Entrepreneurial "Starting-up" to "Settling-at-top" – Facilitating four P’s of Purpose, Passion, People, and Processes

Starting-up

We see many entrepreneurial ventures getting announced on a regular basis. These try to negotiate the competitor space and meet the demands of the “forces” that emanate and exist in the eco-system. A few succeed and many fail to survive. Even those that survive, a few do well for some time, and very few really survive long with all the success. It is said that “entrepreneurial venture mortality” is very high. It is more of a rejection by the eco-system inspite of negotiating hard way by the companies to survive first, achieve success next, and finally further scale-up organically and/or achieve geographical and/or product diversification. What defines the role of an organization and the dimensions required to be acquired by the organization are to be clear for the chief architect of the organization, and the core group that has to shoulder the responsibilities of building an organization and taking it ahead to make it an institution.

Settling-at-top?

When the organization that has come out of the entrepreneurial germination finds its toe-hold and then foot-hold, it is the time for the fundamentals of business to be in place, and then think of the growth as the approach. The fundamentals of business are simple to understand but difficult to implement, as is experienced by the veterans of the industry. In terms of value system the fundamentals are very clear, don’t do something which you don’t want to be done to you. Another is don’t do something which you don’t want to see on the front page of the newspaper, linked to your name and showing your photo. Best of the ethical framework one can install in the organization is, people work true to their conduct, whether someone is observing them or not. This conduct has to be top-down so that it gets replicated.

In terms of commercial fundamentals, generate higher top-line and maintain prudent and frugal cost structure, offer the decent quality to the discerning customers, and maintain healthy bottom-line. Keep the loans under control so that debt-trap situation for the organization is impossible. Long term associations with the stakeholders based on the win-win situations typically help all relevant stakeholders happy and engaged with on a long horizon basis.

Keep the employees trained and motivated, they generate the “value” in the organization, this generated value has to be “value for money” so that it glues the customers to the organization. The overall customer and employee retention is much higher than the industry standards, continuity exists, and finally superior financial performance results. Balanced scorecard articulated by Kaplan and Norton succinctly indicated the above logical relation of employee – process – customer – financial performance. This appears natural and logical, but organizational commitment for medium to long term is required to even sincerely attempt this. If done well, settling at the top is not a wish but a definite dream that can be achieved. ?

The four facilitating Ps

The four facilitating Ps help organizations settle with ease and scale up comfortably. These are:

1.?????? Purpose is what gives one meaning. Organizations need to have a purpose to stay on ground and continue in timeline. In entrepreneurial instances, the founder or the promoter needs to have a purpose. This purpose needs to be at an altar, much above than the mere commercial success as an aspiration or personal gains as the motive. The raison-d-etre or the “why of existing” should be loftier than “I need a job that pays salary” at micro level. This at a macro level becomes “we need more profits”. What is happening around, your contribution to the larger socio-ecological canvas, and whether you are playing the game by ethical parameter so that you can get classified as “good corporate citizen” do matter. Purpose can’t be to etch one’s identity to an organization or personally get attached to a position.

2.?????? Passion provides the endless energy we see in some charged-up entrepreneurs.? Passion is primed by the purpose at a collective level, and commitment-oriented alignment at the micro level. Organizations can “buy” individual professionals, buy their time and contribution but this shall stay at a highly superficial levels unless they bring in the passion to the workplace. Passion triggers both entrepreneurship and also intrapreneurship, the latter being the entrepreneurship within the existing organization. Organizations encouraging the intrapreneurship shall do well and we have examples wherein the employees are allowed to work on their interest areas for a fifth or the sixth of the weekly working hours. The outcomes in these areas may not directly contribute to the assignment they have at hand through full-time engagement in the organization.? This is to promote the passion in the employees.

3.?????? People are the crucial for and crux of any success. It is the people who contribute to the organizational achievement. The people should bring-in necessary skill-set and also positive mind-set. People who agree with the purpose of the organization and have passion in them to work towards the goals set for the area / function / unit they joined alone shall be the right “beings” and only such can help the organizations. “People” function in organizations is known as “Human Resources” function. When we address humans as “resources”, these are of passive variety, and ready for getting “used up”. When we address these and expect the humans to be “Beings”, they live in the roles, and their contributions can fundamentally make all the difference. The concern is around getting right people and retaining them. Providing the respect, valuing their contributions, giving them challenging assignments so that their engagement is taken care of shall help the situation.

4.?????? Processes are the steps through which value adds and value flows happen. Process defines clearly how things have to move and the direction of the flow and “short pauses” required for the value add to happen at different “nodes” before it move to next steps. Process orientation in organizations brings in discipline and also make it more “controllable”. One can have the visibility at different stages and also have necessary data so that the audits can happen, and controls in terms of tweaks and moderations can happen based on the needs. Many entrepreneurial ventures start with hardly any processes in place. However, after some time the imperative appears that one has to start defining the processes. With scaling up of operations, the organizations need to define processes becomes the imperative.

On a concluding note

Entrepreneurial start-ups often begin on a low note, with few people and very few material resources. These may have challenges before them in terms of proving the business model right, tapping the generous, establishing the processes. Once foot-hold is gained, it is the time for making it a success, and scale-up successfully. Then “assembling” the right people who subscribe to the organizational purpose and bring passion to the table, willing to work with the set-up processes become important. Such a successful organization shall “settle-at-top” and become a role-model that needs to be emulated by the aspiring. Path shall be clear and forward march by the organization shall be rewarding for all the stakeholders and partners in the entire eco-system. ??