THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAGERS AND ENTREPRENEURS

Managers manipulate what is, things and information to produce a result that is clearly specifiable in advance. Entrepreneurs try to create what isn’t by a lot of guesswork, improvisation and learning from mistakes. (Mitch McCrimmon)

ENTREPRENEURIAL FUNCTIONS

Organisational learning; Knowledge leadership; Creative ‘resourcing’; Providing flexible structures; Innovation; Visioning; Teamwork; Stimulating diversity.

ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE AND VALUES... PROGRESSIVE MANAGERS/LEADERS NEED TO...

Provide an atmosphere that promotes continual experimentation. Tolerate loose organisational structures and behaviour. Willingly hand over decision making to those with expertise in their field. Help risk takers and encourage those who fail as much as they celebrate those who win. See networking as more important than traditional lines of authority. Promote multi directional communication that crosses all responsibility levels. Allow leadership to change as situation demands in line with expertise required at any point. Easily change direction in response to market, technological or political influences. Constantly interact with customers, suppliers, and colleagues, in fact the total environment. Seek feedback from all experiences and sources and be highly responsive to new conditions/situations.

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION READY FOR A FUTURE IN THE MODERN BUSINESS CLIMATE WHERE WE ALL (IF THE PUNDITS ARE RIGHT), NEED TO BE MORE ENTREPRENEURIAL?

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SO WHAT IS AN ENTREPRENEUR?

DEFINITION OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

Someone with the ability and willingness to introduce NEW products or services, THAT SELL, to a market where those products or services where previously either unavailable or not desired. Obviously the emphasis is on doing something new in the market place. To stimulate the creative, risk-taking behaviour required for success in the future should be the primary role for us all if we are going to lead a successful organization into the future.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

Risk taker that can live with uncertainty; Adaptable to change and able to improvise; Can see how new innovations satisfy a market; Interested in effectiveness rather than efficiency; Either creative him/herself or able to utilise those who are; Has a desire to lead in his/her area of operation or market; A continuous learner willing to make and or tolerate mistakes; Flexible, willing to change direction as the circumstances dictate; Self possessed of a sense of urgency and stimulates that sense in others; Recognises his/her shortcomings and empowers others who compensate.

TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR MANAGERS… OUCH?!

"an entrepreneurial manager"... perhaps good words in your resume?

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THE NEED TO BE MORE ENTREPRENEURIAL

The chief executive of a global leader in the telecommunications industry for whom I conduct training, recently stated that the most successful division in their organisation achieved its outstanding results because it’s ‘managers’ took an ‘entrepreneurial’ approach to business. He went on to say that all divisions of the organization would need to become more entrepreneurial if their organisation was to survive, let alone remain a leader.

One author of a book on entrepreneurship goes so far as to predict that mangers will all but disappear from organisations and be replaced by ‘leaders’ that are able to manage ever-increasing rates of change and be nimble enough to capture fleeting market opportunities.

Corporate Japan’s continuing troubles are thought buy many analysts to be the result of the fact that no further productivity increases can be found in what are already highly efficient production processes. Future productivity increases will only be achieved if Japan is able to find and grasp new and different opportunities rather than continue to do the ‘same things’ better. Japanese managers, to be honest, are not renowned for their creativity and willingness to change. Take a look at Japan’s banking industry and you will know what I mean.

If, as the growing evidence suggests, we all need more entrepreneurial ‘managers’, how many of these key players in the future success of our organisation understand what an entrepreneur is, let alone, know how to be entrepreneurial in their approach to work. Try this at your next management meeting, ask your managers to write down a definition of an entrepreneur, then (if my past experience is any guide) you will need to resist the temptation to leap out the nearest window.

SO WHAT IS AN ENTREPRENEUR… ?

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PEOPLE BUY BENEFITS NOT PRODUCTS!

How do we discover the real benefits of our product or service? The best way is to complete a FEATURES/ADVANTAGES/BENEFITS analysis.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a feature as a - ‘distinctive or characteristic part of a thing’ and an advantage as a - ‘better position, superiority, favorable circumstances’. A benefit is defined as’ ‘do good to, receive benefit (by thing)’.

Product features should be fairly obvious to anyone selling their product for more than a few weeks. If you have staff that has been selling a product for some time and they don’t know its features you really should (no offence intended) advise them to change their profession. Acknowledging that some products are more complicated than others the fact remains we can’t sell what we don’t understand.

To start have your sales staff list down six to ten of the most important features of your best-understood product or service, (ask them just for fun). Then check that they only have features listed buy checking if what they have written qualifies under ‘The Concise Oxford’ definition above. Examples may be, it has two handles, it is conducted over 3 days, it has a 3-litre engine, it has river views, or it has a 1000-meg ‘Pentium’ chip.

Then have them give each of the features at least two advantages. In the Pentium chip example the advantages could be, faster processing, quicker programme loading, superior movie viewing or quicker web browsing.

The final step is to review the features and advantages in light of the definitions and turn the advantages into real customer benefits. To do this it is best to line the three headings up side-by-side and turn the three categories into a sentence joining them with the words (feature) “which means” (advantage) “which gives you” (benefit). An example is… this computer has a 1000-megahertz chip…‘which means’… faster file processing…‘which gives you’…an increased work output over a shorter time period. In the case of the two handled pot it could be ‘this pot has two handles which means it is better balanced when being carried improving your chance of getting from A to B with out spilling the contents.

ONLY BUY COMPLETING THE THREE STEPS WILL THE REAL BENEFIT BE FOUND.

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