The Employer Refresher Course

Viewpoint

Harpal Singh Sokhi

Let me ask you a question first. Would you agree if I compare life with a book? I am sure you will. For all of us on earth, pages turn every day and it is up to us how much we read, absorb, learn, implement and foremost, grow. The best learning ground in the world would be to have your own business. There are ways one can earn money (legally!): taking up a job, owning a business and investing in some good assets are a few of them. Those working for someone would agree that growth potential is limited as there is a lid at the top. Investments are for those with spare money and ability to understand the investments market. That leaves us with just one option - owning business.

With the risk of stating the obvious, I would say that all organisations aim for developing into profit centres! Well, the idea of owning a business is not only to increase the output from the input but also to provide employment. The employer should have the ability to tap the potential of the organisation and this is where entrepreneurial thinking plays a ‘big’ role. To achieve this every individual or rather every employee needs to act like a ‘manager’.
Management being a vast topic it is best not to digress. The need of the hour is more than being just a manager: the individual has to act as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is also a vast topic. This topic would be dealt with in detail later but first we will discuss on altering the ‘employee’ thinking.

How to be an entrepreneur is not normally passed across. Opinions may vary but the fact is that organisations normally mould the staff only as an employee. To put it simply and humbly, the man should first get out of the shell of an employee and then begin to think like an entrepreneur and only then will profit centres would serve the purpose.

The situation being delicate, this transformation will take time as also high levels of motivation and an extremely attractive package for performance. But what’s important is finding new ground for employer-employee relationship where the worthy gets his/her due. The forthcoming columns would discuss in detail on the fundamentals of ‘Entrepreneurial Thinking’ and ‘Employee Thinking’ which would be the first step in dealing with business organisations and their growth potential.

(The author is associated with Khana Khazana India Pvt Ltd and can be contacted at harpal@indiancookery.com)