A Job Description for the Business Owner - стр. 14

Incidentally, when a business is just getting started, there is always some new purpose being formed—for example, “We repair used Japanese cars,” or “We bake confectionary products according to local customers’ tastes.” These are not the most ideal purpose statements. The more specific a purpose is, the stronger it is. One could say that, ideally, the intent should have some unique element that provides a competitive advantage.

Preserving the purpose and making sure the company does not deviate from it is not an easy job. In Visotsky Consulting’s company, our customers, consultants, and business owners promote some new idea every month. Our purpose was precisely formulated for such a reason. Before this actively expanding company was started, I had the usual consulting projects. I found companies and then worked with the owners or managers under contract. I, along with some assistants, implemented the management tools and left when the job was done. However, I found this was not a good approach, for two reasons. First, during such projects, you cannot pay enough attention to improving the competence of the owner. His 100 percent understanding of how the management tools work determines whether these tools will really be applied in the company. Second, when the consultant turns the company around, he, in fact, takes on the authority, becoming the employees’ boss. But this completely contradicts the idea that is the main goal of our company, which is to help business owners become stronger. I was able to turn the situation around when I came up with a way to implement the management tools with the owners' own hands. In essence, this is the purpose of our company. And it looks like we are the only ones who do not do the owners’ job for them, but instead help them to do it themselves. That is why proposals to teach the clients' personnel instead of directly focusing on the business owners go against the purpose of our company. Such ideas will never be implemented. On the other hand, any proposals that contribute to our main purpose and help business owners become stronger, I will consider with interest. And if I see that they truly align with our main purpose, I will gladly implement them.

Between the years 1990 and 2000, there were many Ukrainian companies that are examples of companies without a clear purpose. Their sole purpose was to make money, and this, in fact, is simply a lack of clear purpose. Naturally, such companies jumped on every opportunity to make money and introduced a variety of services. In remote areas, there are still companies that do general wholesale, retail, catering, et cetera. And now when narrowly specialized companies come into these areas and start operating, they successfully push the locals out of business. How should the local companies deal with these specialized companies? They first need to realize that a multioperational company is, essentially, a set of groups—a complex of companies within itself, every one of which has its own main goal and purpose. Managing these subsidiaries means managing every single company separately, as they indeed are separate businesses. I will discuss this further in my next book about business structure and functions.