Young entrepreneurs from SMEs and traditional business families should be encouraged to welcome knowledgeable consultants and experts and should be open to using their knowledge and experience in developing and fine-tuning their businesses. They should be open to invite and opt for senior members from business and industry with relevant experience (and/or subject matter experts from academic institutions) for representation on their boards and/or subcommittees of the Board.
Here’s what John C Crosby, an American politician, has to say:
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Let me know in the comments section.
In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.
Here’s what Warren Buffet, American investor and business tycoon, has to say:
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Let me know in the comments section.
In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.
Winston Churchill, once wisely said that, “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”
Planning is vital to your mission’s success. Remember that planning and control go together – one cannot exist without the presence of the other. For effective planning and control, you must make use of various planning and strategic management tools.
Strategic Planning Tools
You can deploy SWOT Analysis for undertaking the situation analysis, PESTEL Analysis for scanning of the external environment, BCG Matrix for doing Portfolio Planning, Porters Five Forces Model for formulating your competitive strategy, and Balanced Scorecard for analyzing the performance of an enterprise. Likewise, there are many more tools to help you with every aspect of your business planning and control.
You should also go for building necessary organizational systems, instituting monitoring, and control mechanisms regularly.
Business Plan Document
Your Business Plan document is your key to success. Prepare a good business plan and navigate your business according to it – modifying and adjusting the plan to respond to the fast-changing dynamic business environment.
There should be no hesitation to undertake a comprehensive planning exercise only because your project is small.
You have every reason to undertake a detailed in-depth appraisal of your proposal – howsoever small. A detailed appraisal of any small business opportunity or project need not be complicated but is crucial and vital to your success. You must undertake a detailed and thorough planning exercise and study each aspect in detail. All these aspects must be captured well and documented in form of a structured business plan or a detailed project report (DPR).
Start with a detailed draft statement of the business plan which can later be refined based on successive in-house brainstorming sessions and/or consultations with experts and persons with more knowledge in respective fields.
Consultants & Mentors
Wherever and whenever required – outside professional help of high quality must be sought without the least hesitation.
Entrepreneurs (particularly those running family-based businesses) are generally reluctant to accept such help from outside. They show indifference towards getting advice and professional help from such consultants and experts either for ego reasons or for reasons of security. Such entrepreneurs think and believe that professional advice and inputs from experts and consultants are only meant for large businesses and are not required for their small businesses. On the contrary, they believe that they can solve their problems on their own without any outside help.
Young entrepreneurs from SMEs and traditional business families should be encouraged to welcome knowledgeable consultants and experts and should be open to using their knowledge and experience in developing and fine-tuning their businesses.
It can be a very good idea if young entrepreneurs invite and opt for senior members from business and industry with relevant experience (and/or subject matter experts from academic institutions) for representation on their boards and/or subcommittees of the Board.
Such intervention by an outside professional consultant/expert may help the enterprise in several ways including aspects like refining/re-defining the Business Models, designing suitable control systems, designing training and capacity building programs for executives, providing useful counsel on various commercial, statutory, and legal matters.
How do Small Businesses benefit from planning?
“Proper Planning is 100% essential for ensuring success of any component (or several critical components) of your small business.”
Institution of effective planning and control systems – both during the project implementation and operation phases can prove beneficial to the entrepreneur in one or more of the following ways:
Ensuring that the project or the program is completed without unwanted cost and time overruns.
Ensuring that the scope of the project is not altered during the project gestation period and if there are any unavoidable changes in the project scope, these are thoroughly discussed with project sponsors – so that cost and time frames are revised suitably.
Meticulous planning and control systems during the operation phase of the project will ensure that all-important operational parameters like cost of production, expenses on salaries and wages, financing charges, promotional and advertising expenses, lease rentals, and other avoidable expenses are kept under check.
The firm can deploy suitable strategic planning tools to undertake structured performance evaluation in various areas like Quality Control, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Portfolio Management, Competitive Analysis, and others.
Are there any other planning tips and operational practices that you have followed in your business to your advantage? Let us know in the comments below.
Here’s what Seth Godin, American entrepreneur, author and public speaker, has to say:
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Let me know in the comments section.
In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.
Entrepreneurs face business risks in whatever they do – new product development, manufacturing, marketing/selling, profit-making, wealth creation, and managing growth. It is therefore imperative that they institute an effective risk management system. All key executives in the organization should be advised to include risk as an agenda item in all important meetings, maintain a risk log, and take proactive steps to accept risk, avoid risk, reduce risk, and transfer risk (to an insurance company or a third party) – whenever and wherever possible.
Here’s what Gary Cohn, American Banker and Vice-chairman of IBM, has to say:
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Let me know in the comments section.
In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.
An organization is like a chain having management (the entire scalar chain) and functional links (like production, marketing, finance). The strength of the chain will be determined by its weakest link. This weakest link is generally marketing (although in certain cases, it’s finance).
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are required to sell their product in a competitive market. The prominence of small businesses are allied with the balanced growth of Indian economy, playing an important role in generating millions of jobs. However, large scale units have an edge over SMEs in marketing because of the economies of scale, the financial strength to face setbacks and the competence to hire specialized professional managers.
SMEs depend upon retailers for marketing their products. Here, it is important to ascertain that SMEs get a fair price for their offerings from retailers. SMEs will generally find it difficult to export their products as they suffer from a lack of information and infrastructure relating to export procedures and their inability to undertake required market research. Expensive advertisements on TV and other media also present genuine constraints for SMEs.
INTERNAL CHANGES THAT CAN BE MADE
As a broad mitigation strategy against the above-mentioned constraints, it will be necessary to develop suitable mind-sets and owners will have to be trained like prudent investors and strategic problem solvers. They will also require training in planning, control, leadership, and management.
Small business owners will have to be trained.
An SME Entrepreneur must understand that the building market is more important than building production facilities. It is always a good idea to purchase a product in bulk from the wholesalers and sell it to end-users (what is commonly known as trading) as it is or after repacking to learn the art and science of marketing. Once the entrepreneur gets trained and understands marketing function – S/he can always resort to backward integration and take up product creation/manufacturing.
If the SME entrepreneur can handle marketing effectively, S/he can avoid manufacturing altogether and resort to outsourcing product creation function to a third party who either has the capability or spare capacity to undertake to manufacture. However, in such a scenario, the SME entrepreneur will have to take care of both the process and product quality through suitable inspection mechanisms etc.
EXTERNAL AGENCIES THAT CAN HELP
Various Cooperative Societies and Government Agencies can be engaged to help with market surveys and market research studies since these are expensive for individual SMEs. The data helps in identifying and developing new products and newer opportunities. A suitable collaboration model for such a linkage with such agencies and the participating SME will ensure the fruition of this concept.
Governments should support small businesses to grow!
The Government, through State Level Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), should support SMEs to explore such possibilities and to open new rural markets. DFIs will have to create competent and dedicated marketing cells to help and support interested SMEs on such an initiative. Alternatively, DFIs can rope in local marketing professionals and/or small consulting firms to work on this idea on a retainer-ship or assignment basis.
Due to the high population density in India, there are many opportunities to be grabbed. SME entrepreneurs should select their products based on the existing needs and wants of the consumers rather than trying to create a fresh need. They can also go for collaborations with medium and large firms wherein they can take the role of producer-suppliers, leaving marketing to the large enterprises.
DON’T IGNORE MARKETING!
SMEs have become the sector showing the spirit of entrepreneurship of a country. Marketing can function effectively only when there is full commitment from the SME’s management and employees involved.
What are the steps that you have taken for your small business with respect to Marketing? Are there any good stories or lessons learnt as an SME entrepreneur? Let me know in the comments.
It may prove useful at times to organize people in non-hierarchical settings to inform, share, discuss and agree on items of importance to the company. Do not ridicule people, do not insult them either.
As a basic rule of life, be friendly with people, and help them as much as you can. This is a great strategy to build rapport and to create an environment of trust and comfort. At your workplace, create an atmosphere where people (both as individuals and in teams) demonstrate the spirit of cooperation and collaboration and keep workplace conflicts at a minimum.
People work on the dictum – “consent and collaborate” rather than following the traditional dictum – “command and control.” Treat everybody with due courtesy and respect – after all people will remember you for as to how you treated them.
Here’s what Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, has to say:
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Let me know in the comments section.
In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.
Yes – people are important! They constitute the most important resource – the human resource. Organizations, events, and/or projects succeed or fail because of the people involved. So, for an entrepreneur, connecting with the right people becomes crucial!
Here’s a quote from Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Let me know in the comments section.
In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.
In my roles as a visiting faculty and an adjunct professor in several management institutes for over a decade, I have been preaching my students, entrepreneurs, mentees, and young company executives to develop, among others, the following five essential attributes in their personality so that they can excel in furtherance of their personal and professional goals. I call them “magic wands” because, like in the Disney movie, where the godmother transforms Cinderella for the ball, these can transform you for your professional life.
I did not create these rules, nor did I find them in any book. When I was in my late 20s working as a Project Engineer in one of the large Indian public sector undertaking (PSU), I came across a circular letter from the Chairman of that PSU meant for wide circulation among all the employees across India. The letter aimed at empowering, engaging, and motivating all employees across all offices and operational units of that PSU across India. That day, I had picked these 5 golden rules from our Chairman’s letter and I have been adhering to these since then. Today, almost four decades later, I am sharing the same rules with my readers.
Let me introduce these 5 magic wands to you – these can catapult your life by several notches.
Effectiveness & Efficiency in Action
I have spoken about this before in a previous post. Being effective means that you know what is necessary and important for you to do at any time. However, being efficient means working in the right manner so that you complete the work using minimum resources. Effectiveness means doing the right things, but efficiency refers to doing things right.
Brevity in Expression
Brevity means being concise, using fewer words in speaking, reducing the duration of a speech, and bringing about compactness in expression. But the brevity in expression should not mean a loss of clarity. It is the art of presenting your viewpoint with due economy of words without missing important details. A man of few (impactful) words is perceived as a man of wisdom.
Firmness in Decisions
Whether a decision is taken in autocratic mode or participative mode, the decision-maker must consider all relevant aspects relating to the implementation of the decision(s) and the impact that the decision is going to have on the organization and its people. However, once the decision has been frozen, the decision maker should not be on the fence and/or get tempted by other distracting views. Unless there are compelling reasons to do so, do not review your decisions. A competent executive must learn to say ‘No’ sometimes.
Courtesy in Behaviour
I guess it goes without saying, but it is seldom practised. Hence, it remains valuable. One must be extremely courteous in our behaviour to our superiors, peers, and subordinates. We must understand, interpret, and regulate our own emotions as also the emotions of others to improve our behaviour as an individual (attitude and personality), as a team member, and as a team leader.
Tact in Handling Delicate Situations
I have written about an example from my life to demonstrate the importance of this value earlier. There are many situations in our personal as well as professional life that require extreme care and sensitivity in handling and managing them. These situations may relate to estranged family relationships, conflict among partners, an irate customer, your boss being unhappy with your performance, and so one. In all such situations, one must be very tactful, get into other person’s shoes, assess the environmental conditions very well and then only plan his/her move.
Believe me – these 5 attributes can work wonders and enhance chances of your success as also acceptance of your ideas, contentions, and suggestions by various stakeholders. These attributes could be applied to your daily life, in all personal and professional situations including various events, plans, programs, and projects undertaken by you.
I practice these values daily, and some of these attributes have become second nature to me! Which of these traits is difficult for you to imbibe and what comes easily to you? Let me know what you think!
We live in a male-dominated world. I have realised this truth since I was a young boy. One cannot question this premise since we do live in a male-dominated world. The male member is supposed to be the breadwinner of the family, providing with necessities, mobilizing resources for a better standard of living and generally, providing support to all members of the family. It was believed, not so long ago, by one and all, that women have a passive role— they remain inside the house and attend to a variety of household activities like cooking, housekeeping, and taking care of children.
Since it did not affect my lifestyle, I happily lived with the above belief till my engineering college days. I spent a long tenure of about six years completing my graduation and post-graduation. Higher education proved to be transformative for me! In those six years, I learnt and adopted several newer ways of living my life – including but not limited to improving on my communication and shedding of my somewhat introvert nature. Thanks to the people I was surrounded by my classmates, close friends, seniors, professors at college and many more in the immediate external environment.
Unfortunately, however, my so-called transformation did not bring any worthwhile change in my attitude towards girls. Whenever it came to connecting with girls, I was attached and detached at the same time. If I reflect further, however, I was comfortable and felt secure in the company of elderly females and loved talking to them.
At the age of 24, I started my first job. My circle of influence was now steadily growing, and I had started connecting with many persons from different strata of society. If the work situation demanded, I had to interact with strangers too. In this period of my life, I had many occasions to interact with grown-up girls, young women, housewives (I would love to call them home-makers instead), and professional females like school and college teachers, company executives, and entrepreneurs. As a young man, I was interested and curious about them too!
I think of this period, from 1972 until I married two years later in 1974, was the time that broke all my misconceptions. My discussions and interactions with women from all walks of life had opened up all the closed valves inside my head. I was now clear of all my mental blocks that any matured woman – in any role in society: a student, teacher, homemaker, business executive, entrepreneur, or social activist – can be a fantastic change agent for our country. Until that moment, I used to look at every problem, program, or project through the lens of the POV of a man but now my perspective changed totally. But now, I look at everything from the joint perspective of a male and female both.
GENDER COLLABORATION
If we accept the above concept of “joint perspectives,” it opens a new window of opportunity for us. Let me explain. If we have an important project to execute – we can build the project team by including both males and females from different social, ethnic, and demographic backgrounds, cross-cultural orientations, and skill-sets.
For the last several years, I have seen women successfully take important roles as businesspersons, organizational leaders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs. I read a Forbes article once that discussed how enterprises run and managed by women folks make more money. Women have a strong self-belief, exhibit extreme faith and are passionate about whatever they do. Women generally are very good organizers, have a strong sense of purpose, show patience and persistence and are more than willing to leave their comfort zones to reach their goals.
IN A WOMAN DOMINATED WORKPLACE- MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
In my third inning – as a retired professional – I have been working as an Adjunct Professor with a renowned film, communication, and creative arts institute in Mumbai. I teach business and management subjects in their School of Media and Communication (SMC). SMC is headed by a qualified and well-experienced media professional. I take pride in saying that our department is led by a woman.
She is a wonderful person, a master of her craft, and knows how to get the best from her team of over a dozen young and middle-aged female faculty members plus three academic coordinators. She has only two male teachers in her team, and I am one of them!
We work in SMC as a close-knit family under the umbrella of our lady-boss (not citing her name for the sake of privacy) who treats us with frequent gifts and small but cute celebrations within the department. She practices the creative fusion of assertion and affection excellently. Work is like play and fun at SMC because all members respect each other and love what they do. If they do not love what they do, they can always ask for a change under our flexibility-loving culture.
A DEDICATION ON THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
We celebrated International Women’s Day this week and I wanted to put on record my respect and remembrances to all those wonderful females with whom I have worked recently and who have had a significant impact on my life. As you all know, I am working as a freelance professional for the other institutions also. Through this post, I also pay my regards and respect to all those females in these institutions who have been working with me. I am grateful for their work and positive presence in my life.
Showing my gratitude to these wonderful women who have positively impacted my personal and professional life…
