Knowledge Work & the Modern Entrepreneur
My evolving manifesto on what it means to be a business owner.
I’m not sure where I picked it up, but surely I have lived an extended period of time thinking that the model of the entrepreneur is this really hard working person who is on a constant go mode. They wake up in the morning and go to their business, and they are working working working till late at night, and the next day, they will do it all over again.
I think of the business people I know in my life or I have heard in stories, or read in books, or even watched in movies. They show up pretty early and ready to rumble, and they motivate the team toward action.
I am thinking about the supermarket founders, real estate developers I know of, restaurant owners, politicians and even religious leaders like pastors.
In my evolution as a business man, an entrepreneur, I have had to come to terms with this question. Who is an entrepreneur? Is there a definition? What do they do with their time? Is there a standard working procedure that they have?
I think we all know the “archetype” of the entrepreneur in our culture. We have seen the movies and read the stories. We hold them in high regard about what they do and what they have been able to achieve with their lives and their time.
I also think, in there, is a problem. In believing that there is an archetype, we limit our world view to what this individual really is. We can conclude that life is much more colourful than the boxes we put people in and the hues we tell their stories in.
Why some small businesses never work!
I recently re-read “The E-myth Revisited”, therefore brace for some hot takes and opinions.
Obviously, if the model of a business man we have in our head is one who picks anything and goes to work with using his hands, odds are, that is the same way we shall approach our businesses when we do think of starting one. I think about the types of businesses that we decide to open, and see exactly how it follows that model. Here are some examples I have thought about;
- Potato merchant — You discover there is a demand for potatoes, you hire a vehicle, go to a potato producing part of the country, buy in bulk, deliver to the market place and sell at a profit, keeping all that change to yourself. It works, you wash, rinse, repeat.
- Juice Vendor — you buy a juicer machine, and go make some juice in your locality, people love your packaging, cleanliness and professionalism, you are now in business as a juice vendor.
- Wedding Photographer — You discover that there is no professionally done photographs in your locality, you buy a camera, follow a few tutorials, and book your first couple to do a free wedding shoot for. You become an official wedding photographer.
I could go on. In fact, I have many ideas — make-up artist, fashion designer or tailor, boutique owner, restaurant owner, chicken farmer and vendor etc. The idea is that, this is normally the types of businesses that most people start. There seems to be a pattern here.
Can you see this pattern?
Here are some other types of businesses that might exist in a locality for you to consider too in this thought experiment;
- A supermarket chain. It is in fact possible that in your locality, there is more than one similar supermarket. In Kenya it seems that the supermarkets that are in business tend to be operational all over the country. In my home town, this type of supermarket is called Khetias Supermarket.
- Micro lending business. It seems that in all towns, there is a small business that offers lending and small loans. The way they are organized, is that you cannot see the owner. They are all run by employees. They might be called X credit.
- Banks & Saccos.
- A car dealership.
- A tech startup that sells digital goods on the internet like Skiza tunes (ring-tones and call back tones) . They have an office and create their value in house.
- A radio station and media company that runs the local news. They create value by providing free quality information to the public.
- A hospital chain. These ones seem to be organized in a way that you don’t even get to see the owners, you just get serviced and helped out, then you leave.
Can you spot this pattern?
It seems as though, the first type of businesses depend on the creator, the founder, the entrepreneur, and if he wins, he wins big. He keeps all the profits. While the second type of business seems to be an organization. A team of people with some type of valuable product or service to bring to the market place. They get paid for the value they bring.
Another stark contrast is that, it does seem that the second type of business is run by a specialized worker, someone who has been trained or given specific duties, while the first business is started and run by the passionate entrepreneur individual. He also works in his business.
I am especially very interested in this point of view, because I recently found that this has been my thinking pattern. Whenever I get ready to start a new venture, I think of things that I can control, of businesses that are within my scope of competence.
We propagate what we consider the norm.
If the way we do business or we see other people get into business follow a certain pattern, we are highly likely to also get into business and do the same. Run it on vibes, charisma and no processes.
Knowledge Worker
Before I read Deep work, I had this concept in my mind as a way in which things operated, but I did not have a language for it. I am surprised too that I lived all this time without knowing the concept of a “Knowledge Worker”.
Knowledge worker — High-level workers who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge in product and service development
The book is a treasure trove of what it means to deploy your knowledge capital in a world that seems to be moving too fast, and numbed by the noise of social media apps.
When operating a business, any business, you are deploying knowledge capital that you have. It’s prudent to track the efficiency of how the knowledge you apply gets used and the benefits that happen in the market place or in your organization.
The modern entrepreneur is a knowledge worker whether he likes it or not.
The Model of Entrepreneur I’m drawn toward
I am drawn to the type of entrepreneur who writes, thinks, and shares constantly the knowledge they have gathered through blogs or published works. In my private library, I hold in high regard such thinkers. The breadth of the knowledge they have on their subject of expertise fascinates me to no end.
A question;
Why is it that the local millionaire next door, the hardware owner, the real estate mogul keeps no written documentation of tips, tricks and tools they used to get to the next level?
Maximum Utilization of Knowledge Tools
One of the hallmarks of the knowledge worker entrepreneur is the full utilization of knowledge tools such as computers, applications, frameworks and decision making tools.
People in academia do extensive research on how to do better work at the organization, how to increase efficiency, how to overcome market place bottle-necks, yet we do very little in taking advantage of this knowledge already provided for us.
Why is the maximum utilization of knowledge tools a hard thing?
This is naturally the next question, seeing that we can start to paint a picture between our two types of entrepreneurs.
The reason is, it requires much effort and commitment to build an organization where you are deploying your knowledge capital, and efficiently managing the outputs of your knowledge. It’s even much harder if you are a sole proprietor or startup founder. It’s hard because you have to do the hard work of building and running your business, while at the same time you need to do the knowledge work of totally understanding the health of your business.
Apathy & Time.
Since it’s a hard thing to do, most times, you put it aside, and whenever you put an activity aside for a long time, it becomes even harder to pick it up and make it happen.
Mastery of knowledge tools to help us move the ball forward
There is no doubt in my mind that if we want to move forward as business people and entrepreneurs, we must master the knowledge tools that are available to us. We must master the computers and applications, ideas around productivity, how to harness the power of ICT and deploying management tools and business tools in our daily lives.
Secondly we must run away from the idea of the sole proprietor, the solo operator in whom everything depends on. We must work on our businesses from day 1, to build value in it, and eventually produce value in the market place.
I’m grateful to have these thoughts personally. I have harboured them in my mind for a while, looking for a way to express it, looking for a manifesto of how I am going to live my business life. Boy! Am I glad I wrote it down.
Do you find this valuable? have you ever considered the type of entrepreneur you want to become? have you ever considered systems, processes, thoughts and ideas to be key in making a business work, rather than just the hard work?
I’d be curious to hear your thoughts… anyone?
