This is a question posted on our digital board. I think many will find value in my response to the member.
Question: “On the issue of testing capability, must an entrepreneur know the practical aspect of a trade? does it mean a vision can not be executed until the carrier knows the skills of execution?”
My Response: You do not need to know the practical aspect of a trade before you can build a business in it. What you need to do is to have capital, a factor of production, to acquire any capability you do not have. So, that capital can hire labour (here, someone who understands that trade).
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Yet, as we have seen, since the time of Adam Smith economics, knowledge has become extremely important in business. While you may not have a practical knowhow on a trade, it is important you have knowledge about that trade if you want to thrive. The wisdom in a book – The Richest Man in Babylon – comes into play: use experts to run things but you must also have knowledge to know who is an expert!
Aliko Dangote may not understand a refinery technical systems but he has knowledge to hire people who do, using the capital under his disposal. In the Week 1 of our program, I have a detailed video, explaining these five steps.
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Comment on LinkedIn Feed
Comment #1: Impressive one right there!
Robert Kiyosaki made a clear distinction between entrepreneurs and professionals, and I think it makes sense; entrepreneurs are much concerned with breath, they know ‘little’ about many things. Professionals on the other hand, are more about depth, they know so much about little things.
As an entrepreneur, what you need most is the domain knowledge, understand the fundamentals of every piece that makes up the business system; domain technicalities; business analytics; sales and marketing; accounting and finance; human resources; and other necessary parts as regarding the sector of interest. Then hire the best of the best in each subset of the system, those who are better than you, to run the show.
Just know as much as needed to understand the fundamentals and be able to speak their language, and step out of their way, so they can take care of the rest.
That’s business leadership!
Comment #2: Good response. You can be a visionary, manager or expert, you just need to be great at one, not three of them. With that, you bring in the other capabilities, the final outcome is a well run conglomerate.
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