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| Pankaj Agarwal Co-founder & CEO, clickindia.com |
Professionalism quite simply put, is to do your best even when you don't feel like it. It stems from prioritizing the method and the manner more than the work in itself. A culture of seriousness, dedication and never knowingly compromising in the standards of your job will most certainly guarantee success.
Professionalism becomes important for a family business because the stakes are high like in any other venture. It may become tough as the people working are in a sense your relation but that in no way undermines the necessity of it. On the contrary it is imperative to be professional in such situations, because we Indians, by nature value the quintessential respect for a family name. When joined with a business this family name becomes more important and hence increases the need to adhere to the standards of performance set.
The society at large is still in the initial stages of accepting “entrepreneurship” as a career option. Thus, though the idea of setting up a business is not utopian but assigning the responsibilities of a position, beyond family members in a family business is not widely accepted. The necessity of getting the best man to do the job is restricted to finding the best man within the family. This attitude needs to be changed. For that matter, a person or a family cannot possibly be the best at delivering everything different positions in a business demand.
The present business world is replete with instances where the owner of a firm is different from the person running it. Whether it is a leading search engine- Google or a popular social networking site- Twitter, the owners at different points in time, step aside for a “professional”, more suitable for the business than they are. This does not result in them losing control over what they dreamt of. It merely projects that they acknowledge there are others beyond them or their families who would perform better.
There are Indian companies like Infosys who have followed suit but the realization that at some stage any business, family or not, would require individuals beyond the realm of a particular close knit set hasn’t entirely dawned.
We must not forget that our end product or service is for the consumer, who would expect quality in what we deliver. Our consumers aren’t bothered who does the work, a family member or an outsider; he/she values the end product. It is they who determine the success of any business. The competitive economic scenario would not permit us the liberty of being “unprofessional” in any case. Our consumers expect the best in anything they demand and if we don’t deliver it our competitors would. Thus “professionalism” in anything we do is the need of the hour.
We must obey what "Indian companies act 1956”, our legal framework follows. A company is a different entity than the person running it. It has a different identity and is in no way related to the personal matters of the individual or the family running it. Every member must remember that the work is not inclusive of the relation he/she shares personally. When talking business it should be understood that the management comprises not of family ties but of "colleagues and co-workers".
Keeping aside family relations for the larger interest for a successful, thriving family business isn't a bad idea. It would eventually bring recognition to the "family name" for generations to come. Personal relations must be excluded when a family business intends for perfection. As the famous movie- "3 Idiots" quite rightly summarized that the aim of anything in life- is to strive for excellence and perfection- the rest, money, brand name, loyal consumers, recognition etc would always follow.
Author-Pankaj Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO of Clickindia.com
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