"What is essential for success in a business - is it Money or Knowledge?!"

I teach a subject at a management college in Bangalore. In one of the mailing lists there is a nice attempt to generate discussions / debates on some relevant topics. The current subject is - "What is important for success in business - is it Money or Knowledge?! "

My musings on the subject .... My first thoughts were about a story I had come across.. it was about Ford. It goes something like this.

Henry Ford was not well educated and was taunted by many. A time came when some academics wanted to administer an oral test to Henry Ford. Was supposed to be 'Smartness' test. Looks like the intent was to prove Henry Ford was ignorant.

So on the appointed day, a set of academicians came over to Henry Fords office. They began to administer the test. Henry ford was asked questions like "What is the tensile strength of the rolled steel you use." Ford, did not know the answer. He reached for a phones on his desk and called his vice president who knew the answer. The vice president came in, and Ford asked him the question. The vice president gave him the answer. Ford relied on his staff for answering most of the questions posed. At one point, one of the panelists remarked, Ford did not know answer to the questions asked and therefore, he was ignorant.

Henry Ford reportedly replied, "I don't know the answers because I do not need to clutter my head with the answers you seek. I hire smart young people from your schools who have memorized information that you think is intelligence. My job is to keep my head clear of such clutter and trivial facts so that I can think."

Was Henry Ford to capable of running a business? Was ford 'knowledgeable'?

The answer to the 1st questions is - Of course he was!
The answer to his 2nd question begs another question - "What is meant by 'Knowledge'?!" . I guess all of us are accustomed to viewing 'knowledge' as summarized by one of the online dictionaries "acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation". We seem to relate to knowledge as more about registering and recalling facts, that usually need to be memorized. By this yardstick, Henry Ford was an ignoramus. But i truly believe, a business man should be judged by the outcomes. If that is the case, Henry Ford was a successful businessman.

In my opinion, the most important aspect of businessman is 'Smartness'. Running a business not only requires 'knowledge' but also the creative ideas, customer sensitivity, perseverance, resources, integrity, energy, enthusiasm and above all, commitment and passion.. . May be, the term 'knowledge' as most of it see it conventionally may not encompass the capabilities that I am referring to. I have never seen or heard of any successful business venture led by the dumb (only debatable exception is - Forest Gump in the movie with the same name... lovely movie.. topic for some other days post). On the contrary, you find lot of legends who have have succeeded in spite of a lot of obstacles / challenges, by virtue of their smartness. I guess, the essence of being smart is - the faculty we call smartness helps one understand - is the situation, what is needed to turn it around to an advantage, what are the risks to be managed, how to get the required resources (men, money, machines, deals, contacts ... ).

So my take on the topic is - Being smart is more important than being rich... but there are other key abilities like passion, commitment, creativity, patience and perseverance that are needed in good amount ... along with Loads of LUCK!

I know this can lead to another thread of discussions ... is LUCK real or a losers excuse!

Till then,
Keep the Idea Mill churning!

Hello World !!

Dear Reader!

This is my first post!
Thanks for stopping by to read or contribute a post in my blog ...
I intend to converse on a broad range of the topics. From Technology to Philosphy! :)

Regs, VinZ