50 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / August 2019[THE HOW-TO]
Planting the entrepreneurial seed at your company
by OMAR TAHBOUBINVESTING IN INNOVATORS
‘TREPONOMICS SKILLSET
Omar Tahboub is General Manager at Bayt.com, the #1 job site in the Middle East with more than 40,000 employers and over 35,600,000 registered
job seekers from across the Middle East, North Africa and the globe, representing all industries, nationalities and career levels. bayt.comEMPLOYERS WHO WANT
TO EMPOWER THEIR
EMPLOYEES TO BE
INDEPENDENT AND SELF-
REGULATE THEIR WORK
SHOULD SET CLEAR GOALS
AND OBJECTIVES FROM
THE GET-GO.C
hange is
the only
constant.
In recent
years, busi-
nesses have
had to adapt
and trans-
form their
methods of
function-
ing in order to keep pace with
advancements in technology,
such as artificial intelligence
in the workplace, changes in
effective work arrangements,
and the increasingly diverse
preferences of today’s profes-
sionals. It is beyond doubt
that future work environments
will continue to transform,
and become very different
from what they look like today.
However, the rise of these
new technologies, the demandfor higher autonomy at work,
and the quest for an environ-
ment that fosters creativity
and development, all have one
aspect in common that not
every business may have al-
ready picked on. That common
factor is: the entrepreneurial
seed. The shared economy
model is creating thousands of
entrepreneurs every day. Tech
companies rely on their own
employee-entrepreneurs to
lead various new products and
divisions. The increasing shift
towards flexible work arrange-
ments is boosting autonomous
work models with multiplied
room to create and produce.
Yet, it is starting to feel
harder for companies to
distinguish themselves from
other players in their indus-
tries, or to attract and retain
top quality candidates. Andthat is because businesses are
often fixated on incremental
and reactive responses to
particular trends, such as calls
for flexible hours.
In order for businesses
to push past this stage of
subdued potential, they need
to consider a new approach
in securing their talent, and
developing their employees.
Businesses need to implement
an entrepreneurial mindset- a
localized ecosystem where
each and every employee
thinks of the business as that
of their own.
Take a step back and think
about your organization’s
talent management strategies.
Does it include set procedures
built to encourage growth and
development of employees’
skills? If it does, that’s
absolutely great. But thequestion is: is that enough
in today’s landscape? The
reality of the matter is that
many other organizations also
already do that, but are still
lacking the optimum drive and
momentum.
Many employers nowadays
are shifting their focus
towards developing their
employees’ mindsets
and behaviors, as well as
considering that of candidates
when hiring. What are they
looking for exactly? They’re
looking for individuals
who think, act, and work
like entrepreneurs, but
aren’t necessarily always
entrepreneurs by education
or profession. People with a
go-getter attitude, who are
self-initiators, and who do not
shy away from a challenge are
in high demand.
Managing a team can be
very time-consuming, where
managers usually need
to guide and track their
employees on a regular basis,
and thus causing a major
opportunity cost. The cost
being time and effort that
employers could have spent
on more pressing issues
such as catching up with
the latest industry trends,
brainstorming, or strategizing
future initiatives. But
instead, valuable hours are
spent handling the logistical
and mundane managerial
responsibilities.
With employees who
think and operate like
entrepreneurs, this issue
disappears. Such professionals