An entrepreneur was asked the following question: What is the secret to success? And he replied: "The secret of success is the secret." (Eric Gaynor Butterfield)
In this half-day that is a continuation of those that we started in 1997 and have continued until the present, we have to explore as much of the confusion that exists between the attributes, competencies, knowledge, skills, preferences and needs of the entrepreneur - entrepreneur not It can be linked in a unique and unambiguous way with the “development of a career as an entrepreneur”, which is usually described as the process of an SME company to a larger company with a larger number of personnel.
We postulate that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs choose an organizational arrangement of their choice and therefore their success has to do with how they perform within it and then manage to reconcile certain individual characteristics that lead to success.
The different organizational typologies that we have to deal with today are those detailed below. Later, in the next Conference, we have to link these different organizational arrangements with the organizational typology that takes into account the degree and level of generativity of the entity. It is possible that they can be combined.
1. Self-employed
2. SME companies with less than 10 people
These two categories, of "self-employed" and "SME companies with less than 10 people", were created at the beginning when searching for a special reward that Jean Louis Servan Schreiber ("The trade of the businessman"; Emecé - 1990) He defines it as "the reward for escaping too strict a wage standard." And to the conjunction of escaping this norm, added to the desire to manage their own times and the self-esteem necessary to operate autonomously in this life, the figure of the autonomous emerges despite the fact that he recognizes “that in the early years his income is less than the salary that he could have received as an official. ” He is willing to take that risk.
And the jump from "self-employed" to "SME company with less than 10 people" is still a more dramatic leap than that of an employee to "self-employed"; Now he has to be willing to put on his shoulders the cost of "living" for the people who work with him and their families. And he learns very quickly that those with whom he has started his management will not be useful to him throughout the journey and even over time, many of the contributions of some of them do not offset the benefits with which they contribute to the organization.
To make things worse, this entrepreneur must quickly learn something that is not taken into account in universities and in books: "When a person is capable and useful to his company, he may be thinking of going with the idea to another side and also with the Clients… and in the event that the employee does not contribute in relation to what he consumes in terms of resources, he is not thinking of leaving.
He must be delighted with the function of "go to and attend the company" that is different from the function of producing (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: "Businessmen's Day"; 2003).
3. "National" SME companies (where a leap in technology is taken and the principle of economy of scale is taken into account)
In addition to the ambition derived from Power there is also the ambition to make money. We can say that in the two types corresponding to the above category, money is probably not the main motivator.
But if you want to make the leap by incorporating technology - not only in administrative and sales processes but also in production and logistics processes - and get the benefits of the economy in scale, you will have no choice but to learn from what it happens in the world "of finance and economy". Reading Robert Kiyosaki ("Rich Dad, Poor Dad"; Time and Money network editions - 2000) is very good, although it may not be totally enough.
Now he has decided to get his company out of the incubator and is ready to fly higher than propeller planes do. And here the dangers that lie in wait are totally unknown to him, in most cases.
Just as propeller planes ruled the skies for many years, in their first versions of the jet model, many planes had fatal accidents. The history of DC 7 accounts for them.
The nature of the business is completely different and those entrepreneurs who do not learn it quickly can begin to live with failure. History is full of them.
The self-employed and the company with less than 10 people who make certain innovations in technology and is oriented to consider the aspects of the economy of scale, will learn very quickly that some who knew as "allies" may be their most fearsome enemies.
Possibly it has already decided to change the legal status under which it operates and has created a legal society (SA, SRL, more commonly) instead of a de facto society to which it was accustomed. Faced with a greater volume of operations - since it is oriented to the economy of scale and adopts innovations in the field of technology - the Banks consider it more tempting and begin to force it to weigh, from a financial position, until now its vision, its mission and their way of operating was more from a service position towards their Clients.
From now on, they are the numbers that they send and the Banks must let them know.
You will also have another “partner”, which is the State, who possibly sends messages that are not always correct and may play against the businessman.
Politicians and economists have not read John Maynard Keynes in his original version, but they always have someone nearby who summarizes what they can condense in their minds, and one of the principles of both trades is to "work with the expectations of the future "
It should be mentioned that "we are growing", and the statistics are narrow enough to "make interpret" what is not reality. There is talk that the country's gross product is growing and it would seem obvious that people would have more money to spend; but it turns out that the money is not in the hands of the people but in the Banks and financial entities, in addition to the Government, of course.
Here the businessman with more than 10 people is going to realize that he is going to be much more visible in the eyes of the tax collectors, who must not lose his footing and any movement or turn he wants to make, as when he had less than 10 employees, it should not be so easy.
Some of its clients - which it does not want to lose - may be large subsidiaries of multinationals, and the corporate world what it loves in its suppliers - and in all its surroundings - is predictability.
They talk about change but they do not want change and that is why these types of corporations strive to operate monopolistically or oligopolistically. Everything that is said in the corporate world regarding free competition has little to do with what they do; On the other hand, the SME entrepreneur with more than 10 is going to learn very quickly how free competition can finally lead to a price war between several SMEs, where he will only have to survive if he has sufficient financial support, and with luck.
Tax obligations and how to deal with them is something you are not used to; In addition, it does not have a tax expert like the large corporations that audit their firms with the “Big Five” auditors that also have specialized tax services. Nor does it have the possibility of lobbying enough to modify this situation.
The almost complete disappearance of the different Chambers by Industry and by type of Commercial company, clearly indicates that they no longer have an option as interlocutors with government representatives at the national, provincial or municipal level.
Not only the treasury must have their eyes on it. Now he has learned that with more than 10 people his company has a union delegate who is in charge of ensuring that the rest of the staff has everything necessary so that the company cannot compete within international markets.
The entrepreneur has made investments in technology seeking higher volumes to - based on the economy of scale - be able to access international markets.
But international markets are largely accessed on a price basis, particularly when it comes to less developed countries that do not have a "serious trade history." This 11th employee - with productivity levels approaching zero - cannot tolerate high productions, since that way the rest of the staff (whom he supposedly defends and protects) would feel resentful.
Therefore, the managers and bosses who the employer pays to achieve competitive productions are no longer in charge. Productivity levels are set by the workgroup and the workgroup sets them largely by what the 11th employee decides.
Who said that in Argentina managers and executives manage?
In reality, most of the time, what executives and managers do is what they call “consensus”, which in plain language means doing what subordinates perceive they can do.
And leading an organization without management is like believing that you are captain of a ship without a rudder, or with a rudder but with the wrong compass.
But there is something else that the SME entrepreneur must know now that he has dared to grow. You should not only know about economics and finances (to apply the principles of economy of scale and not put yourself at a disadvantage in your interactions with Banks and Financial Institutions), you should not only know about Accounting since your Accountant makes you Suggestions where you anticipate tax payments that will eat away at the working capital you need to operate, you also have to learn about taxes since in many cases - and after many years of hard work - you realize that really more than an entrepreneur was an agent tax collector.
But to show the difference between an SME company of less than 10 and one of more than 10, we must add that it is also going to have to learn everything that lawyers know, and in particular the lawyers specialized in labor lawsuits.
In many legislations, as is the case in Argentina, there is no precise limit in terms of work risks, and since ART companies (financial entities) have established liability limits, a single trial can destroy the company to which the businessman had dedicated his entire life.
And you will also learn that although you have created a legal society within which the staff has been hired, it must come against your personal assets, that is, your car and your house.
Therefore, not only can he lose his SMEs company of more than 10 people that he dreamed of growing, he has put at risk each and every one of his assets, including his own home.
And of course, you are not so naive as to believe that - if you occasionally "win a labor lawsuit" - you should not have costs. Although it may seem incredible, even having won a trial, you must pay your lawyer and also the litigator's lawyer (yes, the one who lost the trial).
After these experiences, the entrepreneur quickly learns what it means to go back and also learns that he must really be associated with those who until now were his mortal enemies.
The possibility of being a State contractor appears as a very good option, and the other is to do something similar to what large corporations do in their subsidiaries within their country: set up as monopolists or oligopolists.
And here you have to learn to "work with those who make the rules and regulations in the country." If at this point one asks this "new entrepreneur" that he is an entrepreneur, he may look shocked at asking that kind of question.
We have started in this section of "entrepreneurs with more than 10 people" making mention of the importance of money, from now on, unlike what happens with "freelancers" and "companies with less than 10 people". However, it is good to take into account the statement by Jean Louis Servan Schreiber (“The profession of the entrepreneur”; Emecé - 1990): “From now on we will risk making this statement: you rarely choose to be an entrepreneur to make a fortune, but if you he wants to make his fortune, it is necessary to be his own boss ”.
This may have been true at some point or at least partially true. As we are particularly interested in the development of entrepreneurs in the different Latin American cultures, we are going to try to stick to them, and the statistics do not show that it is the entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs belonging to the three categories already seen who have made the most money.
In Latin American countries, state contractors, government officials, financiers, some trade unionists are at the top (which proves the validity of Robert Michels' "iron law": "Political Parties"; Dover Publications - 1959) who have displaced entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in the three categories mentioned.
4. Industrial and Commercial Companies (more than national and with financial leverage)
If the fact of going to lead a "company with less than 10 people" to one with "company with more than 10 people" was a change, attacking more than what is known as own territory is quite a feat.
And this is not something that only post-industrial revolution entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs confront since businessmen have lived it for many centuries.
Such is the case of the Roman emperor Augustus who considered his intention to capture other markets daring to go "beyond his own borders", unlike the political decision of another Roman emperor, in this case Adriano, who preferred to close the borders of Rome.
These two policies show different orientations and both the results achieved by them and their consequences were disparate despite the fact that they were not necessarily oriented towards power or the capture and control of a market but rather towards the capture of "Sabine" women.
Something so obvious after the consequences are lived, it is incredible to have been accepted a priori, as is the case of financial, commercial and technological globalization where - in their minds - each country was convinced that it could capture foreign markets while, in reality and in most cases, not only did they not achieve success outside their borders, but they themselves were violated by third parties.
So this is possibly one of the biggest transformations that an entrepreneur has to go through on his path to new organizational arrangements beyond the first three that we have reviewed.
If the entrepreneur has had to change during one of the three organizational options, now he must learn to transform. Robert Golembiewski (in "Practicing Organizational Development: A guide for consultants"; Ed. William Rothwell, Roland Sullivan & Gary McLean - Pfeiffer - 1995) refers to different exchange rates and Eric Gaynor Butterfield refers to three types of them, according to let it be the exchange rate, which gives rise to the traditional change to which we were accustomed more than 1000 years ago and until the middle of the last century, the transitional change from the middle of the last century until financial globalization began and finally the transformational change as consequence of the implementation of financial and commercial globalization.
The mortality of the organizations does not bear any similarity with the mortality of the people since it reaches up to 25% in the first year and 35% until before the end of the second year.
Therefore, the entrepreneur and entrepreneur must be characterized by the fact that he is capable of creating and re-creating his organization.
One of the phrases that Eric Gaynor shares with his Clients in Warketing implementation programs ("Warketing Workshop" - Quito, Ecuador - Year 2004) is the following and we suggest that it be remembered:
"One must be able to destroy what one came to create oneself." Well, the most common is that if we do not destroy what we have created, someone else will destroy it and we must stay on the road.
Therefore the magic of creating a company is sustained by the magic that it lasts over time. Jean Louis Servan Schreiber ("The trade of the businessman"; Emecé - 1990) makes an interesting description in this regard:
“In the same way that to create it needed special provisions, it can be described from the outset what will guarantee the longevity of that new and fragile organism.
Of course you will need qualified collaborators, adequate funding, good organization and a fairly large dose of luck.
What is even more important, and this depends on the entrepreneur, will have to give evidence of a constant capacity for change to maintain the vitality of the company, as a bicycle is kept in balance by the effects of its forward movement.
This ability to anticipate changes and then adapt to their surroundings generates fatigue and sometimes drama, but it is even more necessary than solid capital or ultramodern equipment.
In addition to all the knowledge and practices of the University Professions to which we have previously mentioned and to which the entrepreneur - entrepreneur has had to integrate within himself, he must now be an expert in regulations that go beyond his natural borders, with production standards for your products and services that meet the ISO's requirements and you have one more task left: to be an expert in other cultures.
The businessman never thought that he had to add to his knowledge about the professions of Engineer, Architect, Accountant, Bachelor of Administration, Lawyer, tax and labor expert, connoisseur of union management an additional category: that of the anthropologist / ethnologist. Previously, his knowledge of another culture was limited to the "different exchange rate of two currencies", and some visits to museums and shopping depending on the interest of the rest of his family members; but now he had to achieve a significant degree of expertise with respect to other cultures. And without being paid for it, and subtracting the time - scarce - that it has.
(Government officials learn it just like the managers of multinational corporations, but they have a great advantage: they are paid to learn it; the entrepreneur must do it at his cost in terms of both money and time.)
5. Companies like Financial Businesses
The transition and also the transit of businessmen and entrepreneurs within categories 1, 2, and 3 is quite "fluid" and in some way also linear, both up and down.
We have seen that the incursion of businessmen and entrepreneurs in category 4: Industrial and Commercial Companies (more than national and with financial leverage) represents an important break since some requirements that are not usually presented in the first three types of organizational arrangement are highlighted..
At the moment, and entering the fifth group where companies can function as financial businesses, there is an even greater acceleration regarding the importance of money. Most people are convinced that McDonald's business is "fast food" and do not hesitate to say so. However, the President of said firm himself states that they are strongly installed in the "real estate" business with its financial implications.
If we had to choose a phrase that is linked to the profile of the entrepreneur - entrepreneur to demonstrate how from the third category money is increasingly privileged and it plays a preponderant role in the results and in the success of the entity, We could adopt the following: "They are people who are very happy to earn money… with money."
The personal effort, the artisanal work, the enjoyment of the process seems to end as we see ourselves from the first three categories to the following.
As a SME entrepreneur linked to the production of cleaning supplies told us: “People in the financial business cannot enjoy the processes because they involve time and effort. They measure the results to the minute. I could not say that the actions of my company change from day to day or even minute to minute. CNN talks about how financial values change every day but nothing is heard about what underdeveloped economies have. They are simply interested in earning interest. "
6. Bank Entities
Many have started with a simple "money table" or with a small "neighborhood cooperative" in a community and have ended up having a bank. It has also been the case within the different Latin American cultures, of owners of important companies such as oil, who later decided to enter the financial sector, such as Perez Companc in Argentina.
This is another important leap, and as Robert Kiyosaki (already quoted) says, money is the leverage factor that the entrepreneur must learn to use; in the end, it was the leverage of the sling that allowed David to defeat Goliath.
In any case, some Latin American businessmen who have been extremely successful as owners of Banks, in addition to having had significant successes, have had their setbacks.
In some countries within Latin America, the number of financial institutions has been notably decreased, and just as the initial profits of these bankers seemed to appear out of nowhere, so also some were left with little or nothing. There have been exceptions from bankers who have done what very few boxers do: retire on time.
This was absolutely necessary when financial globalization was implemented, which forced local entrepreneurs in Latin America to withdraw from this type of company:
the costs of raising money in local markets was more than double the cost of - and still have - branch banks of multinationals that raise money outside the country.
7. Financial Business
This is a special category where the entrepreneur can further advance the use of money as a source of more money.
Credit cards, work risk insurers, pension funds are in a different business than the one many people think they are.
Do you know which country on the planet has the most new millionaires per day? Well, it is the United States of America where 3,000 new millionaires arise every day. And now the next question: Do you know what you do and what business you are in? Financial funds.
The treatment here involves a multitude of new aspects, and the businessman is no longer playing with his local cards and has to learn very quickly that the rules of the game are established by others to whom he does not have easy access.
8. Financial Group
This type of businessman is practically forbidden to people belonging to the different Latin American cultures. There are some Financial Groups that have made a strong irruption in Latin America as a result of financial globalization, as is the case of the CitiGroup.
It is no longer just about participating in the world concert, but dealing with the centers of power in the world. Few are involved in this game.
A suggestion after having done a quick review of the different categories. We should not confuse the one who starts a repair company, paint shop, and a home parts business with those who come to the top of Companies such as Financial Businesses, Banking Entities,
Financial Business, a Financial Group or a State Contractor Company. They are not all the same. And this is something that must be made very clear from the beginning.
If you are interested in being an Entrepreneur, the first thing to decide has to do with what “type of entrepreneur” you want to become, what should be linked to a particular organizational arrangement.
The paths for all of them are different and, in this treaty, we do not have much interest in identifying what it is that assists - and therefore they must do - to those who want to rise as Entrepreneurs of Financial Businesses, of Banking Institutions, of Financial Businesses, of a Financial Group or a State Contractor Company (we call these business associates - ADN).
This book is primarily intended for those who have not inherited enough not to have to work, and who are interested in creating and generating creative work for others; We call them creative work generators (EG).
One of the biggest problems confronting the business literature precisely has to do with the fact that these different roles, profiles, and orientations are confused into one.
And that is why there is no profile that characterizes the creative work generator entrepreneur, who is the one who really assists in the genuine development of a community.
This scheme is similar to the conception of Joseph Schumpeter when he refers to the "innovative entrepreneur" and that contrasts so radically with the "role of DNA entrepreneurs" as the engine of an economy that is present in the opposite thought and led by John Maynard Keynes who favors the role of money, and money as paper.
There is no entrepreneurial model for those who want to start in the development of independent activities since different roles and profiles are confused, due to their very differences, they require different characteristics, profiles, orientations, preferences, needs and vocations.
In Argentina
Starting in 1940, employers began to be seen as exploiters who are hiding in the dark, abusers of workers, evaders of taxes and who do not comply with the established regulations.
That such impact has this new conception of the middle of that decade to the point that from a position of leadership in the world Argentina is now next to the least developed countries (and is also proud of its "location").
By distinguishing these from the "state contractors" we can reach different conclusions from the traditional ones.
For example, are not banks and financial institutions to some extent lackeys of international finance associated with the governments in office? If this were not the case, as it is possible that the Banks have not returned the money that their Clients had legitimately deposited, the same that appeared in the bank statements issued by the Bank, and that the government (in fact specific rulers) have approved this management ?
There is no world antecedent of this fact in the industrial and commercial sector where massively with this immense number of Clients, an entity has stopped fulfilling its obligations, allowed it to continue operating, and has even been compensated by the Government for this behavior!
Business typology
The innovative entrepreneurit is he who "has an idea regarding a product or a service and believes that no one had it before him" according to Jean Louis Servan Schreiber ("The profession of the businessman"; Emecé - 1990). We suggest that it is really someone "who has an idea about a product or a service and believes that no one can implement it better than him", which makes some difference. Later Jean Louis "made a turn in his conception" by recognizing that the innovative entrepreneur is rarely an inventor, giving Roland Moreno as an example who, after having perfected his magnetic memory card, spent almost ten years vegetating before collecting real royalties.He even emphasizes that the innovator may prefer that his idea has been experimented elsewhere because he does not mind having to imitate since it focuses more on success than originality. Finally, he emphasizes that "innovation, therefore, does not necessarily reside in a new product: it can manifest itself in a price or a tariff, a way of acting, a sector of the public to which it is directed."
The impatient businessman who "is one who quickly identifies the shortcomings or defects of an organization or a system" (Jean Louis Servan Schreiber ("The trade of the businessman"; Emecé - 1990). For us this profile can be defined as the “heroic entrepreneur” who is the one who undertakes projects beyond the possibilities of success.
It also occurs among those executives and professionals who - consubstantiated with what they hear and say in large corporations - get involved in managing projects until they finally find that in one of them that is assigned to them, near their terminal stage Within the organization, three characteristics are presented that lead to its failure: they cut resources, reduce project times, and have stated objectives that are not really clear.
The interested reader has a detailed account of this process in the book "Professional Suicide or Organizational Murder" published by The Organization Development Institute International under the authorship of Dr. Donald Cole and Eric Gaynor Butterfield.
These types of people are awake, restless, and are convinced of what organizations often preach but do not do, many times they find even “something better” outside their organization, as is the case of Lee Iaccoca when leaving Ford Motor Company to settle as Worldwide President of Chrysler Corporation.
Not all impatient (or heroic) entrepreneurs suffer the same fate.
The profile of the " artisan businessman " is also given"Who is the one" who loves objects, a job well done and who regrets sometimes not being able to keep putting his hands in the can of engine grease "(Jean Louis Servan Schreiber (" The business of the businessman "; Emecé - 1990) And for this he quotes André Rousselet quein, who owns the television channel Canal + “nostalgically evokes the convenience of weighing bolts instead of counting them, when you want to calculate the optimal performance of your garage stock.” Jean Louis - who It does not take into account the different organizational typologies to which entrepreneurs can be oriented - it underestimates the role of the artisan entrepreneur, despite the fact that this is really a generating entrepreneur; moreover, they are possibly those that are more oriented than others to generating creative and genuine work for others Declares (unfortunately):“Saying that an entrepreneur is an artisan should not be confused with a compliment; on the contrary, it would indicate rather that it is difficult to take flight.
However, those who knew how to become important while still being artisans have a plus that is not taught in any business school: product intelligence (which we associate with a high component of practical intelligence.
"Development Conference of the 7 Intelligences", Buenos Aires - 2003).
Let's take a look at the concept of a limited entrepreneur that Jean Louis has when mentioning the artisan entrepreneur, and associating it with the fact that he finds it difficult to take flight. If Jean Louis once again took into account the different organizational typologies (based on various organizational arrangements) to which we make mention, and really privileged the genuine job-generating entrepreneur (EG), he would expose himself to a profile of an entrepreneur who must operate “within the that we have called propeller planes ”(Eric Gaynor Butterfield:“ Businessmen's Day ”; 2003). On this day, it is explained how many entrepreneurs saw their companies fall because they wanted to fly without limits and dare to the highest heights.Eric Gaynor Butterfield refers to a successful artisan entrepreneur who is a leader in marketing the software products of leading firms in the world, who demanded new annual goals of sustained growth without brake, year after year.
The pressure towards the satisfaction of these objectives led him to really high levels of sales in the country… which finally led the software firm to send one of its employees to "open the business" that the artisan entrepreneur had previously developed.
Which left the artisan entrepreneur out of the marketing business that he had successfully developed.
The same has happened to a renowned auditing and control systems consultant who, operating a software license and having successfully installed it in the market, found that from the Head Office abroad they decided not to renew their representation, which forced him to stop marketing said product that came with a service.
The seriousness of these situations does not merely imply that these artisanal entrepreneurs have had losses in their sales but that they lost all contact and relationship with their clients, since it was impossible for them to continue providing services to their Clients as they lacked the “new versions”.
Instead, a representative to whom we have provided advisory services in a similar business, preferred to position himself "in what we recognize as a propeller plane area."
This concept is linked to the fact that - unlike jet planes - propeller planes in high mountain and mountain areas must be operated within a level that is higher than the mountains themselves but lower than many clouds.
There are other business examples that show the importance - for the artisan entrepreneur - of having to direct their business towards non-maximum levels of performance, if they are interested in their own survival.
Another type is the " Entrepreneur Son " that is related to the question of whether it is possible "to be an entrepreneur by birth without having inherited the family business" as stated by Jean Louis Servan Schreiber ("The profession of the entrepreneur"; Emecé - 1990). For this author - and considering that biologists have not yet managed to identify a business chromosome - "it would rather be an effect of the medium, in a word, mimicry."
We make a small distinction, suggesting that it is not simply mimicry but that what we know within the behavioral sciences as "vicarious learning" and "modeling" operates. People, in this case children - who are exposed to the daily actions of entrepreneurs and know these behaviors, practices, beliefs and visions from the very interior life of the entrepreneurs (who are their parents) have a real competitive advantage over others.
The fact that some children do not make use of these advantages that they enjoy compared to others, does not weaken the fact that modeling, coaching, mentoring, and vicarious learning are effective means of developing the spirit and business practices (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: “Conference: The Entrepreneur - 2003).
Jean Louis Servan Schreiber (already quoted) refers to the "smart businessman" who according to him is the one "who in the school of life understood two or three useful things about a trade or the business world. And suddenly he discovers that he wants to apply to his own advantage what he learned to do at the home of others or for others ”.
He cites as an example "those IBM executives who after 5 or 7 years of training then establish their own computer services company." If we take into account that the creation of a typology - as to which Jean Louis refers - must be characterized by the fact that the different types differ from each other, we would then assume that the other categories would be composed of “not ready”; what any layman can observe.
Stages of development of the Entrepreneurs
We must bear in mind that within this section we must distinguish what happens to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs through their different stages of development, making the clarification that there are no "higher" stages as in the case of Abraham Maslow ("A theory of human motivation "; Psychological review - 1943) when it refers to the" higher "needs of people.
Here, unlike Maslow's conception, the new stages do not necessarily include the capacities, attributes, preferences, needs, and orientations of the other stages of development.
Therefore, there are no higher stages but simply different stages of development where the forces in favor that the entrepreneur and entrepreneur must need and require to be successful in each of them differ from the other and the same happens with the forces that predispose against.
When the entrepreneur - entrepreneur has chosen to operate as a "freelance" or with a "company with less than 10 people" it is common for their activity to be carried out in their home or in the next house.
It may even go a little further, but it is very unusual for the business to move outside the neighborhood where the entrepreneur - entrepreneur lives with his family. Jean Louis Servan Schreiber (already quoted) makes a brief review worth reproducing: “Maurice is the owner of the Boulonnerie Savoyarde (a bolt factory). Since he lives in the house next to the factory, it is he who opens the workshops at seven in the morning.
Then he distributes the production schedule and discusses it with his foremen. Several times a day his workers see him walking down the halls; He knows them all by name and he tucks them in, jokes around a bit, dips his hands into the containers to get a piece out.
In the event of a breakdown, go immediately and diagnose it; it is repaired if it is not serious or the representative of the German manufacturer is called.
Occasionally wage earners see him come out of a suit and tie; they know that he will probably visit his banker in Annecy or jump into Paris to negotiate with PSA's chief purchasing officer, the factory's main customer. ”
Jean Louis wonders what is in common between this businessman and Guy Dejouany in his capacity as President of the Generale des Eaux company, which is one of the giants of industry and services, since it has around 120,000 employees and 1.2 billion net benefits in 1988, and responds that it is they who ultimately decide ultimately and who take responsibility for the end-of-year results. But we suggest that drawing a parallel in these aspects can confuse the most seasoned reader.
Within Latin American cultures, few local entrepreneurs can position themselves as corporate leaders worldwide, and if they try to do so, they must quickly understand that the fourth organizational arrangement (Industrial and Commercial Companies beyond the national level and with financial leverage).) requires competencies, attributes, preferences, vocations and values that are distinguished from the organizational arrangement where he was operating, which, in the mentioned case, corresponds to the organizational arrangement described in number three (SME company with more than 10 people).
Furthermore, it is also possible that Guy is operating his organization under an organizational form of "Company as a Financial Business" (option 5), with which new and greater distinctions appear.
Individual aspects that make the Individual-Entrepreneur
"An entrepreneur acts more than he reflects and reflects more than he writes" (Jean Louis Servan Schreiber: "The profession of the entrepreneur"; Emecé - 1990). This is possibly why so little is known about entrepreneurs and what distinguishes success from business failure.
If behavioral science academics and researchers were to question them, also giving them the necessary time, as journalists do, for example - as Jean Louis affirms - “employers have a lot to say and they like doing it.”
A generator entrepreneur (EG) is "an energy". "For this reason, in my opinion, the will that leads to choosing that function is the closest thing to an impulse, favored by unconsciousness… But a tenacious impulse, irrepressible desires to leave the middle ground, to live a singular destiny." Jean Louis highlights "that in the opinion of the vast majority of employees, work remains - in the best of hypotheses - a necessary evil" and that is why the role of the employer includes a measure of action on others that makes it in a soldier of God, based on the fact that "the Eternal has constrained us to earn our bread with the sweat of his brow".
So the role of the entrepreneur is strongly linked to getting many others to do things that they would not be willing to do on their own. That is why he concludes by noting that "Being an entrepreneur also means sending others to do what they have no interest in doing, or ordering them to do in a different way than they would have chosen."
An individual aspect that makes the entrepreneur and entrepreneur distinguish him from the rest of the people and particularly from the wage earners is the pleasure of freedom as Jean Louis points out: “To face the uncertainties and risks (and these exist) of the profession of entrepreneur, it requires a more fundamental, longer-lasting, and more original energy than the ambition for power or the lure of profit: the pleasure of freedom. ”
The vast majority of treaties on "entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs" do not take into account the different organizational arrangements within which they operate and hence it is practically impossible to define a successful profile of one who is not (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: "Businessmen's Day"; 2003). What we are suggesting - based on our field work - is that entrepreneurs develop different profiles and orientations to be successful depending on the organizational arrangement they have chosen to operate, and within it, the particular stage of development.
Most theorists, consultants, and researchers have preferred to directly relate entrepreneurs to the stage of development of the organization, paying little attention to the particular way of designing the company and running it.
Furthermore, our findings show that the entrepreneur and entrepreneur within each type of organizational arrangement must show some specific characteristics that are related to their business success.
At some point it was thought that - bearing in mind that there were different "levels" of organizational development - we encountered "cumulative" characteristics such as those dealt with in the conceptual framework of the work of Abraham Maslow (1943 - already cited) where the different needs follow an order of preference, but without neglecting those previous or primary needs. Rather, our works show that this is not necessarily the case, but rather that our proposal is more similar to the work of Erik Erikson (“Stages of Psychological develoment” - 1955) in the stages of development of people, where there are even orientations - or forces - both for and against growth.We will have to talk about this again later, but it seemed important to us to make it known at this time.
The businessman and entrepreneur exists because he does something that someone "has not dared to do before". Therefore he is a natural creator.
There is no entrepreneur who has not been creative. Possibly when we expand and leave the first three categories of entrepreneurs (self-employed, and entrepreneurs with less than 10 people and more than 10 people) we find that creativity may not be entirely in the hands of the entrepreneur.
Since the latest typologies are differential organizational arrangements, it is very common for those at the top to delegate creativity.
Research and development departments are a small example of this.
Now, what things do entrepreneurs do that seem to be common to all of them?
Our findings show that all of them have a clear definition of their Vision regarding the company and that they also dedicate many of their energies, resources and time to transmitting this vision to others in what we have to call the path to the organizational mission.
If we had to distinguish between a vision and a mission in a simple and practical way, we would say that the vision has to do with how we perceive the Client while the mission has more to do with what our own personnel (human resources) must do for and for the Client (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: "Businessmen's Day"; year 2003).
Therefore something common to entrepreneurs has to do with the fact that you can imagine the existence of something that does not exist and is capable of giving it life as a result of communicating it to others who have to commit their wills in achieving the business objective..
This ability to imagine something that exists from nothing or from less than nothing is common to entrepreneurs, even for those found in the organizational arrangements located at numbers 1 and 2.
It is not simply a matter of buying something cheap and then selling it, or buying a gift to sell it cheaply; it's about doing something from nothing itself. We will see how those entrepreneurs who are located in the organizational arrangements mentioned under options 5 (Companies such as Financial Businesses), 6 (Bank Entities), 7 (Financial Businesses), and 8 (Financial Group) are distinguished because they they do tend to buy what exists and then market it at a more expensive price.
Entrepreneurship is not your main challenge but rather the fact of obtaining a monetary return on the difference between buying a business and selling it.
They actually do what the bankers have done very well for many years, getting extra money on top of what exists, which is sometimes known as "interest."
Those who have become adept at the "arts of negotiation" have now learned - in the 21st century - that what the art of negotiating really involves does not necessarily have to do with positions (or values): what counts is the interest.
Many SME entrepreneurs with less than 10 people and even more than 10 people - that is, within organizational arrangements 2 and 3, have learned expensively that having privileged positions over interests in their company has been too expensive.
Instead, financiers who have positioned themselves in a different organizational arrangement where interest is privileged, find themselves yielding important and significant benefits as shown in the movie "Pretty woman" where the character characterized by Richard Gere as financier lives lavishly in a When asked by a loving prostitute of his about "What do you really do to live (so well)", he is puzzled by the fact that many of his actions were not directed towards creation but rather towards the destruction of companies, which was usually accompanied by massive layoffs of personnel.
And as Jean Louis Servan Schreiber (already quoted) well points out, the ability to imagine must be accompanied by the ability to simplify since it is the way in which the entrepreneur's strategies can be transformed into tactics and finally be made explicit by staff through daily practices and procedures.
The successful entrepreneur, and this is common for organizational arrangements ranging from number 1 and up to 8 inclusive, "must be able to routinize everything that is possible to be routinized" (Eric Gaynor Butterfield: "Businessmen's Day" year 2003). There is an incorrect belief that the entrepreneur - entrepreneur and his company are permanent acts of creation, which is not true at all.
Sometimes you want to associate your role with that of the artists assuming that the actor - theatrical, for example - is a customary creator.
The same is the opinion of the common people regarding the violinists of a philharmonic orchestra.
What these people perhaps have not repaired is that the successful theater actor - that is, the one who stays on the billboard for a long time - is the one who repeats his role daily and plays the same dialogues perfectly every night, and many times more than once a day.
The same happens with the expert violinist who, after having received a standing ovation of more than three minutes in duration, returns to his work at 8 am the next day for his new "rehearsal".
Jean Louis puts it this way: "As the company is the world of the relative, daily simplification is imposed so that priorities are highlighted, since it is impossible to be available to everyone at the same time. Karl Weick, in "Social Psychology of Organizations" (1968) states the need for companies to focus on unequivocally dealing with many of their processes and procedures, since otherwise efficiency levels must surely be lower.
And we also do it both consciously and unconsciously, all people; we all simplify our lives and operate - although many times we neither want nor believe it - in an automatic way.
Before reaching noon, we have carried out hundreds of actions and the vast majority of them have been automatic, where the decision-making process has been largely skipped.
People do not meditate when they get up if they have to shower before or after dressing; they do this automatically before putting on their clothes. Well the same happens within the life of organizations, as well as within the life of groups and work teams.
The advantage that large organizations have over the entrepreneur - entrepreneur is that the negative results drive shareholders and also the stake-holders involved to "incorporate someone who has the vision from outside", that is, consultants.
The entrepreneur - entrepreneur does not always have these signs in sight.
Definition
According to Jean Louis Servan Schreiber ("The trade of the businessman"; Emecé - 1990) the businessman "is the second oldest trade in the world - he runs a human system with a productive purpose - he defines problems, he indicates to others what they have to do and they are well paid. Many are those who aspire to it, only some risk doing it and a few succeed.
Francois Michelin: "You are an entrepreneur from the moment you do not accept being an employee."
Another way to define the businessman (Jean Louis): "someone who does not have a boss."
The entrepreneur is characterized by his spirit of adventure where freedom plays a preponderant role. And while he moves away from the benefit that he grants exclusively as a result of having made use of money, that is to say, the financial profit alone, the businessman is rather a privateer and not a pirate. Jean Louis puts it this way: “Every true businessman has something about Jean Bart, who was a privateer but not a pirate. In front of his crew without whom he can do nothing, he is the one who chooses the route, sets the course and prepares the blows.
After God, you can give free rein to your desire for freedom ”.
How Entrepreneurs Emerge
If the "Entrepreneur" is one of the most concrete manifestations of success, freedom, power, and creation, then
Why is it that so few of those who dream of being so actually try, and really so few of those who try to do so? Jean Louis (already quoted) highlights that with businessmen "the same thing happens with actors or writers: there are much more people who aspire to be so than those who actually possess the competence and above all the required temperament."
Some think that what primarily influences genes is the case of Bernard Tapie, who was convinced that one is born with the genes of success, while others suggest that it is the medium that predisposes them.
A question that naturally arises is: why do so many people want to embrace the political career? Why do so many workers strive to be union delegates and representatives?
Why do so many people dedicate so much energy to become "employees" of national, provincial and municipal governments? Why are so many people in the business world interested in being "state contractors"?
Why do so many people want to join multinational corporations? And finally, why are so few people who choose to support themselves and of these - a few - even dare to "create work for others", that is, to be entrepreneurs?
Statistical data, reports from different national and international entities, and also facts and evidence show that the development of entrepreneurs is the main cause of development in countries and communities.
And it is also known that the deterioration in number and quality of entrepreneurs must distinguish that community and country for its opposite facet: underdevelopment.
As Jean Louis (already quoted) affirms, "the club formed by the business race remains relatively intimate", citing that in France there were only "725,000 people who employ at least one other against 18 million employees".
Many people without a Diploma are able to start a repair company, paint shop, home parts business, and many other activities unlike many Diplomas whose rush to receive the Diploma is perceived "as the opportunity to access a good first job "
And one aspect to keep in mind is that it can usually be easier to get to the top than to stay up there in time. Not all 25-year-old entrepreneurs must continue to be so at 65 years of age.
The generating entrepreneur (EG) - or innovative entrepreneur in the version of Joseph Schumpeter - from the beginning must have the ambition of wanting to become one and for this he does not hesitate “to one day open a business with his economies and with a mortgage on his apartment".
The businessman emerges from his mimicry with reality and when he is not only capable of adapting to it, then he dedicates himself to forming it.
Everything related to the businessman and the entrepreneur is totally realistic to such an extent that there are practically no business schools.
The concepts that are usually the subject of discussion in the best business schools can be used by government officials and also by corporate managers of multinationals, but the entrepreneur - or the entrepreneur for becoming - will soon move away from them and be known as a "drop out".
Such is the case of Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and many others who could not even remain so alone to receive the award of a Diploma.
The entrepreneur to start doing something to shape what "does not exist" must know how to accept all the oppositions in the case from the very beginning of one of their ideas and must also have to accept that more than one unbeliever, many times in the form of his own wife, tell him after you have achieved success:
"I told you it was a good project." Living with these two contrary manifestations in two different moments of the "company" project is something with which the businessman and the entrepreneur can get to live without being startled.
Jean Louis highlights that “the businessman who has just launched his own company is as excited as a mother holding her newborn baby against her body.
The creature moves, screams, but will it survive? Even if you think you have foreseen everything in advance, prepared the stages, arranged the financing, carefully produced it, one is always amazed to find that, ultimately, it is going!
Change
We have left this aspect for the end but it is not the least important. Conversely.
We are trying to close the circle between our first observations and some tentative conclusions as a consequence of multiple experiences, field work and observable facts.
We have already said that one of the natural problems so far to identify what distinguishes the successful entrepreneur - entrepreneur from those that are not, has been the topic that has most settled in the literature regardless of the source of origin, be it a consultant, an academic or professor, a researcher, or a practitioner. The influence of psychology - and particularly of incipient industrial psychology - seems to have had a lot to do with this.
We have not found a theory of the entrepreneur - entrepreneur because the subject is extremely complex and the simple model of identifying what qualities, attributes, characteristics, preferences and orientations of a person should lead him or not to be an entrepreneur, is too simple and it has not worked.
The “linear model” adopted where it is assumed that the entrepreneur - entrepreneur grows over time as a result of a particular variable (such as the size of the organization, amount of company profits, importance of the entity) does not seem valid enough to us and that is the main reason why those factors that are linked to successful entrepreneurship are not identified.
This linear model is the one that has been adopted in the educational system where it is assumed as a hypothesis that a greater and better training is one that is made up of doctors over masters or graduates, and in turn these are older and better than those who have They completed secondary school as high school graduates or commercial experts, and finally the latter are above those who only completed their primary studies.
We suggest that this path or process is not valid in the search for the conditions that lead us to entrepreneurship, to the development of the entrepreneur.
Furthermore, under our proposal that "it is not linear" or "cumulative" - or incremental - each entrepreneur - entrepreneur selects an organizational typology that is to prevail in the way that it has defined to operate.
And the fact of moving from one organizational arrangement to another does not mean that we see ourselves from a lower stage to a higher one.
We do not suppose that the SME entrepreneur who has a company with less than 10 people has as a way to his development to have a company of more than 10 people and even later to become a company beyond the national borders within which he originally started Your activities.
Rather, on the contrary. Precisely this linear vision when projecting is often the same cause of the failure of many entrepreneurs.
By having this linear vision and cumulative perspective, we are clouded by the opportunities to learn about the processes that lead to the development of the entrepreneur - entrepreneur.
This perspective that is born and strengthened in educators and the educational process assumes that people have a "career" and hence the idea of "career development".
But business and entrepreneurs do not have a "career" of this type; its ups and downs are dramatic and just as it reaches the highest peaks it also has to coexist at times within the greatest chasms.
Under our proposal, we are also able to identify a vital aspect that is linked to the entrepreneur - entrepreneur.
As the path is neither linear nor does it take place in an incremental or cumulative process, we now know that a key variable is represented by the “breaks”.
In these breaks that are mainly a consequence of the organizational arrangement that the entrepreneur - entrepreneur selects, is the key to their success (or subsequent failure) over time.
These breaks must show us that it is not a matter of adding some particular competences, abilities, preferences or orientations when the entrepreneur - entrepreneur tries to move from one type of organizational arrangement to another. Possibly one of the hardest jobs has to do with - instead of learning - "unlearning" many conceptions and practices that he had incorporated within himself. Already Kurt Lewin (1947) has warned us that perhaps it is more beneficial to discourage forces against change than to continue to vainly push forces for change.
