Can you be organised and an entrepreneur?

I recently ran a webinar on making your business scalable through systemisation, during which I addressed issues like processes and organisation.  One of the attendees, who runs a marketing agency, asked me whether this approach was suitable for creative people or whether it would inhibit their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.

I answered that of course it was applicable in any industry.  Subsequently I have reflected on the interesting question and its implied link between creativity and entrepreneurship.

I can divide my clients into three broad camps:  people who are naturally organised and happy to manage others; people who are, frankly, chaotic, and find it difficult to organise others; and people who are in the middle.  The first group take to systemisation quickly – all they really need is to be given some tools and techniques.  The second group are my failures (I do have them) and I will fairly quickly suggest we stop wasting each other’s time.  The third group is the most numerous and will take longer, with more hands-on help and explanation and often many repetitions before light bulbs start to go on and benefits start to accrue.

The point is, I have worked with entrepreneurs in all three categories and so I don’t believe there is necessarily a correlation, direct or inverse, between organisational ability and entrepreneurship.  I have also worked with entrepreneurs in  many sectors, so I don’t believe there is a correlation between creativity (in a functional sense) and entrepreneurship.  Certainly, creative people need to managed in a way that allows them to be creative but then everyone should be managed as an individual.

I also believe that, all other things being equal, an organised creative business will out-compete a disorganised creative business.  Processes, measurement and organisation should be designed to give space to creativity where it adds value, and remove it where it adds only cost through the endless reinvention of wheels.

By the way, if you'd like to learn more about scalability and systemisation then perhaps you should attend one of these events.