Bridging The Gap Between Executives And Entrepreneurs
Small Business Q & A With Tim Knox
By Tim Knox
Question: I am an executive with a large company. I’ve been considering starting a business of my own for awhile, but I’m not really sure I’m entrepreneur material. I have the education and experience to manage large groups of people. I’m just wondering if that qualifies me to actually start and run my own business--Name withheld by request
Answer: You’re wise to think twice before quitting your day job. It has been my experience that while most corporate execs are well-qualified to manage and build corporate organizations, they find actually starting a business of their own and leading entrepreneurial organizations not so easy to do.
The reason is there is a broad gap between executive and entrepreneurial thinking. The typical executive is not qualified to lead entrepreneurial organizations because they do not have the skills or the mindset to do so. You can not lead entrepreneurial organizations if you have never had the benefit of being an entrepreneur yourself.
And therein lies the rub: since most executives have never been entrepreneurs, they do not know how to inject entrepreneurial thinking into their ranks. They do not know how to think and react like entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial paradigm is foreign to most execs. It is not a skill set, it is a mind set. It’s my humble opinion that there is a lack of entrepreneurial leadership in corporate America. That’s one reason smaller, more entrepreneurial companies often win contracts and steal market share from their larger brethren.
We’ve all got the same building blocks, we executives and entrepreneurs. The difference is what we do with them.
When it comes to the nuts and bolts of running a company, executives are more effective than many entrepreneurs simply because running a company is what they are trained to do. That’s why the smart entrepreneurs hire the best executives to help run their companies
It’s all about that dreaded word: mindset. It’s all about being wired in by the B-schools and the internet boom and the microwave society that demands business innovate and deliver or die.
Mindset: take the executive brain and inject a little entrepreneurial thinking.
Entrepreneurs and executives play off totally different sheets of music. Entrepreneurs lead. Executives manage. That is what they have been trained to do and they do it very well. This is why most successful entrepreneurs hire well-educated executives to manage their companies while they retain the function of visionary.
Alternatively, entrepreneurs lead. They lead by vision, by their actions, and by the example they set. It is leading by doing versus leading by being.
Executives are only concerned with their bubble on the organization chart and interface only with those in the bubbles immediately below their own.
Executives focus on running companies. Entrepreneurs focus on growing companies.
Executives think like high level employees. Entrepreneurs think like owners.
Executives operate with a tether. They know they can be reeled back in if something runs foul. But that tether is also a tie that binds them to a corporate way of thinking that is not innovative or entrepreneurial.
They do their jobs knowing that they have a safety net. Unlike entrepreneurs who walk the high wire without a net, who jump in the water and know that it’s sink or swim, execs always have a fall back position.
There are no sink or swim issues at large corporations. People come into meetings wearing mental flippers and inner tubes. There is a support net. It’s like walking a high wire that’s only a foot off the ground. There is no risk, therefore no urgency for innovation.
“If we fail so what?” is the thinking in large organizations. We will still have our jobs and our paychecks and our pensions. There is no sink or swim. It’s accepted to ‘float.’
Executives are trained to manage in a compartmentalized hierarchy. Executives manage one level below. Entrepreneurs manage from the top to the bottom.
Executives believe innovation is driven by skill set. Entrepreneurs know innovation is driven by mind set. Not only innovation, but everything.
Executives see pattern interrupts as potential threats. Entrepreneurs see pattern interrupts as potential opportunities.
Executives concentrate on their own career path. Entrepreneurs concentrate on opening new paths to innovation. Executives have resumes. Entrepreneurs have track records.
Executives delegate the work. Entrepreneurs do the work. Entrepreneurs start and finish. They have the vision, they create the game plan, they pick the team, they put the plan into action. They do the work.
Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I am not saying that we should take all our executives and ship them off to reprogramming camps run by sadistic entrepreneurs. Nor am I saying that we should call all our executives into a room for a big intervention. I am not saying that we should take big sticks and beat the entre-manure out of them (couldn’t resist. Sorry).
I am simply saying that the answer is actually very simple: we just need to get our executives thinking like entrepreneurs.
Imagine what would happen if we took the world’s top business executives and gave them a giant shot of innovation. Imagine if we took the most brilliant business minds on the planet and taught them to think like entrepreneurs.
So if you take the nuts and bolts skills of the executive and toss that in a blender with the innovative spirit of the entrepreneur, what do you get?
Beats me, but it would start and run one helluva company.
Here's to your success!
Tim Knox is an entrepreneur, author, humorist, and speaker. Visit www.timknox.com for more information.
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