Hi. Quite a beautiful afternoon. How about we
continue this week with a new and exciting series we tag, 'Smart Enterprising'.
I’m so sure you have heard about smart phone, right? You probably own one at
the moment too. Cool! You also may have heard about smart city, smart watches
etc. or at least, you have read about them. But I can bet you have not heard or
read so much about 'Smart Enterprising'.
This is yet another very important reason to roll
with the Nirmala Chellarams Centre for Entrepreneurship Skills (NCCES). You
don't want to miss out on any of our deliverables nationwide, online or
offline!
At NCCES, we are a vanguard of 'Smart Enterprising',
a concept we believe can revolutionalize the Nigerian & Sub Saharan industrial
space especially the Retail business which involves the sale of goods directly
to the consumer; encompassing the storefronts, mail-order, websites, etc. Also,
the corporate mechanisms, branding, advertising, etc. that support them, which are
involved in the business of selling and point-of-sale marketing retail goods to
the public.
Understanding the concept of
Smart Enterprising (SE)
Now, to really understand the SE concept, a quick
look at the underlying principles is desirable.
Underlying Principles of Smart Enterprising (UPSE)
·
Smart Goal
·
Smart System
·
Enterprise
·
Quality Management System
Without much ado, features of a smart goal require
that such a goal must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Time
bound.
Smart systems like we know incorporate functions of
sensing, actuation, and control in order to describe and analyze a situation,
and make decisions based on the available data in a predictive or adaptive
manner, thereby performing smart actions.
Typically, it consists of a diverse components such
as Sensors for signal acquisition, elements transmitting the information to the
command-and-control unit, command-and-control units that take decisions and
give instructions based on the available information, components transmitting
decisions and instructions and actuators that perform or trigger the required
action.
Enterprise refers to a company organized for
commercial purposes, a business or a firm. Enterprise could also mean a project
undertaken or to be undertaken, especially one that is important or difficult
or that requires boldness, adventurous spirit; ingenuity. So, looking at
Enterprise, as an undertaking or venture, we have synonyms such as activity,
business, company, firm, operation, program, trade, venture, action, attempt,
ballgame, campaign, cause, concern, deal, do, effort, endeavor, engagement, establishment,
outfit, performance, pursuit, risk, purpose, scheme, speculation, stake, striving,
task, work, big idea, follow through, etc.
Quality Management System (QMS) is a collection of
business processes focused on consistently
meeting customer requirements and
enhancing their satisfaction. It is aligned with an organization's purpose and strategic direction. The term "Quality Management System" and
the acronym "QMS" were invented
in 1991 by Ken Croucher, a British management consultant working on designing and implementing a generic model of a QMS within the IT industry. It is expressed as the organizational goals and
aspirations, policies, processes,
documented information and resources needed to
implement and maintain it.
Early quality management systems emphasized
predictable outcomes of an industrial product production line, using simple statistics and random sampling. By the 20th century, labour inputs were typically the
most costly inputs in most industrialized
societies, so focus shifted to team cooperation and dynamics, especially the
early signalling of problems via a continuous improvement cycle. In the 21st century, QMS is tended to converge with sustainability and transparency initiatives, as both investor
and customer satisfaction and perceived quality is increasingly tied to these
factors.
Of QMS regimes, the ISO 9000 family of standards is probably the most widely implemented
worldwide. Standards
make things work. They give world-class specifications for products, services and
systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency. They are instrumental in facilitating trades beyond borders. Other QMS, e.g. Natural Step, focus on sustainability issues and assume that other
quality problems will be reduced as result of the systematic thinking, transparency,
documentation and diagnostic discipline.
Smart Enterprising therefore is an evolving business
concept that blends applied QMS standards with digital technology & applications
to achieve a business goal.
To be continued in our next edition!
About the Author
Evans Edebor is a finance & business development Team Lead at www.kordahitechnologies.com. He is an Influencer, an AC Mentor & the vanguard of 'Smart Enterprising' at the LYPEN.
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