Working with creative and social entrepreneurs, and community service organisations, is extremely interesting because of the significant differences between each and every organisation I interact with. There are also a lot of similarities obviously, and unfortunately many of them are common insecurities and fear. One of the most prominent fears I keep hearing is, “We can’t and don’t want to become like a corporate organisation.” The reasoning is usually the perception of corporations being greedy, capitalist machines, removed from the human compassion required to do artistic and social work. Corporatism is often perceived as synonymous with fascism.
Personally I think this is a huge generalisation; and that opinion aside, it also reflects a painful problem getting in the way of growth. The problem being that the fear of corporatism often results in a resistance to structure, systematisation, and the development and enforcement of boundaries within an organisation. Whilst it’s understandable that almost every entrepreneur values freedom and flexibility highly, the fact is that an organisation’s culture is built upon the foundations of consistent, reliable, and predictable behaviours and responses to certain problems and situations.
If you’re an entrepreneur, the chances are you’re already providing this predictability to some extent to your customers, even without realising it. That culture, however, is based upon the predictability of your own personality. Whilst initially this can infuse great personality and charisma into an organisation, it can very quickly become a solid barrier to growth. You can’t teach your own personality to someone, until it’s articulated in a system and structure that can be replicated and reproduced, so that someone else can offer that same predictability. That’s one thing corporations often do very well, and it’s what leads to brands like McDonalds, Hilton Hotels, and Nike becoming cultural icons.
So what does this have to do with Bruce Lee? Well, I think he said it best.
“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.” – Bruce Lee
