When the term ‘Business’ enters the conversation in an Indian household where cousins and other uncles and aunties are present, the ‘partly experienced’ adults will mostly for some reason focus on the negatives and the risks of doing business. While the ‘inexperienced’ younglings would rather focus on the positives of which there are a lot. If we take a logical approach, most experts will say neither is wrong while some know that the world has more colors than black and white.
Business in its rawest form:
I learnt in a seminar on commerce that in its rawest form, a business consists of three modules:
- Input
- Process
- Output
And these words can never be more accurate. Take any business model and you will realize that this is true. For a stationary store, you will need to input the necessary resources in the store, perform the processes necessary which in this case is sitting in the shop, making sure the resources are well accounted for, or advertising the shop and get whatever profit. Now, let’s learn about them in depth.
Input:
The input component includes the resources that you will give or are willing to give to the company. Like money, time, technology or hiring new people for the business. It can also include researching the consumer’s requirement and developing the end product. Simply put, it is your investment in the company.
Process:
This component can be easily understood and includes the very act of doing business. Bargaining with the supplier, trying to find new, cheaper goods or calculating the expected profit gained or it can be the very act of designing the company’s business process. It is, as can be said in poetic terms, the very journey of the person doing business.
Output:
This is the final stage of a transaction. It can be the rewards seeped from a successful transaction, the feedback received from the consumers, the services guaranteed to the consumer in case of failure of product, or simply a compilation of performances of fellow colleagues.
There are many business models and types that focus more on one component than the other. These models may have their own pros and cons but most are similar. If you ask me whether you should start a company or not, I would surely say ‘go for it’ just like many others surely will and also many others will say ‘it’s not for you’. In the end, it all depends on how much and how long the person is willing to endure for the sake of success.
