A first portrait
In a highly competitive world there is less and less space every day for the lack of collections. And it is the entrepreneurs, those individuals with the desire to create new spaces for production who must pay the most care and attention.
The question is: what should they pay so much attention to? And the answer is: to the capacities and attitudes that they must possess and develop in order to be able to generate added value for consumers, since it is that added value that will determine or not the contact of the latter with their company.
If there is something that an entrepreneur must have, it is self-awareness, that is, self-awareness, of their way of being and responding before events in their company and in the environment. For this there is nothing truer than "know yourself". Only a person who is clearly self-aware is capable of self-control and self-control.
A person who becomes aware of his way of being and conducting himself, of being aware of his capacities, virtues, defects, limitations and inclinations, will be able to take measures to make optimal use of what is positive in him, and take precautions and precautions to avoid falling into disarray.
Knowing yourself allows you to achieve self-control. Self-control is the ability to meditate on yourself and your actions, adopting a posture that allows you to be aware of your decisions, avoiding harm to your person and prestige as an entrepreneur. The loss of control will make him succumb to both market instabilities and storms that a businessman is exposed to on a daily basis. An entrepreneur as a ship captain must remain calm even in the worst moments to make the right decision and guide the company to a successful conclusion.
Very close to the previous aspect, we have the necessary strength and temperance to face the shocks to which every entrepreneur and his company are exposed throughout his career.
But it is in the first steps, when you are still young and enterprising when you are still not very seasoned, the more the ability to fight and tenacity comes into play. Like the farmer who prepares the land and sows his seeds, an entrepreneur is always exposed to drought, excess rain, floods and also to fire. It is in these moments where the entrepreneur's temperance will be tested to withstand the momentary onslaught of fate and get ahead.
When in a world with an abundant supply of goods and services, you want to capture part of the demand, maintain it and expand it, it is essential to have the minimum creativity to give both products and services, as well as the production and sale processes, that touch special that distinguishes it from its competitors. Without the capacity for creativity and innovation, your possibilities are more than limited, very limited. In the face of such a high degree of competition, standing out to attract the wants and needs of consumers requires something that makes it unique and special. Even when selling candy, you must have the ability to attract interest in your products and not in those of your competitors.
As in a soccer game, it is that spark of creativity that makes the difference between who wins and who loses. Not all companies survive, many fall, and one of the reasons is that lack of ability to generate new ideas that allow them to continue to retain the support of their customers.
Creativity is highlighted both to generate a new product, and to design a process that allows lower costs and higher quality, or that creativity will allow you to carry out better advertising or better solve problems. Creativity is not a minor issue for those who want to succeed in business.
In a changing environment in the social, economic, political, cultural and psychological areas, it is necessary to have sufficient sensitivity to catch these changes in time, and even more to anticipate them through a proactive mentality. To generate companies of excellence, it is no longer enough to react or prevent, it is essential to generate changes, to be able to set new rules of the game, if we do not think about the creator of McDonald's and its revolutionary vision of fast food and services. It is at this point that creativity and sensitivity come together.
You must be sensitive to capture the changes in the environment, and creative to generate the solution that makes the difference.
The ability to react to the unexpected was, is, and will continue to be an ability that will differentiate those who survive with your company from those who capsize in the face of surrounding storms.
In any business that has staff, our entrepreneur must have the ability to lead and motivate them to move the pieces towards achieving goals, and therefore there is nothing as important as setting clear and precise goals. These goals must be in conjunction with the mission of the company. Both the owner, managers and employees must know what business they are in and who their customers are, and therefore know what business they are not in and who their customers are not. It will seem simple and straightforward, but many companies have perished by having a restricted or unclear mission.
Being clear about the mission of the company, its objectives and being aware of the restrictions and limitations will allow you to develop plans more in line with the reality and authentic possibilities of the company. One of the worst things that can happen to an entrepreneur is not being aware of his limitations. Being aware of them will allow you to hire people to cover your weak flanks. Only at that moment, when apart from your knowledge and experiences, can you have another, more experienced and analytical vision, will you be able to develop a plan with greater possibilities of success. Success that can only become a reality if the plan is accompanied by organizational capacity, talent for management and a fine controlling spirit.
An idea can be very good, but making it feasible requires planning. Once the plan is carried out, it is necessary to create an organization in which the roles are clearly defined, being from it that the members will interpret their respective scores to make the objectives come true. Directing employees and workers to achieve the best performance is not an easy thing, only really talented individuals can bring out the best in each of their staff. That is why inspirers and coaches are needed more than just directors these days, which are the conditions for new leadership.
That of the fine controlling spirit refers to a subtle and special capacity that must be counted on to not only determine what and when to control, but to be aware of that information that contradicts the sensations and intuitions that a good entrepreneur must count and cultivate. Knowing how to ask, clearly and precisely, is an ability that not everyone has, and that will allow you to resume or change course at the right time.
Be faster every day
In the nanosecond era it is not enough to be fast, it is necessary to be very fast. If you are not fast enough, those who come behind pass over it. Speed to produce, speed to deliver, speed to answer the query, speed to design products and processes, speed to enter the market, speed to collect, everything is speed and therefore the concept of speed must be understood and meditated upon. the entrepreneur of the XXI century.
Today a good businessman must continually think about how to make each task, each process faster. Charging faster in a supermarket can mean increasing sales at equal prices. Being faster in caring for patients in a sanatorium involves not only increasing services, but also notably increasing patient satisfaction. Today nobody wants to wait, everything is wanted instantly.
Before a postcard was sent via mail, today it is done via the Internet, at practically zero cost and immediately, with the addition of special effects.
If you fix computers or machines, take the response time between the phone call and your customer visit, take the time it takes to repair, and something else, take the time to answer the phone. Remember, today everything is speed.
In an era where the life cycles of products and services are getting shorter every day, the delay in reaching the market can mean defeat at the hands of the fastest opponent.
Always keep in mind that the first to arrive generally sets the rules of the game and ranks first in the minds of customers. To try to be first it is necessary to be faster every day.
Speed makes for greater customer satisfaction, but it should always be kept in mind that speed is only useful if you are running in the right direction.
Quality, quality and more quality
In a world with an excess of suppliers, those products and services with the highest added value will be most in demand, so never stop adding quality to your offer. Quality alone does not ensure success, but it will allow you to participate in the competition.
eye! Quality, properly understood, is quality at the "first", not the quality generated after multiple adjustments and readjustments. Adjustments and corrections, which end up absorbing part of the company's profits. Quality at the "first" level implies high productivity, low costs and therefore greater competitive capacity.
Quality must be addressed in all areas of the company. Having the best product is not enough, if the customer service is disastrous. Never leave anything to chance, worry about each and every detail. You can have the best food, but the cleanliness of the tablecloth and the toilets also counts. You can pass the best movies, but the comfort of the seats also counts. You can count on the best prices, but never forget to have variety. Every detail counts, and today more than ever.
Flies and bees
“…..If six bees and six flies are put in a bottle and it is placed horizontally, with the bottom against the window, it will be seen that the bees will not stop fighting to find an exit through the glass, until they die of exhaustion or from hunger; while the flies, in less than two minutes, will have come out through the neck on the other side… It is the bees' love of light, their very intelligence, that loses them in this experiment. You probably imagine that the way out of a prison must be where the light shines the brightest and they act accordingly and persist in this quite logical attitude. For them, glass is a supernatural mystery that they have never seen, they have never had an experience of this suddenly impenetrable atmosphere and, the more developed their intelligence,The more inadmissible and more incomprehensible this strange obstacle will appear. While silly flies, indifferent to logic as to the glass puzzle, ignore the call of light, they randomly fly here and there and find the good luck that often smiles at the naive who find salvation where the wise men perish… and end up necessarily discovering the opening that gives them freedom. ”
In this way, businessmen and entrepreneurs must not limit themselves to mere reason, they must also heed their intuition, they must think but also try, they must analyze and "test". They must avoid falling prisoners of their own intelligence. It is not enough for the entrepreneur to consider that if the product is useful, it will be sued (bees error), it is necessary to check the market to discover what consumers really want (approach consumers but not only making use of the rational intelligence, but also emotional intelligence; learn to grope like flies).
Be aware of paradigms
The fish does not know that it lives in the water until it is removed from it. The fish that has never come out of the water cannot know what water is because it does not know what water is not. Lacking comparison terms, you cannot define water. We human beings are only aware that we act according to certain paradigms when we change our paradigm. We are like the fish in the water.
Paradigms are powerful, but not omnipotent. When a paradigm begins to be unable to solve a series of problems that we want and must solve, the solution is to find another paradigm that does.
Albert Einstein never used the expression "paradigm shift," but that was what he meant when he said, "Major problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that they were created." In other words, many times the only way to solve a problem is to change the paradigm.
This is of paramount importance, both to perceive new business opportunities, in the sense of generating solutions for certain problems, as well as to solve problems in a way that current paradigms do not make feasible.
Conclusions
In a hypercompetitive market, entrepreneurs must have more and more skills and abilities every day, not only having rational skills is enough, nowadays more than ever before it is necessary to have creative capacity, innovation, intuition and emotional intelligence.
Understanding the nature of the environment and being sensitive to its changes and energy flows will allow the entrepreneur to achieve new and higher levels of excellence. In a globalized world, with a rapidly increasing population and everyone fighting for a place and possibilities for development, it is not enough and it is impossible to fortify yourself in a place or position, you have to be willing to go out and win to continue subsisting.
Those who are trapped by inoperative paradigms for the new times and needs will see their positions and market shares recede.
Page 109 - “In search of Excellence” - Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. - Editorial Atlántida - 1982
