Self Reflection of Academic and Professional Learning - Essay Example

? What Have I Learned During The Program And How Can I Apply This In My Future Career? A Critical Reflection Introduction The history of marketing theories can be traced back to the time when the concept of trade and commerce came into light. The marketing theory, in turn has greatly influenced the culmination of other theories pertaining to business. Alongside the development of marketing theory, other parallel streams such as commodity, functional and institutional also experienced tremendous development. The rapid evolution, that took place just after the Second World War further escalated in the 1960s. This time the thrust was mainly on organizational behaviour, behavioural sciences and operational management which also strongly impacted the theories of marketing. The concept of entrepreneurship also evolved during this phase and some of the scholars even deem the evolution of entrepreneurial discipline to be analogous with the theories of marketing (Hultman and Shaw, 2003). It all started with the definition of entrepreneurship provided by Richard Cantillion in the 18th century, where he mentioned an entrepreneur to be an innovator. With the course of time, several other practitioners have portrayed their perception and outlooks about the notion of entrepreneurship. Schumpeter (1934) “entrepreneur as innovator”, Say (1845) “entrepreneur as coordinator”, Kirzner (1973) “entrepreneur as arbitrator and opportunity-seeker” and Knight (1921) “entrepreneur as uncertainty reducer” are some of the excerpt of the thoughts presented by the eminent scholars. However, currently the concept of entrepreneurship is widely accepted and is judged as a vital part of the contemporary world and a well established erudite discipline. Moreover, government of a number of countries also judges entrepreneurship as a mantra of success and development of the economy. A number of examples can be traced which prominently showcases, the significant contribution made by entrepreneurs to the economy of a country. The importance increases exponentially when it comes to a developing country (Hills and Hultman, 2011). According to Rae (2007, p.3) an entrepreneur is defined as a person who acts in an enterprising way, and who identifies or creates and acts on an opportunity, for example by starting a new business venture. On the other hand, entrepreneurship is defined as a subject of enterprise and entrepreneurs, encompassing the practical and academic knowledge, skills and techniques used in being an entrepreneur. In regards to this context, Lumpkin and Dess (1996) put emphasis on the fact that an entrepreneur can be best judged by comparing the five dimensions namely (1) risk-taking; (2) opportunity oriented; (3) innovativeness; (4) pro-activeness; and (5) autonomy. An average or more than the standard score in these five dimensions greatly augments the possibility of an individual to become an entrepreneur in the near future (Mohanty, 2005; Hills, Hultman, Kraus and Schulte, 2010; Hultman, 1999; Carson, Cromie, McGowan and Hill, 1995). This study is basically intended to critically reflect upon the learning I received from the teachers and trainers. In the course module, we have mainly read about the theories and importance of entrepreneurship and critical evaluation of what I have learned during the programme and how can I apply this in my future career. In order to do this analysis, self reflection methodology will be adopted. In this study, I will portray about what I have learned during the entire course and will reflect upon how I can use those learning for my professional career. In this study, I will also develop a career action plan to showcase my future personal development. Self Reflection of Academic and Professional Learning I always have high interest on computers since my childhood days. However, at that time I was completely unaware of the architecture of a computer. In addition, I was also unaware of the strong research and development activities that took place prior to the development of computers; I was simply enthralled by the attributes and functions of a computer. However, later when I slowly started to gain higher education and I came to know about the different facets of a product. Some of the most evident ones are product development, the function of research and development in organizations, the concept and importance of marketing in organizations and other aspects of business. As I started to gain further education, I discovered a number of new things which are of utmost importance to a society and nation. One of the learning is obviously entrepreneurship. As I have mentioned earlier, entrepreneurship is a backbone of the national economy of a country and is also responsible for bringing growth to a country. Real life examples of a number of countries can be found that clearly reflects about the significant role being played by entrepreneurship. For example countries like China and India have made rapid gaits in the economic progression of the country. The GDP and per capita income growth of these countries, since their respective liberalization (1978 for China and 1991 for India), has been phenomenal. As per the reports of GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor), the rapid growth of services sector in India and manufacturing sector in China is inextricably correlated with the type and level of entrepreneurial activities. Another intriguing fact found is that countries with equal per capita GDP has the knack of showing signs of analogous echelon of entrepreneurial activities. On the contrary, significant divergence can be identified in the nature and type of entrepreneurial activities, in countries with dissimilar per capita GDP. Therefore, from this discussion, it is apparent that entrepreneurship is a vital and necessary activity for the prosperity and progression of an organization. Therefore, I can consider that the course module has allowed me to gauge the importance of entrepreneurship for a nation. Moreover, this has also influenced me to a great extent to take up entrepreneurial activities in the near future. Although, I have grown up in an environment which always promotes employment in business sector rather than opening up and managing a new venture, but the learning from the course as well as taking inspiration from the eminent entrepreneurs, I also aspire to become a successful entrepreneur in the near future. This is principally because of the fact that I also wanted to contribute towards the prosperity of the national economy. In addition, I also feel that entrepreneurial activities greatly reduce the anxiety of unemployment, as it provides employment opportunity to numerous people. The author of the book, “Entrepreneurship: from Opportunity to Action” (2007) emphasized on the importance of proper utilization of ‘human capital’. He believes that proper utilization of human resource leads to a competitive advantage and is a key to success for the nation as well as for the companies. The author exemplifies by stating that, a number of people in the society often experiences discrimination, inequality of opportunity, and at times may even hurt the ethnicity, and discrimination in the form of disability, geographical location, gender and family responsibility, including motherhood and age. This is an obvious reflection of the under utilization of human resource. The example stated by the author also portrays the importance of identification, creation of development opportunities of the society and economy. The learning from the course module also allowed me to uncover numerous theories pertaining to the notion of entrepreneurship. Apart from that, I also become aware of the theories portrayed by scholars previously about the subject of concern. One of the biggest benefits of this learning is gaining of the practical knowledge. Although, I still believe that the knowledge I have gained so far is inadequate to start a new venture, but with this handful knowledge and experience I have tried to portray my entrepreneurial skills. I will cite a real scenario in which I can clearly demonstrate the application of my learning. The real life example is presented below: - It was during the time when I was undergoing my summer internship program with one of the premier FMCG companies of the world. It was a mandatory activity that we have to undertake, in order to get the final degree. I joined the company as a management trainee and the total time period allotted to me for completing the project was only 4 months. My job role was related to market research and presented data to the company pertaining to their market size, competitor standings, possible impact of the external business environment on the organization, and also to present some of the other information about the market. In the process of surveying the market, I needed to visit several other business houses who were the clients of my company. I found most of the companies to be successful and have been in the market for than 10 years. I have also taken interview of a number of business owners and the most astounding fact was that most of them were small entrepreneurial ventures. However, proper execution of plans along with quality delivery of services has taken these companies to new heights. In addition, I also came to know about the hurdles that they had to cross before reaching this position. Interestingly, majority of them has taken a calculative risk and as a result of that the chances of their failure was minimized to a great extent. The qualities of an entrepreneur that I learned in the course material were exactly the same in discovered in these entrepreneurs. Together with the learning from the course and practical knowledge that I got from meeting the entrepreneurs, I was also getting highly influenced to start my own venture. Consequently, as soon as I finished my interns, I started my own small-scale venture. Although, initially it was small scale, the business had the opportunity to take large strides. Considering my high interest on electronics, I started the business of computer hardware selling. Since I was short of resources and funds, I opted to work as a third part vendor. In this context, I used to buy directly from the manufacturing company and sell it to the end customers. The business went on smoothly for the first three months, but due to lack of resources and inadequate marketing activities, unfortunately, I was compelled to discontinue the venture. The above activity clearly discusses the application of my learning in the practical field. However, my learning in the entire course module was not constrained with the theories of entrepreneurship, it allowed me to learn a number of different other things. One of the most vital learning from the course material was the concept of leadership. In the meantime, I was also able to gain the qualities of leadership. The learning which I got from the course material tremendously helped me to unearth some of my potential capabilities. It also played a crucial role in developing my inter-personal skills. One of the skills that have developed since the past few years is the ability to lead. I can relate my qualities of leading to the time when I worked for ABC consultants for few months. In this company I worked as an assistant manager of department. However, I never got the opportunity to lead and supervise other employees. As a result of that, the management of the company thought that I lack qualities of leadership and that impeded me to get promotion. However, it was after few days, the manager took leave for a few days and I took over the role of managing the team. In the meantime, a technological change was supposed to be occurring in the company. The change was basically the implementation of new automation software in the company. As a result of this there were strong resistance from the employees about the implementation of the change. The resistance level reached a certain stage that the management found huge difficulties in implementing it. As the days passed, the intensity of the resistance grew further and the implementation of ERP became tougher. It reached apposition, where other project was scheduled to be cancelled due to strong resistance being offered by the employees. However being a part of the company, I thought of playing the role of a liaison between the management of the company and the employees. I understood that the intended change is extremely beneficial for the company and will help in bringing speed to the organization. Moreover, this will also provide competitive advantage to the firm. On analyzing the possible impact on the employees, I found that there is a possibility of layoff and some employees may lack the skills required to work with this technology. However, after a detailed discussion with the executives and managers of the company, I discovered that the company is not planning to layoff any employees; rather the management is concerned about the training programs. Substantiating the information, I tried to convince the employees to accept the change that is about to get implemented. I have notified the employees about the benefits of implementing ERP into the system of organization. In addition, I have also notified them about the benefits for the employees and lastly assured them that their current state will not be disrupted on account of the change. The benefits for the employees will mainly appear in the form of learning new tools and techniques of working. In addition, they will also be able to get accustomed with the new technologies. I also assured them that the company will arrange training sessions for them and make everybody familiar with the new working technique. The discussion with the employee representatives turned out to be healthy and thankfully majority of them accepted the necessity of this change and avowed to offer full support. After the successful completion of the implementation process, the management of the company highly praised me for exhibiting the leadership skills. This has not only uplifted my confidence but also allowed me to believe that I can be a good business manager as well, which further ignited my desire to become an entrepreneur. Self Assesment In order to further asses myself, I will be carrying out an assessment that reflects about the qualities of entrepreneurship present in me. This will be done by comparing with the entrepreneur skills and qualities of one of the renowned entrepreneur. The General Enterprising Tendency (GET) Test will be put into practise for analysing and evaluating my entrepreneurial qualities. Furthermore, it is also proposed that the study will make use of the five dimensions of entrepreneurial qualities namely Need for Achievement, Need for Autonomy, Creative Tendency, Calculated Risk-taking and Drive and Determination (internal locus of control) (Johnson, May, Remenyi, Kuratko, Molnar) to inquire whether the things I have learned during the programme can be applied in my future career. In order to make comparison with a successful entrepreneur, this study will consider the owner of LK Sports, Mr. Harry Dawson. Mr. Dawson is also a business management student. He has completed his masters from the University of Massachusetts. On asking him about the early influences of his life that made him believe in entrepreneurial activities, he replied that it was his desire to work independently and his philosophy was highly supported his parents, which further boosted his confidence. He also added that his desire to work in a sports equipment manufacturing and marketing company influenced him to start this venture. GET Score Results Dimension Entrepreneurs Average MBA Students Average GET Average MR. Dawson Myself Achievement 10.02 9.34 9 8 9 Autonomy 4.05 3.71 4 8 7 Creativity 9.36 8.63 8 9 7 Risk Taking 9.30 8.25 8 9 9 Locus Control 10 9.48 8 8 8 Total 43.05 38.41 37 42 40 (Table1: GET Result Comparison) The table above cleanly points out to the fact that Mr. Dawson and myself has almost obtained similar scores in the entrepreneurial tendency set. In the context of need for achievement, both I and Mr. Dawson have secured similar scores and that reflects that I have strong planning ability, determination and self-motivation. However, I score less than Mr. Dawson which reflects that desire to gain independence is not the sole criteria driving me to undertake entrepreneurial activities. In case of Mr. Dawson, it was nearly double which reflected his strong desire of achieving sovereignty. Paradoxically, my score in the creativity dimension was also less. As a result of this, I have limited success opportunity in the field which require certain amount of creativity. Interestingly, both I and Mr. Dawson have similar belief towards calculated risk talking. Hence, this clearly reflects that he always had a contingency plan. In the similar way, I always create a “plan B” before executing “plan A” to ensure less impact if the strategy fails. Finally, in the context of locus control, it was identified that both Mr. Dawson and I have similar score. Therefore, both of us are having strong determination to achieve what we intend to achieve and also sheds light on our strong tenacity and determination. Career Action Plan On the basis of the self assessments I have developed a career action plan for myself, which is presented below. The career action plan will shed light on the future personal development plan showing applications of learning. In general, it is defined as a career development plan that helps individuals to improve their career in a structured way (University of California, 2010). With the identified entrepreneurial qualities as well as leadership qualities, I intend to open a new venture. I aspire to start a business related to the manufacturing and sales of IT products. In order to achieve the same following is my career action plan. Knowledge/Skills Required Activities to be undertaken Timescale Personal development (development of presentation skills, communication skills) Gain Knowledge on computer hardware Gain knowledge on software to some extent Personal Development In-depth market research of the IT industry Raising Capital for the new venture Starting the venture Attending classes of orientation Admission to any institution offering hardware courses. Admission to any institution offering software courses. Attending seminars Consulting market research reports Finding investors and creating business plan Renting office Space and recruitment of staff members 3 Months 3 Months 2 Months 1 Month 1 month 6 Months 2 Months Business Model A business model sheds light on how organizations deliver, capture and create value. As mentioned earlier, I want to start a business on Computer hardware manufacturing and sales. In this context, the business model to be followed is the direct sales model. The products which will be manufactured will be directly sold to the end consumers. The selling will be done through one-to-one demonstrations and personal contact arrangement. However, it should be also noted that in future, if the company gains some sort of visibility and acceptance in the market, it will switch to distribution business model. It is also important to showcase the proposed business model of the company as it represents the business in a pictorial format. The business model canvas for the venture is presented below: - References Carson, D., Cromie, S., McGowan, P. and Hill, J., 1995. Marketing and Entrepreneurship in SMEs – An Innovative Approach. London: Prentice-Hall. Hills, G., Hultman, C., Kraus, S. and Schulte, R., 2010. History, theory and evidence of entrepreneurial marketing – an overview. International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management, 11 (1), pp. 3-18. Hills, G., Hultman, C., Kraus, S. and Schulte, R., 2010. History, theory and evidence of entrepreneurial marketing – an overview. International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management, 11(1), pp. 3-18. Hultman, C. and Shaw, E., 2003. The interface between transactional and relational orientation in small service firm’s marketing behaviour – a study of Scottish and Swedish small firms in the service sector. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 11 (1), pp. 36-51. Hultman, C., 1999. Nordic perspectives in marketing and research in themarketing/entrepreneurship interface. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, 1 (1), pp. 54-71. Johnson, A., 2008. The Influence of Need for Achievement, Need for Affiliation, Leadership Support, and Organizational Culture on Organizational Citizenship Behaviour. Michigan: ProQuest. Kirzner, I. M., 1973. Competition and Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Knight, R. H., 1921. Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Houghton Mifflin Company. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Kuratko, D. F., 2008. Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, Practice. 8th ed. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Lumpkin, G. and Dess, G., 1996. Clarifying the entrepreneurial orientation construct and linking it to performance. The Academy of Management Review, 21, pp. 135-72. May, H. 2010. Aristotle's Ethics: Moral Development and Human Nature. New York: Continuum. Mohanty, S. K., 2005. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Molnar, K., 2008. A Peer Collaborative Instructional Design for Increasing Teaching Efficacy in Pre-service Education Majors. Michigan: ProQuest. Rae, D., 2007. Entrepreneurship: from Opportunity to Action. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Remenyi, D. 2007. Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Reading: Academic Conferences Limited. Say, J. B., 1845. A Treatise on Political Economy. Philadelphia: Grigg & Elliot. Schumpeter, J. A., 1934. The Theory of Economic Development. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. University of California, 2010. Career Planning: Career Development Action Plan. [online] Available at: < http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/learning/career-development/career-management/planning/action-plan> [Accessed 19 June 2013]. Read More