Running a Business Successfully - Essay Example

The art of the start 2.0

Running a business or an organization successfully is the dream of every entrepreneur, but it requires a unique entrepreneurial spirit to kick-start the business and keeps it rolling. The entrepreneurs should be sure of what they are doing and make meaning out of it to make money from their good business ideas. The traditional approach to business entrepreneurship requires one to have a clearly designed business plan that shows the mission, vision and objectives of the business, financial analysis, the leadership or management skills, marketing strategies, the product, competitors, the growth strategies and all other relevant aspects of the business plan (Northouse, 2010). However, ‘In the art of the start 2.0,’ Guy Kawasaki provides a simple motivating requirement of entrepreneurship that simplifies the traditional beliefs relevant for the modern entrepreneurs. This document provides a summary of key terms useful for the modern entrepreneurs and relates these terms to the views discussed by Kawasaki. The study puts emphasis on entrepreneurship, leadership, decision-making and human resources management aspects of business. Starting a successful business in the modern world requires one to have the idea and commitment to implement those ideas to achieve the intended goals.

• Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship refers to the ability and motivation to start and manage a business together with risks and returns. Entrepreneurship is the art and science of bringing together and managing various resources such as land, labour and capital to generate returns while controlling risks. An entrepreneur is a risk bearer who sees and seizes the available opportunities to foster the growth of resources (Northouse, 2010). The modern business environment is highly competitive. Thus entrepreneurs must be highly innovative and ready to take the risk if they have to succeed in business. Innovation is driven by various factors such as scarcity of resources and passion to venture in unique businesses.

• Small Business Characteristics Conducive to Innovation

Small business support entrepreneurship because of their characteristic shortage of resources and the need for commitment between the relevant participants (Northouse, 2010). Unlike in large organizations where know-how and availability of resources are the key drivers of innovation, small businesses encourage innovation as a means to overcome the challenges posed by its small size.

Willingness to experiment

Willing to experiment is one of the key drivers of innovation in a small business. Small business entrepreneurs experience many challenges because of inadequate resources to implement their ideas effectively. Even when they know what may work better for them the resources are inadequate to put those ideas into practice, the staff to market the products is inadequate, etc. (Northouse, 2010). It is for these reasons that entrepreneurs have to look for means to overcome the challenges through experimenting that drives them into innovation. For instance, they have to look for new means of production or marketing the products and service those results in low cost and higher profit. Kawasaki argues that innovation require business people to try and make meaning out of their ideas or resources (Kawasaki, 2015, Chap 3 par 16) if they have to be successful innovators.

• Unique Selling positioning

Unique selling is positioning a modern characteristic of small businesses entrepreneurs because they cannot design products for all people in the market. Marketers must be aware of the individual needs of their market and provide products or services customized for specific needs. In the modern world consumer, satisfaction requires customization of products and services to meet their unique needs instead of having general products for the entire market.

Target market

They have to target specific consumers, especially when entering the market hoping to expand the market in the future with different brands for different consumers. Kawasaki supports this approach to successful entrepreneurship whereby he advises small businesses not to be afraid of polarizing people. He argues that entrepreneurs should target particular market segment and ensure they satisfy that segment with superior products or services (Kawasaki, 2015 chap 1 par 27). The danger of try to satisfy everyone in the market is the possibility of not creating any excitement any section of the market at all. Therefore, the unique selling positions by small businesses foster success through targeting a fraction of the market.

• Leadership
• Leader Decision-Making

Organizational leaders make a great impact on the success of the businesses. They make organizational goals and inspire their followers to pursue those goals (Northouse, 2010). The characteristics of leadership will either make the business to fail or succeed because it affects their decision-making.

Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire leadership is whereby the organizational leaders delegate their functions to their followers and allow them to participate in decision-making. The leaders encourage the workers to utilize their ideas in performing the organizational functions (Northouse, 2010). This form of leadership is characterized by minimal interference by the leaders. Kawasaki argues that leaders should direct their workers to pursue certain goals, but not for the leaders’ personal interest (Kawasaki, 2015 chap 3 par 18). This argument may not support laissez-faire leadership style because this style undermines productivity and the organizational competence.

• Situational leadership

Situational leadership theory involves the use of different leadership approach by the organizational leaders depending on the prevailing situations (Northouse, 2010). The leaders under the influence of this theory develop goals, empower their followers to pursue the goals and they take personal responsibility for their decisions.

Telling

The situational leader should inform their followers about the organizational goals and how they intend to achieve those goals. This leadership style encourages innovation and success of the small business because the workers have full trust with the leadership and support the leadership decisions (Armstrong, 2012). Kawasaki argument about leadership for successful organization support their theory because he claims that leaders should always think about their companies and target their competitors through developing achievable goals and motivating their followers to pursue those goals(Kawasaki, 2015 chap 3 par 25). He gives an example of Google leadership which is proactive hence it was able to compete with Microsoft since its leadership was focused on enjoying the returns and forgot to innovate.

• Decision-Making Principles

Decision-making entails choosing the best course of action among the existing alternatives to achieve the organizational goals. Decision-making process involves many uncertainties, and most often many organizations fail due to poor decisions or lack of implementation of decisions (Northouse, 2010). Successful leaders should master decision-making principles be effective in decision-making both as individuals and a group in order to increase organizations performance and avoid decision traps.

• Rational Decision-Making Model

Rational decision-making model illustrates a step-by-step approach the organizational leaders can follow to enhance the quality of the product of their goals. It involves formal steps that can help decision-makers ensure they choose the best course of action by applying a rational decision-making model (Northouse, 2010). The decision maker should follow the laid down steps systematically to arrive at the best decision alternatives. These steps include; problem identification, establishing decision criteria, weighing decision criteria, generating alternatives, assessing the alternatives, selecting the best alternative, executing the decision and appraising the decision. Kawasaki advises the leaders of companies to embrace innovation by jumping to the next curve of inventing the next curve instead of working on the same curve all through (Kawasaki, 2015 chap 3 par 29). This implies working all the time to identify and solve problems systematically. Also, it means the organizational leaders are clear about what they want to achieve, create goals and objectives for their followers, work out for a range of solutions, engage others in looking for solutions and minimizing their influence to achieve their organizational goals.

• Bounded Rationality

This is a decision-making model that recognizes the restraints of decision-making making approach. It advocates for decision-makers to minimize the alternatives and ensure they select the best course of action from a limited range of alternatives instead of struggling to exhaust the available options (Northouse, 2010). Therefore, bounded rationality requires organizational leaders to settle at the alternative that achieves their minimum criteria instead of working for the best-of-best alternative. Kawasaki supports this model because he claims that organizational leaders should establish a culture of implementation. He argues that organizational leaders should create a routine of goal implementation instead of treating it as a onetime event (Kawasaki, 2015 chap 3 par 34). This means they should not work eternally to look for the best alternatives, but instead they should keep reviewing their decisions to come up with different alternatives each time.

• Creative Decision-Making process

Enhancing Organizational Creativity

Being creative implies having the culture of generating new ideas to solve issues or come up with new ways of doing things. It involves identifying the problems which require application of creativity to come up with a solution, immersion process whereby the decision makers engage in conscious thinking about the problem and gathers information from experts, incubation process which involves thinking about the problem unconsciously or putting the problem aside for a while, illumination step which refers to the insightful moment when the decision-maker comes up with a solution to the problem, and verification and application of the decision whereby the decision maker examines the feasibility of the solution and executes the decision (Northouse, 2010). Kawasaki supports creative decision-making process by advising the organizational leaders should use DICEE in decision making to create value for customers and provide the organization with a competitive edge (Kawasaki, 2015). DICEE is an acronym for deep, intelligent, complete, empowering and elegant.

• Human Resource Management Principles
• Key Tasks of HR:

Human resources are the most valuable resources of the organization, and it determines the success of failure of the business because they are responsible for executing the organizational goals by utilizing other resources. Human resource managers (HRM) have a great role to play in the success of the organization by ensuring the organization has the right staff to achieve its goals (Armstrong, 2012). It is their responsibility to look for competent workers, provide them with relevant training, motivate and retain them in the organization.

Diversity Management

A new startup business will attract workers from a diverse background including age, gender, ethnic background, education level, etc. Diversity in workforce poses great challenges to HRM because individuals have different needs and expectations which require a different approach for satisfaction. Motivating and retaining diverse workforce remains the greatest challenge to HRM in the modern organizations irrespective of the size of organization (Armstrong, 2012). Kawasaki claims that some leaders believe they are everything in the organization and they rather have it fail than succeed without their input. However, Kawasaki claims that organizations should embrace diversity and be optimistic to gain from different views and perceptions of the diverse workforce (Kawasaki, 2015 chap 7 par 21). This implies the success of the organization is hinges on the ability of HRM to manage diversity in the workforce if they have to gain from different talents and ideas.

• Important HR-related Theory

Talent Management

Talent management is an approach used by the personnel to implement their policies to achieve organizational strategic goals through utilization of potential intrinsic in people. Though it is a costly process, the expected benefit in the future motivates the managers to focus on talent management in order to build the intellectual capital to establish a functional organization that adds value to the people (Armstrong, 2012). Therefore, the HRM have the responsibility to identify and manage the talent of their employees in line with organizational goals. In the art of leading, Kawasaki argues that leaders should give hope to the hopeful by giving a listening ear to the employees instead of ignoring their views (Kawasaki, 2015 chap 3 par 32). He believes organizations that support their workers gain their support and resources as the employees help the managers to achieve innovation. Therefore, the human resource personnel has the responsibility for managing the talent of their workers for an innovative organization.

Conclusion

Organization leaders determine the success or failure of their organizations. For a start-up, business managers should cultivate the culture of innovation to create value for the customers. They should support their employees and encourage them to embrace innovation through motivation, talent management, and effective management f diversity. The organizational leaders should be effective in decision-making and create a culture of innovation if they have to stand above the competition. Guy Kawasaki encourages organizational leaders to avoid complexity and instead embrace simplicity by setting attainable goals, making decisions effectively and cultivating the support of the people their workers.