entrepreneurship (2004) has  given many definitions and keywords to identify what entrepreneurship  can be and could be.However he states in his aricle  and personally emphasizes on the definition "the fruitful notion in austrain economics is that entrepreneurship consists of the competitive behaviours that drive the market process" (Kirzner,1973, pp 19-20)

In the videos Davidsson, P. (2010)  also gives his personal opinion about how a successful  entrepreneur must have lasting effect on market level and that entreprenauring is not about  success in venture level.This definatly made me think because in my first blog i had given my personal definition about entreprenauring as turning oppertunities ,change ,and innovation into a "succesful venture", perhaps only due the fact that the thought of market has not crossed my mind.Would try to address  more about this issue in my last blog. 

Davidsson, P. (2005)  also describes in his"The types and contextual fit of entrepreneurial processes"  about the Microlevel and marco level effects,Societal -level outcome  success,Success ventures,Re-distributive Ventures, Catalyst Ventures and also Failed Ventures.

The aspect that caught my attention was when he also talked about luck and serendipity.At first i  superstitiously completely agreed with it ,but when i actually thought about it i felt that promoting the idea of luck and serendipity could sometimes lead to abandoning the start up venture or businesses in cases of failed ventures and could mislead the ones successful who experience the serendipity of the situation.

In  Davidsson, P. (2005) The types and contextual fit of entrepreneurial processes ,he also describes D.Sarasvathy(s) causation process( creating a business out of existing things) and effectuation process (business planning and acquiring resources according to the plan) .My personal thoughts on these were that of that the initial idea requires high creativity skill and the later requires high management skills in order to acquire resources.

In the videos Davidsson, P. (2010) also states that  according to research entrepreneurs do not belong to a specific profile  and that they are special in their own way !!!

Meanwhile i had been thinking all this time that successful entrepreneurs must have or have had typical noticeable and common characteristics.

Now as am on the journey of exactly understanding to understand what entrepreneurship really is ,i could not help but look back again and  ask myself a question of how it originated.Did it originate out a human desire to be unique and noticed  and to carve his/her identity in this never constant ,ever changing world.Or did it actually exists out of need. And i again ask myself which way to take "the desire" or "the need" and which is the most lasting? :-)

References:

Davidsson, P. (2004): Researching Entrepreneurship, Chapter 1: What is entrepreneurship, Springer

Davidsson, P. (2005): The types and contextual fit of entrepreneurial processes, International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 2(4), 1-23.

Davidsson, P. (2010). Media lecture on pingpong: What is entrepreneurship. Retrieved 2010-09-17 from: Jönköping International Business School's Website: https://pingpong.hj.se/courseId/8043/courseDocsAndFiles.do 

What is Entreprenarship?(Bengt Johannison View)

Bengt Johannison and Perr Davidsson have had covered the most possible ways of trying to describe what entrepreneuring is and have also described many aspects of  entrepreneurial characteristics
Because this first blog is about Bengt Johannison  view on entrepreneurship ,i shall attempt to discuss his statements and try to make a conclusion out of his teachings.
Johannisson, B. (2010)  in his lecture about Entrepreneurial self had made many generic statements about being entrepreneurial as a human capability ,a processual phenomenon,  learning and crafting of ones identity.
The ones that stirred my thoughts at the state of mind i am at  was the statement that said "Entrepreneuring is learning and learning is entrepreneuring". There were lot of discussions in the class based on the generic statements described by Bengt for example "if being entrepreneurial  is a human capability-can everyone be an entrepreneur?" and also if  "Entrepreneuring is learnt solely based  on practice ,what is the point of studying it at a university?".It was quite surprising to see also that the above question was asked by three different students indicating the question "What’s the whole point ?" was lingering on most of the minds of the students. It was quite interesting to listen to the discussions we had during the class ,however there was no one single way to approach this issue or as i come from an engineering background i would like to put it as  "Cannot calculate shortest path to reach the  final node".
Before i had pondered upon Bengt Johansson statements and had  watched the videos of Perr Davidsson, i tried to randomly  look for a definition on the internet When i looked on the definition on what entrepreneur means this was the following definition giving in the dictionary from Onlinedictionary.com .
A person who organizes and manages an enterprise esp. business, usually with considerable initiative and risk
an employer of productive labour,a contractor. 
and when i googled it I got the following

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which is a French word meaning "one who undertakes an endeavor". Entrepreneurs assemble resources including innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurship
After the discussions in theclass and the reading material, i had come to a personal conclusion that "weather or not  everyone can be a entrepreneur?".Id like to say "Everyone can "LEARN" to be entrepreneur but not every can "BE" a entrepreneur , the difference and the answer  lies in the way the individuals practice it  either with interest or with obsession".

Continued in the next blog Part2 Per Davidssons view...



Johannisson, B. (2010). Towards a practice theory of entrepreneuring. Small Business of Economics, online first