The Hindu Business Line : What does your company do?

A file picture of an entrepreneur specialising in handmade paper and paper products, at a buyer-seller meet. How well an entrepreneur runs a business depends on whether he or she knows the chosen line of business.

K. Srikrishna

Whenever I travel within India, particularly by train, and strike up a conversation with a fellow traveller, a question that often comes up is: “What do you do?” My wife chimes in that the question she gets is: “What’s your husband?” She’s still mulling the answer to that one!

Over the years, I have struggled with this question, answering variously as “I am an engineer,” “I run my own business” or “I do marketing” even when I was doing all of the above. A more truthful answer which, however, wasn’t received too well was, “I am the gofer ; I do whatever needs to be done to keep the business running.”

This runs the gamut from getting an engineer a takeaway dinner while he’s wrestling with an intransigent product, to persuading a customs official to clear your goods on a Saturday morning, to helping a customer pack and ship his units! Regardless of what it is your business does, this will not change. However, how well you do it certainly depends on whether you know and choose the business you want to be in!

In talking to a variety of entrepreneurs, I find that they have commonly followed one of two paths. The first kind got tired of working for someone else and wanted to be their own boss — the decision to strike out on their own came first and then they tried to figure out what it is that they should do. The second kind are those who had an idea — for healthier Punjabi food, better stepladders, socks that don’t sag — and then set out to build a business around it. Yet others have seen a hobby — baking desserts or helping family and friends solve their problems with computers or selling stuff on eBay — become a business. Regardless of how they got started, all these entrepreneurs found success (or heartache) with their businesses.

So how do you decide what business you want to do? Passion and people are two key ingredients of entrepreneurship that I have spoken of in earlier articles. Without feeling passionate about what you want to do, it would be impossible to persevere. Thomas Edison’s exhortation that genius is “Ninety-nine per cent perspiration, one per cent inspiration” is truer still for running an entrepreneurial business. Having the right people, who share your passion, will help nail down the actual shape and form of what it is you do in your business.

Now even if you have decided that a specific service or product is what you will offer — educating people about the stock market and share trading or an easy-to-use mobile phone that even your Marathi-speaking grandmother could use — it would be useful to put it down in words — what the purpose or vision, mission and values of your business will be.

Purpose and vision

“What do you want to do when you grow up?” is a question we have all been asked as children. Your business purpose is nothing but the answer to this question, stated as a vision and mission statement.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, one of the most innovative pharmaceutical firms, has a statement of purpose that reads: “To help people lead healthier lives.” Purpose or a vision statement does not confine the scope of your business. For instance, “We help individuals realise their full potential” could be the corporate purpose for a training company (such as Franklin Covey) or a stockbroker (Charles Schwab), golf equipment (Calloway), computer (Hewlett Packard) or software company (Microsoft). Clarity of purpose helps when you are forced to make difficult choices — picking the right fork when you get to one, dealing with conflicts and re-igniting passion in your company. Purpose or vision need not have anything to do with your business, as this can change much like 3M went from mining to adhesives or Nokia went from wood products to mobile phones.

Again, it’s instructive to look at Dr Reddy’s vision statement. “To become a discovery led global pharmaceutical company.” Note, it does not say whether they would develop or sell only generics, where they would sell their products, if they would enter the over-the-counter drug market or whether they would sell fitness aids or not tomorrow. However, every major challenge they encounter and business decision they face can be tested against these purpose and vision statements for a YES or NO answer.

Mission and values

A mission statement is a succinct articulation of your business. Values indicate how you want to conduct yourself as you go about your business. Where do we want to go as a team? How do we know when we are there? What does our success look like? These are the questions a mission statement answers.

“(to be)…the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow,” is Starbucks’ mission statement. Being able to articulate with such clarity, what it is you will do and how you will go about doing it, helps not just you but every employee and team member keep their eyes on the ball.

Even if you have stayed with me thus far, and not rolled your eyes yet, it is possible you feel that the exercise of articulating Purpose and Vision or a Mission and Values statement is for large companies; or, that once you have a real business, there will be plenty of time to figure it all out. You would, however, be wrong on both counts. The reality is that most of us do think of these, certainly sub-consciously, and often when discussing with team-mates, family or other stakeholders, verbally as well. Putting them down on paper, gives them shape and form.

When you make a personal resolution to lose weight by five kilograms (yes, 5kg), writing it down helps. Of course, this is only the first step and useless by itself — walking or exercising every day and eating less is what will help lose those kilos and not the writing. However, when you are huffing and puffing up that hill or want to have that extra scoop of ice-cream, it’s the reality of a written purpose that helps you keep your resolution (a determined spouse or team-mate helps).

A final word of caution, if all this seems too much work, maybe being an entrepreneur is not for you, for this is the easy part.

So get those pens and papers out and put some thoughts down. You can erase, scratch and doodle as you go along, but put down a simple purpose and vision statement that your mother can understand before you embark on your entrepreneurial adventure.

(The writer was founder and CEO of Impulsesoft Pvt Ltd, which grew from a bootstrapped organisation of two people to a global leader in Bluetooth wireless stereo music prior to being acquired by SiRF Technology Inc in 2006. Srikrishna, who has an MS and a PhD from the University of California in Berkeley, has more than 18 years of experience building and marketing semiconductor and software products. He writes for The New Manager on the travails and triumphs of being an entrepreneur. He blogs at http://designofbusiness.blogspot.com)

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