Is there an Entrepreneurial Dimension to Project Management?

There is an aspect of project management that has, until now, received little fanfare within the profession, even though its impact and influence have grown significantly…namely, entrepreneurism. Although not all projects lend themselves to management by entrepreneurial-minded individuals, with the increased emphasis across business and industry on innovation, flexibility, organizational agility, and customer-centric business models, the demand is growing for project managers who can employ entrepreneurial skills.

The Difference between an Entrepreneur and a Project Manager

First, let’s define the term “entrepreneur.” The word is a combination of two Latin-based words: “entre,” meaning “first, opening, or initiative” and “prender,” meaning “to seize, capture, or grasp.” Combined, we have someone who seizes the initiative, or more to the point, starts something first, something new. This means being part visionary — part designer, part manager, and part implementation specialist, among other things. Immediately, we can see a crossover into the field of project management, especially around the notion of “implementation specialist.”

For years, a project manager was defined as a management specialist who oversaw the implementation of a project or portfolio of …