Hello, Entrepreneurship is more like a fad now, it’s so everywhere that even some companies add it to job skills. The irony is that same company will question your side hustle. That’s a topic for another day.
I admire enterprising fellows but please don’t be lost in the maze of entrepreneurship and forget what is very important. Always begin with the end in mind as advised by Stephen Covey.
If you have not read ‘Built to last ‘ as an entrepreneur, you need to start all over. Just joking.
The foundation for me is culture. Every organization no matter your size should have organizational Culture, I hear several entrepreneurs talk so much about structure, yes, great structure is a fantastic part of the equation and if done excellently well you are sure to go to sleep whenever with your two eyes closed and with the assurance that everything is in good hands. One of the key decisions you’ll make when starting a business is its structure. Your choice of structure will depend on the size and type of business, your personal circumstances and how you plan to grow the business. You can change your business structure as your business grows or your circumstances change.
But why is culture very important and the bedrock of the entire process; According to Michael D. Watkins, in an article in HBR, “Organizational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organization from within.”
You may wish to read Building a better company culture in 5 steps here.
He further explained that Culture is a process of “sense-making” in organizations. Sense-making has been defined as “a collaborative process of creating shared awareness and understanding out of different individuals’ perspectives and varied interests.” Note that this moves the definition of culture beyond patterns of behavior into the realm of jointly-held beliefs and interpretations about “what is.” It says that a crucial purpose of culture is to help orient its members to “reality” in ways that provide a basis for alignment of purpose and shared action.
Organizational culture includes an organization’s expectations, experiences, philosophy, as well as the values that guide member behavior, and is expressed in member self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. Culture is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and are considered valid (The Business Dictionary)
There are several definitions as to what organizational culture really stands for, but one thing I know is that successful companies that have stood the test of time were majorly those who have and live their culture.
