One of the things I have gradually realised in business is that building a business is not only about investing money, buying machinery or finding a market. It is equally about building people who can take responsibility.
And I believe it applies equally to every public and private organisation where people work towards a common objective.
In the early years of a business, an entrepreneur tends to be involved in almost everything. I have also experienced this. You want to know what is happening on the floor, whether production is running properly, whether the material has arrived, what the customer is saying, why a machine has stopped and whether today’s dispatch has gone out well. At this stage, doing everything yourself may seem necessary.
But as the business grows, you begin to understand that you cannot remain involved in every small decision if you want to do it in a big way.
Here begins the real challenge. People who are used to wait for instructions in everything they do are actually the weakness of that institution or organisation.
A machine develops a minor problem, and the person responsible for maintenance waits for the supervisor. The supervisor waits for the manager. The manager may be busy somewhere else. Meanwhile, the machine remains stopped.
Similarly, a distributor raises a routine complaint. The salesperson understands the issue, but instead of taking it forward within reasonable limits, he says, “I will ask the management.”
A material is running short. Someone notices it, but instead of taking action through the established process, he waits for somebody senior to tell him what to do.
These may appear to be small things. But when such situations happen repeatedly, they affect the entire organisation.
I have realised that the real loss is not only the few minutes or hours lost. The bigger loss is that people stop developing the habit of thinking for themselves. And I also ask myself: who created this habit? It is easy for a businessman to say, “My employees should try to avoid it. We can’t be everywhere while it becomes important when business expands”.
I cannot be in the production area, the office, the market, the stores, the maintenance section and the dispatch area at the same time. Even if I work all day, there will always be things happening when I am not there. Therefore, the real question is not whether I can personally control everything. The real question is “Can the organisation function properly when I am not standing there?” That, for me, is an important measure of whether we have actually built a business or merely created a job for ourselves. People must grow with the business.
A person who joins as a worker should have the opportunity to learn. A person who becomes a supervisor should learn to manage people and situations. A manager should learn to build systems and develop the people below him. And eventually, each person should be able to handle a reasonable area of responsibility independently. When this happens, the organisation becomes stronger from within.
Leadership cannot belong to one person. I believe that leadership should not be limited to the owner or the top management. Leadership can be seen on the factory floor as well. It is the maintenance person who notices a problem before a breakdown. It is the quality person who refuses to ignore a small deviation. It is the supervisor who resolves a manpower issue instead of simply reporting it. It is the salesperson who understands why a customer is unhappy and tries to retain the relationship. These people may not have the word “manager” written against their names, but they are showing leadership through responsibility.
I believe that an entrepreneur’s job is not always to give instructions. The real job is to create a system where fewer instructions are needed. When people get clear responsibilities and reasonable authority, it gives them confidence to do their job well. At the same time, employees need to be held accountable for their results so that they start looking at the organisation as something they are contributing to rather than simply a place they come to work.
That is the culture we need to have in our organisations, be it a smaller one or a bigger one. Because ultimately, a business cannot grow if every decision has to come from the boss. A business grows when people at every level understand their responsibility, have the confidence to act, and feel that the success of the organisation is also, in some small way, their own success.
(The Author is Managing Director, Zum Zum Food Products. E-mail: [email protected])
