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by
Bill Dueease
Copyright © 2004
Michael Gerber wrote a very popular book
entitled The E Myth Revisited about the myths of Entrepreneurship.
He explained that there are three skills necessary for an Entrepreneur
to win. Gerber said that entrepreneurs must posses and exercise all three
of the following skills to succeed at business:
1. Technical Skills
2. Managerial Skills
3. Visionary Skills
Gerber was only partially correct. He leaves readers with the impression
that the entrepreneur (alone) must constantly possess and exercise all
three of these skills for the business to succeed. A key distinction is
that the three skills represent the three functions of the business that
must be completed for the business to succeed. The other key distinction
is that the entrepreneur does not have to perform all three functions
personally.
The success of a business will rarely exceed the level of poorest execution
of the three functions. For example, if the entrepreneur performs the
Technical and Visionary functions at an excellent level, but performs
the Management function at a poor level, the business success will rarely
rise above the poor (Management) level. Therein lies the dilemma. The
business is limited to the lowest level at which these three functions
are performed.
Yet, it is extremely unlikely that any one person (in this case the lone
entrepreneur) can exercise all three functions to a high enough level
at one time to generate the expected business success.
.
The Technical function of a business requires someone to actually perform
the duties of that business which attracts payments. This could include
repairing air conditioners, extracting teeth, painting houses, writing
computer programs, or installing tile. People who do the technical work
have almost total control over what they are doing, they actually do something
tangible, and they receive almost instant feedback and gratification.
This is the doing function.
The Managerial function of a business requires someone to direct, coordinate,
and organize the business activities of other people (and themselves)
to achieve the daily and weekly success goals. People who perform the
managerial function have much less control, because of reliance on others
to actually perform the technical work, and they have delayed gratification
of about one day to a week.
The Visionary function of a business requires someone to look years into
the future, set goals and organize the business, so that current activities
will contribute to the completion of these goals. People who perform the
visionary function have virtually no control, because they must rely on
others to actually perform the managerial and technical functions, and
the many unforeseen things that will happen during the years. They perform
even less, if any, doing type of work, and have delayed gratification
and feedback of about one to five years.
You can see that the type of skills, activities, control and gratification
periods vary widely for these three very different functions. These wide
differences are the reasons it is so difficult for any one person to perform
all three functions simultaneously at a level high enough for the business
to succeed.
If this is true, then how do entrepreneurs get all three functions executed
well enough for the business to succeed, if they don't do it themselves?
Entrepreneurs have others perform at least one of the three functions
for the business. We are listing several possible methods entrepreneurs
can use to have one or more of the three functions successfully performed
by others.
The simplest way is to have a business with two or more partners, who
execute different functions. This is a very common success tactic. Do
the names of Gates-Allen, Hewlett-Packard, Jobs-Wosniac, Disney-Disney
sound familiar? They succeeded in large part because they had at least
two people accomplishing the three functions from the outset. Sometimes,
it appears easier to go it alone, but if you can find a partner who wants
to and is effective at performing one of the three functions, you are
way ahead of the game.
Tips to picking a partner!
The most frequent reason business partnerships break up is because the
partners are too much alike. Partners with like interests and personalities
want to perform the same functions and compete to do so, while not paying
attention to the other functions. Friction occurs and partnerships or
businesses dissolve. How often do two programmers, or two electricians,
or two salespeople, or two mechanics, etc. partner up only to see their
partnership and the business implode because they focus on the same function
at the expense of the others?
Another way to is to hire someone to perform one of the functions. Normally,
the function that is the easiest to hire in is the technical function.
However, this fact frequently creates a conflict with entrepreneurs. Normally,
entrepreneurs begin their business by performing all three functions,
including the technical functions themselves. The baker bakes, the plumber
plumbs, the graphic artist does graphic artistry, the printer prints,
the accountant accounts, and the list goes on.
The sooner entrepreneurs can have someone else perform the technical functions
of the business so they can focus on the management and visionary functions,
the sooner the business will start down the road to success. When entrepreneurs
have others execute the technical functions they transition from being
a technician to becoming a business owner.
Professionals like doctors, lawyers, dentists,
etc. are almost required to perform the technical functions of the business.
So they need to fill, at least, one of the other two functions for their
business to succeed. Many times professionals have someone else perform
the management function by having an office manager or a professional
manager. When groups of professionals ban together to form partnerships
they increase their likelyhood of success by having someone perform, at
least, the management function.
However, if you are excellent at performing the technical functions, you
may want to bring in someone to perform at least the visionary and probably
some of the management functions. The franchise structure of business
has been used for years to allow performers of the technical functions
to utilize the franchiser to perform the visionary functions and provide
considerable guidance in performing the management functions.
Look at the successes of the McDonalds,
Burger King, Pizza Hut and other such franchises. The headquarters of
each of these groups perform all of the visionary functions and design
and teach a large part of the management functions. The franchisee performs
the technical functions and some of the management functions. Through
this separation of duties all three functions get performed exceptionally
well to produce great successes.
One of the critical keys to entrepreneurial success is to discover which
of the three functions you have the greatest desire to perform and will
be the most successful at completing; And which functions you have the
least desire to perform and at which you will probably be the least productive.
Once you have made this discovery, find a way to have others perform the
functions that you do not want to do. You will want to join forces only
with people who have a strong desire to perform the functions you do not
want to do and have a strong desire to avoid performing the functions
you love doing.
It really comes down to creating the best fit for yourself first and then
creating the best fit for the people performing the other functions. It
is almost like the sport of baseball. There are nine positions in baseball
that must be played well by all nine players in order for the team to
succeed. In the entrepreneurial small business world there are three positions
that must be played well for the business to succeed. Pick the position
you want first then have others play at least one, if not both, of the
remaining two positions. This way everyone will be much more productive,
have more fun, and the business will thrive.
Everybody wins!
Provided as an educational service by Bill Dueease of The Coach Connection,
where connecting great people with great coaches is their
goal. You may contact Bill at 800-887-7214, 239-415-1777, coaches@findyourcoach.com,
or http://www.findyourcoach.com
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