Abstract
In his interactions with small business owners, author Shiladitya (Shil) Niyogi noticed that all of them faced several problems at the outset. These problems included perpetual issues with goal clarity, misguided perspectives (short-term versus long-term thinking), limited market understanding in the areas of new technologies and lines of business, hankering after fame without any significant innovations, bad budget planning, and exhibiting a tendency to take impulsive or emotional decisions. This led to the small business owners being ‘undistinguished’ in the business sphere, and the author thus chose to label them Undistinguished Entrepreneurs (UEs). The book focuses on the areas in which the employees of such firms need to focus in order to stop fighting fires which result from the UE’s attitudes and practices and has been written in a guide-like fashion.
The author has proposed the Procedure–Behaviour–Strategy (PBS) framework and has dealt with separate instances under each of these three sections. The section on procedure deals with ways to define, implement, and follow procedures within the firm. Once the procedures are in place, the focus can be placed on behavioural aspects such as establishment of a firm culture, goal alignment of employees, and effectiveness of the decision-making behaviour of the entrepreneur, outlined in the behaviour section. The section on strategy focuses on assessment of company goal, planning for the firm’s future, and positioning it to be a frontrunner in the industry. Accordingly, the book has 51 chapters under three sections, namely, Procedural Ways (18 chapters), Behavioural Ways (17 chapters), and Strategic Ways (16 chapters).
Procedural Ways
This section explains the implementation of controls within firms with existing resources and current conditions. The author has explained the five stages of development in which small businesses experience similar problems, quoting from a research study by the late Professor Neil Churchill. These stages are: existence stage (focused on obtaining new customers), survival stage (focused on balancing expenses and revenues), success stage (focused on firm growth), take-off stage (focused on further growth), and resource maturity stage (focused on consolidation and sustenance of the entrepreneurial spirit). The author notes that undistinguished entrepreneurial firms perpetually struggle in the existence and survival stages and rarely reach the success stage, in which the firm would start growing. A lack of formal systems and procedures could possibly be a reason, and managers could take the firm to the success and take-off stages by following procedures. The author also highlights the importance of what he calls the Sustenance Factor (SF), which is an important ingredient in small firms and the absence of which could turn it into a mediocre firm. He further states that the lessons on procedural ways could help in improving the SF of undistinguished entrepreneurial firms.
Chapters 1–7 discuss the procedural issues with regard to time management. The employee is encouraged to arrive early and maintain a schedule of work and keep the UE informed about it, thereby curtailing the creation of a negative work climate. Employees must also be proactive in defining expectations, roles, and priorities to the UE, and must be kept informed of what the UE expects of them. The micromanaging attitude of the UE is criticized, as it could act as a morale killer. This goes along with the finding of Daniel Goleman that pace-setting and coercive leaders impact work climate negatively and cause lower financial returns. Employees are encouraged to be proactive and speak up frequently in order to avoid eleventh-hour complications. The TACTIC scrub savers—never over talk, never get angry, never cry, never give too much information (TMI) and never get too close—are then explained to maintain a good working relationship with the UE.
Chapters 8–14 deal with procedural issues in office-related behaviours and relationships. Bonding with colleagues and particularly the UE through sports or social networks could remove professionalism from the relationship. Team building using positive feedback is discussed, in which the role of triangulation by the UE to gather information about employees has been emphasized. The author mentions Bruce Tuckman’s (1965) Forming–Storming–Norming–Performing approach with the observation that team building in small entrepreneurial ventures does not happen as naturally as it does in bigger corporations. Team development can be initiated using GUESSWORK—Goal-and-role review, Updating member skills, Empowerment of members, Setting expectations, Sympathy and empathy, Working together, Open communication, Remembering wins and Knowledge sharing. The UE must establish a communication protocol in the firm, and the employee must be assertive, positive, and precise in communication. In the context of personal favours done by the employee, the author warns that favour-granting can cause an asymmetric perception between doer and receiver, and highlights the issue of memory decay in which the UE could forget a favour done over a period of time.
Chapters 15–18 focus on organizational procedural issues. The reader is introduced to the concept of Quick Preoccupied Walk (QPW) for the employee to demonstrate his seriousness on a task. Unforeseen events can create roadblocks and can be handled by treating each task as a project and defining its scope, cost, quality, and resource requirements. Managers must streamline issue management by defining the project, measuring key steps, analysing data, and using process optimization and process control. Employee training and knowledge sharing among co-workers is crucial in an entrepreneurial environment. Managers would need to take the lead in this regard. However, not all ideas of the managers would be failure-proof and inundation of information would need to be avoided. The employee must put himself/herself in the UE’s shoes to better understand the difficulty in balancing the creative–emotive side and the practical–pragmatic side while running the firm, as this balance is required to make the firm financially sustainable.
Behavioural Ways
Once the UE has successfully designed the controls for the firm, the next step would be the establishment of a culture that would support effective and high-functioning behaviours. Chapters 19–22 discuss the issues related to employee and UE behaviours. Motivation plays a role in the manner in which employees would dress and carry themselves. They must also assert themselves when confronted with a choice of job which they may not be able to fulfil due to other professional commitments. They must therefore keep themselves away from what the author calls a Chronic Yes Man (CYM) syndrome. The author also suggests that the employee must consider one of the two negotiating approaches—distributive bargaining (win–lose) and integrative bargaining (win–win)—when they deal with the UE’s demands.
Employees need to take criticism from the UE in a constructive manner and see it as an opportunity to learn ‘the right way’ of doing things. The concept of anchoring and adjustment, proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, has been highlighted with the reasoning that the final result would be wrong if the initial anchoring value is wrong. As UEs have multiple ideas and have to handle multiple issues at the same time, they could be prone to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). To deal with a UE showing signs of ADD, employees are advised to follow the CARE steps—Curb perfectionism of the UE, Ask for structured thoughts, Request the UE for undivided focus on tasks, and Ease his/her anger and regulate his/her energy.
Chapters 23–26 outline the behavioural issues in work situations of the undistinguished entrepreneurial venture. The author touches upon the unorganized nature of the work of the UE while stating Peter Drucker’s theory that success depends not only on how well employees do their job but also on how well their supervisor does his/her job. A meeting between the UE and a strategic partner could help in increasing the productivity of the UE.
The critical issues of creativity and rationalization of emotions and critical communication are dealt with in chapters 27–31. UEs need to look at the practical viability of their creative ideas. Managers would have to provide the outsider’s view to control the UE’s flights of fancy by using relevant data and information. UEs are very emotional in taking decisions related to their organization, and employees must align their pragmatism with the UE’s emotions. The author discusses the role of discovery driven planning, in which assumptions made in the past are documented and learnt from when taking similar initiatives in future. Learning from mistakes and owning up to them would lead to a more successful relationship between employees and UEs. Critical feedback is necessary for the UE, and the author emphasizes that employees must fearlessly give well-researched and thoroughly thought alternatives for improvement in case of a disagreement with the UE.
UEs usually look for quick wins, but business sustainability depends on ethics. They should be made to understand the need to be ethical in creating goodwill for their firms. Ethical and political issues have been addressed in chapters 32–35. Building a strong firm culture develops practices and drives the creative goals of the organization. UEs tend to relate more to the short-term goals than the long-term goals. Hence, the managers of such firms should create a culture that nurtures creativity and intellectual growth.
Strategic Ways
Once the basic procedural controls are in place and the behavioural aspects of the employees have been integrated into a firm culture, the next step would be to bring and keep the firm ahead of its competitors. The third section of the book therefore delves into the strategies the firm should follow in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Organizational strategy issues have been addressed in chapters 36–40. The UE is advised to focus on improving profitability by using a well-defined organization structure, a strong organization culture, and well-developed organization metrics. The management/UE must create a workflow chart, document workflows, seek clarifications, and handle potential conflicts. UEs need to envisage long-term goals for the organization. This process must take into account diversification, integration, and be supported by adequate research on industry, competitors, and economic conditions keeping in mind the budgetary constraints. As innovation is the primary driver of all revenue streams, employees are encouraged to do research if they would like the UE to increase the bottom line and spread their wings. Vision-creative ideas, rather than artsy-creative or technology-creative ones, would benefit the undistinguished entrepreneurial firm. The author advocates the use of SITA—Synergy (agreeing with the UE), Information (giving information to UE while decision-making), Timing (sensing the mood of the UE), and Attitude (positive outlook to the UE’s feedback) in taking decisions for the firm. Decisions should be made in a timely fashion, and must be supported by data and facts, which the author refers to as ‘mixed scanning’.
Chapters 41–51 focus on employee issues. The UE must ensure that the candidates interviewed for senior positions are thoroughly validated against the rigorous demands of their job profiles before hiring them. The author also emphasizes the necessity of mentoring as not all UEs may be great mentors and may not be aware of the career expectations of their employees. Sustained success at the UE’s firm depends on how employees interact. The UE must approach issues logically, ensure alignment of employee and organizational goals, and never show resentment towards a subordinate. In order to keep up with the competition, the best practices of undistinguished entrepreneurial firms need to evolve with time. Adopting new practices to an employee-reward programme would motivate employees to accept the changes faster and allow the UE to resolve possible employee dissatisfaction. Employees must deliver beyond expectations and not misuse the firms’ resources in order to be trustworthy and increase their Employee Value (EV). The author asks the employees to make themselves indispensable by taking initiative, fixing problems and building trust, examining their goals, empathizing, looking good, and adapting themselves to changes. UEs must also realize that losing employees who have competitive knowledge and have patents would be detrimental for the performance of their firms. Finally, the author advises employees to consider quitting the firm only as a last resort. Employees must not burn bridges and keep themselves aware of the benefits which they are entitled to. Leaving the firm over a trivial issue will only reflect poorly on the employee that he/she is a quitter.
The three sections end with two caselets each, in which the reader is advised to implement the ideas discussed in the respective section. The author has drawn from interesting anecdotes and established management theories to highlight the various points that the book intends to make. An exhaustive list of references, including websites, is given at the end of the book to help readers clarify their doubts.
Observations on the Book
The author seems to have started off with the assumption that UEs would usually be dictatorial, stubborn, and resistant to change. The basis for this assumption is not clear. The book title gives the reader an impression that the book would discuss the differences between successful and unsuccessful small businesses and how small businesses can utilize their employees in a right way to grow. However, the book is majorly focused on the role of the employee/manager in altering the perspective of the UE and in aligning the organization towards its growth trajectory. The thrust in the title is on entrepreneurs but the thrust in the text is on the employees/managers. The responsibilities of generating, evaluating, and implementing ideas in the organization seem to have been shifted from the shoulders of the entrepreneurs to the shoulders of the managers, thereby limiting the role of the entrepreneurs to investment and visionary thinking only.
Drawing from several discussions in the book, we were made to believe that the gap between the UEs and their ducks (as the title calls the employees/managers of undistinguished entrepreneurial firms) is diminishing. This raises the question of whether the responsibility of keeping the businesses organized lie with the entrepreneur, the manager, or the employee. If managers were enterprising, then what stops these managers from becoming entrepreneurs themselves?
The book enlists prescriptions for employees/managers to follow while they work for UEs using innovative step-wise frameworks described through mnemonics. In the first place, this list is too long. Second, adherence to the prescribed behaviours may not always be possible. Finally, the explanations given to support these prescribed behaviours is very frugal. In chapter 19, the correlation between a sense of dressing and knowledge of the job being stated as an important ingredient of professionalism may not be fully correct. Chapter 22 discusses the ADD susceptibility of UEs, but it is again not clear how a manager would be able to regulate the actions of the UE in such situations. While managers are asked to set up tracking systems in chapter 23, how this would alter the attitude of urgency on the part of the UE is difficult to understand. In chapters 33 and 34, the logic of managers being asked to develop the culture of the organization while stating that the ethics in the organization would derive from the ethical behaviour of the UE sounds paradoxical.
The claim in chapter 44 that a rewards programme would motivate an employee to adopt the new practices in the firm faster is also not fully explained. Demotivation of the employee could ocur due to several other reasons such as the nature of job, organization climate, peers, and his/her immediate supervisor. Given the hard-nosed image of the UE which has been projected throughout the book, how the UE would listen to the advice of an employee/manager cautioning him about his personal expenditures in a quest to create a fiscal control in organization is not clear. While the author has done a reasonable job to support the various issues under the three categories which have been dealt with in the book by using the theories and quotations of some well-known management theorists, he fails to integrate the issues into a conclusive model which could be used to address specific issues faced by UEs.
It is debatable whether the author intended to provide a relevant theoretical contribution to help address specific issues which would be faced by UEs. The prescriptive nature of the book gives the reader the impression that the author intends to position the book as a one-stop shop for solutions to the problems faced by UEs, but the author fails to explain how the issues dealt with in the book would not be faced by small businesses started by entrepreneurs which could be in the success or take-off stages.
Conclusion
The recent growth of small business enterprises and the increase in the opportunities which they provide for employment make the discussions in the book very relevant in the present times. The book is full of decision-making situations in an organization which makes for interesting reading, and is lucidly written which gives the reader the ease of understanding. However, the arguments made to establish a theory relevant to UEs raises a number of new questions. Readers are left wondering whether the credit for the success of any entrepreneur should lie with the managers or employees of his/her firm. Is the role of the managers to assist UEs or replace them? To conclude, the book gave us an impression that it attempted to lay the mantra for UEs to move their firms from an undistinguished state to a distinguished one. However, we note that it seems to be better to leave it to employees or managers to steer the firm to become and remain successful!