From Vision to Visionary

Being an entrepreneur today in any part of the world is synonymous with a pioneering spirit, the ability to take risks and being resilient in the face of all obstacles. On the face of it all these qualities appear to be inherent and intrinsic to an individual. Something that one has to be born with. Much like the talent we associate with artists and auteurs that lead to creation of immortal art. Do we take it then that becoming an entrepreneur is a matter of chance? That one in a million is imbued with certain mysterious talents that enable the individual to venture and succeed in enterprise. That there is an esoteric element to becoming a successful business leader that has less to do with numbers and outcomes and unfolds more as a matter of chance that genetic makeup determines. Or do we believe in the gurus who tell us there are there certain traits and competencies that an individual can hone over a period of time to venture into business and make a success of it.

Recent research in this domain appears to indicate that being an entrepreneur is as much a matter of consciously investing in a set of leadership, managerial and relationship strengths as it is about possessing a certain resoluteness of character that enables an individual to turn increasingly determined in the face of resistance. Whether an entrepreneur succeeds or fails can be attributed to how an individual deploys these intrinsic capabilities as well as putting in the requisite efforts to hone certain skills and competencies. Let us start with the leadership strengths.

Dream Power
Most entrepreneurs begin with a dream. When they start vesting energy to these dreams, a vision starts to emerge that has the ability to attract others. The success of a new organization seems to hinge many a times on how potent and viable this vision appears to be. Whether it is something that others apart from the person who dreamt of it in the first place can find meaning and purpose in. Only if the vision is powerful enough to find a set of missionaries who are as devoted to realizing it as the individual who nurtured and fostered it, is the success of the enterprise guaranteed.

It may be interesting to note here that many a times the vision that is being articulated by the pioneer may not seem obviously linked to the business outcome of the new enterprise. If the success stories of new organizations have to be shared in the Indian context, Infosys should rank at the top of the list. The initial vision that was held by the promoters of the organization had more to do with creation of wealth for all its stake holders. The idea appealed to the first set of stakeholders who came on board. Today, the success that the organization has achieved can very well be attributed to the power of this vision.

So is vision something that an individual is born with or is it a competency that can be cultivated over a period of time as a necessary corollary to the entrepreneurial zeal an individual might possess. This is a question that belongs squarely in the realm of psychology and there are no clear answers. The most we can do is to surmise that even if being a visionary is a matter of nature, clearly this is a quality that needs to be carefully nurtured. Vision needs to be backed by effective communication. The entrepreneur must have the ability to paint word pictures of a dream that others can relate to as well as respect as something that can be achieved, keeping the context and the ground realities in mind. An entrepreneur with a vision needs to seek as many opportunities and forum to articulate this dream to others so that it can be backed by an enthusiastic group of supporters.

The X Factor: Idea
The other powerful theme that appears to run through successful enterprises and entrepreneurs in the times we live in is undoubtedly the one great concept or idea around which a successful establishment is structured. The X factor that over a period of time gets translated into the business or the revenue model ensuring the prosperity as well as the longetivity of an organization. This is a quality that appears to be more accessible. The mind set definitely counts. An individual has to have the capacity to see linkages between disparate strands to be considered conceptual and innovative. It is far more difficult to engage in "out of box" thinking than what the experts would have us believe.

For a good idea or concept to translate into a successful innovation, it needs to be backed by learning and research. Being "Conceptual" therefore appears to be a trait that is as much an outcome of careful and deliberate nurture.

The innovative organization of our times that has sent all of us scrambling to it for entrepreneurial lessons is Google. The innovations it brought about in technology made it the No.1 Search engine. However a revenue model did not emerge until the company started auctioning advertisements that appear along with the Search results. Most of the revenue the organization generates comes out of advertising. Today Google is a company that has a market capitalization of over 100 billion. Their innovative auction methodology was pioneered by Eric Veach, team leader of the project. The success of the model is attributed to the mathematical rigor he brought to it even though he earned his doctorate in computer graphics and not in mathematics. Clearly the germ of the idea needed the backing of research as well as hard work that the team and its leader was more than willing to invest.

Strategic Advantage
The Strategies an organization adopts to succeed in the external environment is another critical factor that determines the viability of the organization in the short as well as long term. So how does Strategic Thinking differ from Strategic Planning? Can the new entrepreneur learn to do both? The latter appears to lend itself more readily to a task format.