It’s all About Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Whether a project is successful depends on WHO is responsible. We have learnt that this does not necessarily have to be the initiator.
It is important in any phase of a project to find out whether you have the right competences in the team. Coming up with a brilliant idea to solve a problem, starting up a project and leading a business on a daily basis, demand different qualities. We have learnt that it is sometimes necessary to find responsible for different phases.
Our basic principle was that the initiator should also lead the project. He or she came up with the idea and was usually hugely involved. We tried to help optimize their potential and it seemed logical that if this worked, results would follow. We had committed ourselves, we believed in the idea and kept going, because "it couldn’t be that something so great wouldn’t work!" In reality it sometimes became clear that perhaps these were not skills they had and that their talents lay in different areas. So we’ve let go of the idea that the initiator also has to be the one leading the project.
Overall, the projects have become increasingly complex. Therefore competences on a pragmatic, strategic and sometimes even a political level are necessary, meaning strong leadership and entrepreneurship. A business plan can be outdated very soon and one needs to react to market changes and new threats and opportunities. Flexibility, being able to think strategically, vision and creativity are aspects that an entrepreneur definitely must have in order to be able to react and especially anticipate this.
In order to make a project successful, it is therefore essential that in every phase a project needs someone who is driven, qualified, who’s in it with their whole heart, head and hands and surrounds themselves with people and organizations that have the competences which they lack.
Overview of Lessons Learnt