About the course
MDS 1202 Entrepreneurship Development and Business Management is a three-credit course (2 theory + 1 practical) for B.Sc. (Hons.) Forestry students. This book covers the part of the course that deals with the management of forest-based enterprises. Its six chapters each take up one functional area of management.
Chapters at a glance
| Chapter | Functional area | Main cases |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Production and Materials Management | Production and materials management | Lac, mahua and tamarind in Khunti (Jharkhand); TNAU industrial agroforestry; ITC PSPD; Kerala timber e-auction |
| 2 Personnel and Human Resource Management | Personnel and human resource management | Timber contracting crews; community-based forest enterprises in Nepal; rural entrepreneurs in Jharkhand |
| 3 Financial Management in Forest-Based Enterprises | Financial management | Candlenut enterprises in Indonesia; community forest enterprises in Cameroon |
| 4 Marketing Management of Forest Produce | Marketing management | MSP for Minor Forest Produce; Forest Post; Vanasree; Aadhimalai; Tribes India |
| 5 Crisis Management in Forest-Based Enterprises | Crisis management | Climate change and lac yields; the 2020 MSP expansion |
| 6 Forest Supply Chain Management | Supply chain management | The wood supply chain; integrated planning models |
How the book is organised
The chapters are grouped into three parts.
- Producing and Organising covers how forest produce is grown, collected, stored and processed (1 Production and Materials Management), and how the people who do that work are recruited, trained and organised (2 Personnel and Human Resource Management).
- Money, Markets and Risk follows the same enterprises into finance (3 Financial Management in Forest-Based Enterprises), marketing (4 Marketing Management of Forest Produce) and crisis management (5 Crisis Management in Forest-Based Enterprises).
- The Whole Chain steps back to look at the forest supply chain as one connected system (6 Forest Supply Chain Management).
Two threads run through every chapter. The first is the contrast between timber-based and non-timber forest product (NTFP) enterprises. The second is the contrast between community-managed and company-managed enterprises. A few case studies, especially the Khunti NTFP study and the TNAU agroforestry programme, return in several chapters, so that the same enterprise can be seen through different management lenses.
Using the discussion questions
Most sections end with a short set of Discussion questions. Many of them ask you to compare two cases, or to apply a case to a Kerala setting. They are best used for small-group discussion in the practical hours, followed by a short written answer in your record.