It seems that there is no more important responsibility for an entrepreneur than professionalizing his company. It is through daily work and the interaction between the people who work in it, that it is possible to generate profitability and build competitiveness. Some say that when this task is done well, an entrepreneur becomes an entrepreneur. The recipe is simple, but the path is hard and requires clarity, will and strength. Ultimately, the task of professionalizing the company implies removing the skin of the entrepreneur from the company, so that it can grow and develop its maximum potential.
In essence, the job of an early-stage entrepreneur consists of validating a business model based on the opportunity he is pursuing, and when he succeeds, it is time to build the company with which he will seek to scale and capture value from that opportunity. . Building the company means making structure:
- Distribute the work among people who, with their abilities, experience, dreams and limitations, are linked to the business project
- That these people can work and live in a context that facilitates the achievement of the business and personal objectives for which they joined the business project.
It all starts with the entrepreneur
We can say that an entrepreneur is the starting point and the arrival point of the structure. It is this person who opens the door to talent and conditions the level of professionalism with which people are going to conduct themselves to do business and compete in the market. If the entrepreneur has some kind of Board, or has institutional investors, it is possible that someone else supports him in the task of creating a structure. The effectiveness of structuring will depend on the criteria with which collaborators are attracted, evaluated and linked to the business project.
A friend and businessman, possessing great humility, said: “As I know myself well, I always seek to work with people who are better than me, which is not difficult, and who agree with my motives and values, which is not so easy.” ”. The first part of the quote refers to the professional criteria for attracting and linking talent, while the second points to the bases that consolidate coexistence in any social context. There is no salary that links people who do not share the same values in the long term, but it is not strange to observe that professional incompetence overlaps because there is affection, consanguinity or inertia in the work dynamics.
How does a company become professional?
Professionalizing a structure begins with adding people with talent and a proven trade in terms of performance, be it in the financial, commercial, operational area, etc. The professional comes to order and raise the standard of the work done so that the company is more efficient. But in entrepreneurship contexts, the arrival of professionals usually implies rethinking from scratch the ways and processes of work under their responsibility. The challenge for the entrepreneur is huge. He needs to be up to the task and let the professionals propose, decide and do based on their experience, promoting and validating their initiative.
When professionals are linked to the company, the entrepreneur needs to develop mechanisms that allow these people to work and coexist in such a way that their work contributes to the objectives of their assignment, their client -internal or external-, the company and of themselves. This implies working very well in the framework of action: tools, policies, procedures and metrics. There is no way for a professional to be effective in his assignment if he does not have the necessary tools to carry it out. And tools are not only physical-technological artifacts, but also robust work processes. An experienced financier with collection processes that are weak or that are not respected will be ineffective in commissioning him.
When is it necessary to professionalize?
On the other hand, the initiative of professionals needs policies and procedures to set limits and structure to the action. It is these elements of the action framework that lay the foundations for coexistence and relevant business values for the entrepreneur. Finally, the metrics of the action framework facilitate accountability and more objective feedback on the work. It is with these elements that the entrepreneur gives direction and rhythm to the company, distributing the work and responsibility among several.
When is it necessary to professionalize? When you start to have inefficiencies, when customers are unhappy, when the people who work in the company are not very happy, when you are not making enough money. That is, when things do not go as expected. To identify the moment to professionalize, critical thinking and intellectual honesty are required. The problem with a non-professional company is that it will always be subject to the abilities of one person: its owner.
Luis Antonio Paredes Izaguirre Director of the Entrepreneurship Research Center (CiiE) at IPADE Business School, he is also a professor in the area of Business Policy and a consultant to various companies on issues related to strategy, change management and innovation.