Man Gurung
Coach, Consultant and Entrepreneur
The history of the trading was few century ago and have been evolving since. We used to heard the merchant of Venice that how business used to do in the Venice, Italy. However, Entrepreneur is the French word that I learnt that it wasn’t quietly used and accepted in the UK in few decades ago. Many people are questioning or interpreting entrepreneurship with suspicion and its prospect. I have known that business [entrepreneurship] has not been taken in good faith as it should be in some religions like Christianity and Hinduism. Nevertheless, these days, businesses have been taken as the stimulator of major economic activities in a country. There is a three way relationship between businesses, customers and the government. In order to give back to societies, business organisations have taken the responsibility of social commitment on board as part of their regular business practices.
However, now it is more common and widely accepted in the most advanced countries and around the world.
Entrepreneur is a French word that is now widely used by business people who provide services or products. According to Wikipedia, “Entrepreneurship is the process of starting a business or an organization. An entrepreneur develops a business model, acquires the human and other necessary resources, and is fully responsible for its success or failure”. However, a successful business man in USA, Anik Singal doen’t agree with it and claim it is wrong definition. According to him , a successful Entrepreneurship is not risk taker, but risk minimizer.
Why business or entrepreneurship is important? Economic activities are important for the development of the human resources and to sustain for the privatisation as the government plays a role of facilitator in the free market economy that has been advocated by the popular economist Adam Smith.He believes that without government intervention, people will create more wealth. Hence, to improve the livelihood business plays a greater role
Relationship
Customer
- Quality Product or
- Services: Customer Services, Delivery etc
Business
- Shareholder: Profit
- Employee: Job Security, Pay, Holiday, Pension, Flexibility
- Social Responsibility:
Donation by the company to Charity or Environment friendly or Fair Trade etc
Government
- Tax & Employment
Business organisations’ interest is obviously to make profit and its aim is to run it sustainably. In business organisations, they have vested groups of shares holders, promoters, employees, suppliers and trade organisations. Most of the shares holders want maximum profit whilst employees want their salaries, pensions, overtimes, holidays and working flexibilities in the jobs they do as well as expecting their employer to look after their health and safety and welfare. In this modern age of the 21st century, some large successful organisations contribute and commit themselves in helping to solve social problems or to be a part of the solution. They sometimes donate to a charity or social organisation or self-implement eco-friendly systems in their value chain. For example, Waitrose, ASD and Sainsbury are donating some funds to charities. Waitrose has published that they only sell fish from sustainable resources. These large and successful business organisations that take in customer’s money also invest in good causes.
How to sustain business? Customer plays a greater role in the business. Customers want products or services that are value for their money. If goods are of value for their money, customers will be happy to purchase the product or service. Their expectations are stimulated by businesses’ communication channel of advertising, word of mouth recommendation etc. If a product or service does not meet customers’ expectations, they are less likely to buy it. They will be less interested in buying goods from such companies especially if they have had a bad experience with them. Without customers, businesses cannot thrive and that’s why many go by the motto ‘Customer is always right’ and give priority and care to rectify customers’ complaints to retain them. When customers lose interest in a company or desert them for other companies, it is highly unlikely that particular business will survive in the long run. Customers generally pay more for quality goods and services. For example, customers are willing to pay more for Apple products such as Ipod, Iphone & Ipad as it is their preferred product choice. Innovative designs also attract higher prices depending on their design, processing speed, weight and host of other attractive functions like being able to read their email, read E-books, see movies and listen to music etc.
Similarly, there is different business mode of the business organisation. Amazon has launched an online bookstore and has also produced its own e-book reading tablet called Kindle. It is a successful company after being established about ten years ago. Customers purchase books based on their reviews and customer satisfaction scores. To that end, sellers need to have good faith on customers to be a highly trusted supplier. The Kindle has revolutionised reading books which can be purchased on line and be read within a few minutes of purchasing it. Therefore, Amazon is market leader in selling e-books online. However, amazon does not sell high end product as apple does but rather sells cheaper price goods. Low cost suppliers are the likes of Poundland, Ryan Air and Easy Jet. Low cost airlines sell low fare air tickets for short distance journeys. Typical example of low fare cost is from London Gatwick to destinations in Europe (France, Spain etc) which can sometimes cheaper than train tickets but the destination airports tend to normally be outside town and city areas. However, these companies are doing well and are successful business companies.
To position of the business organisation, Michael Porter, Harvard Professor and renowned strategist think tank, said that both companies which operate either low cost or higher values or differentiated product or services-targeting for specific group or nationalities etc will be successful. However, competing in the same strategy of the similar product will be counterproductive to both the industries.
Another stakeholder of entrepreneurship is the Government that collects tax from businesses and employees. Taxes collected from employees are invested in hospitals and educations etc. In this respect, the Government plays as a facilitator in the UK business which generally falls below top 10 of doing easy in the business index. The Government supports businesses by teaming up with charities for skill development, networking and funding etc. It would be an advantage if business owners search for facilitators in your local area.
In conclusion, businesses are widely accepted by most of religions and countries. For example, Past president Bill Clinton and former prime minister Tony Blair etc charge for the speech per hour more than couple of hundred thousand pound of an hour or so. There are also many businesses owned by Jews and Muslims from banks to transport companies. These represent positive business organisation awareness and have relationship with economic activities and wider business organisations. Social Business Model or the business which is solve the social problem with ethically and treating fairly in its value chain i.e. from supplier to staffs to share holder, is important in the society. There will be own responsibilities and interest of Business organisation, Customers ie. Society and Government to make the economy vibrant. As our ‘small pond’ i.e hundred thousand of Nepalese, where the situation of our community, where mostly in the army, is now accepted entrepreneurship and growing. The resiliency, hardwork ,honesty and timing , trait of Gurkha, can be used and some of them are successful in business. To minimize risk, one should take advice, learn, take coaching etc to build up entrepreneurship trait, in which there isn’t short cut.
Man Gurung
Coach, Consultant and Entrepreneur
MBA & MA Intl Human Resource Management
Everest Business Accelerator Ltd
Mousetail Web Services Ltd
Aldershot, UK.
