Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Are you using interdependency in your career?

Today, i was reading the news in the Times of India about the Norway case where Norway Government had taken a formal custody of two children , 1 and 3 year old, from their Indian parents. 

Whenever i discussed this news with the various friends in the last two months, everyone strongly suggested that "Norway Government is biased and is completely wrong in taking the custody of the two children". Lot of 'unattested evidence' was also mentioned such as the family saying that 'their children had been taken away because of cultural differences - such as, the fact that the children were fed by hand, or that they slept with their parents." Whenever i argued that there could be 'another view' or 'fact' that we are not aware of, my argument would be summarily dismissed.

Why am i discussing this case on the career blog? Because, our tendency to see things in black and white (single dimensional way) blocks us from using the 'interdependency' that is prevalent in our society today. Our society is so interdependent that, instead of running away from it, it helps us more if we can utilise that 'interdependency' for our benefit.

Successful entrepreneurs are masters in using interdependency  in their careers; they find and exploit this interdependency, instead of shunning away from it. If you are not using it in your career, then your tendency to see things in single dimension in relation with people is blocking your path.

When you view relations between people in single dimension, you always believe you are always 'rational, smart, and right while others are 'stupid, arrogant and irrational' whenever you are in conflict with others.With regards to the issues between people, you always conclude that " there is only one right answer", that "any rational person can see that your view is right" and if someone does not see it that way then " he must change his view'. It is always 'their problem'.

With this single dimensional view, even when you see a conflict between Norway Government and Indian family, you view Norway Government as 'arrogant and high handed' while Indians as ' right and rational', perhaps because we are all 'Indians'. In the conflict between Norway Government and Indian family, only one view is 'right and rational' and if other person ( in this case the Norway Government) can change its view, the conflict will be settled. A person with single dimensional view will not even wait for any evidence to conclude something else, like all my friends did.

Successful entrepreneurs, on the other hand, behave differently. They have a multi-dimensional view of people and their relations. In every conflict, they assume that 'a situation has multiple dimensions' because of which one may see something which other misses and vice versa. Due to these different 'angles', even reasonable people may disagree on something. They therefore believe that other people who disagree with them ( or in conflict with them) may also be as rational and right as they are. They do not attribute traits like 'stupid, irrational and arrogant' to others, nor to themselves.

For instance, in the case of Norway Government, they will 'assume' that Norway Government may be right because it is seeing something which they have not seen. Now it has become public that the parents of these two Indian children do not have a healthy relation with each other and they have filed for divorce. Now we know that Norway Government did not publicly said anything about the parents, because 'this information was confidential' and public disclosure of such information may may 'hurt the children when they grow'.

Besides using interdependency in their relations, this view also pervades the personal lives of these successful entrepreneurs. As we have discussed in this blog, even their personal view about themselves is 'multi-dimensonal'.They believe that even their motivation and confidence has multiple dimensions; it is true only in a specific dimension ( or context).

Most corporate professionals learn to use interdependency because the colleagues and bosses make them realise that their 'single dimensional views' may be wrong. But if you are an entrepreneur, you do not have colleagues and bosses to tell you that your 'views' may be single-dimensional. What are you doing to capitalise on the interdependency inherent in the society?

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Entrepreneurs are lucky in developing their skills


Kanpreet is an excellent IT developer. He developed a product for schools. He had to decide whether to spend his time/efforts on 'selling', 'delivery' or 'product development'. He chose to remain in delivery (70%) and product development (30%) and develop his skills in these two areas. Is Kanpreet's approach right for his business? 

Graduates working in corporate constantly face a question "what should i do next", because they are trading in a skill. Entrepreneurs like Kanpreet, on the other hand, never face this question because they are trading in the 'product/service' that requires multiple skills. Instead, entrepreneurs have to work backwards from 'what is required' to sell the product/service and then attempt to fill the gaps in skill through their own skills or by bringing someone else.

This ends-driven approach of entrepreneurs of developing skills is far more efficient than the means-driven approach of skill development followed by corporate professionals. Corporate professionals try to learn any skill in the hope that it will 'fit' with some unknown future requirement. You will therefore find them spending considerable time in developing new skills such as learning Excel, ERP software, foreign languages, communication or time-management. But as they rarely get time to 'practice' those skills, they remain 'certificate' skills. On the other hand, entrepreneur's ends-driven approach of developing skills is very efficient, because they 'practice' the skill immediately after 'learning'. And because practicing immediately synthesises 'why' and 'how', one learns the skill quickly.

Despite having an advantage over corporate professionals, an entrepreneur like Kanpreet still faces four critical questions in skill development:

1. Should he develop an existing skill that will increase his 'strength' or a learn a new skill to compensate for his 'weakness'

A more efficient way is to develop the skill that will increase his strength further instead of learning a new skill. Kanpreet seems to have followed this approach, as he was excellent in IT. And as we have seen in Vinay's case, it is not easy to focus on one skill.

However, if the skill is critically required for the 'business unit', one should find a 'partner' with that critical skill. If for instance, 'selling' skill was critical for Kanpreet's unit, he would need to find a partner who is good in selling. If that is not possible, find an alternative person with that skill, even if high salary has to be paid for the person. Only if these options are not feasible, one should try to learn the new skill. And while learning such a skill, it is better to find an 'expert' who will 'coach' instead of learning by reading a book, because, the risk of failing is high as an entrepreneur.

2. Fill the one-time skill-gap by using consultants 

One time skills are required for a business unit from time to time. They are required for a business to grow from one stage to another. Many entrepreneurs, unable to fill this gap, either sacrifice growth or make several mistakes in negotiating their growth.

For instance, when a business unit has to grow in size, one needs the skill to understand 'what is required to grow the business in volume' (called scaling requirement) and how to fill the gap given the constraints. This is one-time requirement that should be ideally filled by hiring a consultant. Please remember that the scaling requirements of a business unit are just not physical and financial, but are also mental. Filling the mental-gap is more difficult than filling the financial gaps !

Or when the unit is seeking external funding, it has to institute several regulatory and managerial practices to comply with the norms. A consultant is ideal to fill this one-time skill gap adequately.

3. Which non-core 'small' skills should he learn

An entrepreneur may have to learn some 'small' skills because they 'enhance' the core ability of entrepreneur. Typically these skills could be presentation skill, communication skill, skill to hold meeting, skill to delegate, skill to use accounting figures to take decisions or even skill to strategise.

While learning these non-core skills, an entrepreneur has to ensure that the skill is not just learnt in a 'class' but also 'practiced' afterwards. It requires far more effort to use the skill in the entrepreneurial unit, than to just learn the skill in a class.

4. Which Core skills should he learn

As we have seen earlier, the skill to 'understand a business model' of your industry is a core skill. An entrepreneur does not have any option in learning this skill. A MBA teaches this skill, but given the time constraint, doing MBA requires too much investment of time and money. Entrepreneurs should ideally earn this skill either through a business consultant or a coach.

As an entrepreneur, what are you doing?