Running an enterprise

Mobilising resources is only the first part of the battle. The second is running the enterprise. The key to a successfully running enterprise is, of course, competent management. We have already given the necessary qualities of a good manager - one who is an innovator, an optimist, an extremely hard worker, a good planner, one who can take risks but after careful research and thought, one who commands respect among colleagues and junior staff, one who is a "leader."

Sometimes, however, with the best management in the world, things go wrong. Usually, this happens when matters fall outside the control of management - such as fire and theft; recurring droughts or floods that make farming impossible; deep recession in the economy which ruins enterprises across the board; wildly fluctuating interest rates and foreign exchange rates in a situation where these are critical factors in production and marketing; civil conflict, war, and general political instability; etc.

These are the "imponderables" of business. Not much can be done about them. Nonetheless, a good manager would know how to anticipate some of these events, and plan beforehand - such as taking insurance policies to cover against accidents; selling cattle before the drought hits them; business diversification during periods of recession; forward purchase of foreign exchange, etc. But such matters take us on the horizon of modern sophisticated business practices, which is not the focus of this guide.