Investment in People

As I go through school, I have been giving many opinions- directly and indirectly- on what is the most valuable asset in your company. As an economics minor, I am told about the importance of money and property, in management classes I am lectured about structure and policies, finance speaks of investment strategies, and in accounting speaks of liquidity and sort term assets.

However, I believe that I chose the Entrepreneurial path mostly because I believe that it is the people who you work with, put your trust in, and mostly yourself that are truly the most powerful assets.

In a Question & Answer session, Scott Berkun talks about his ideas behind his book, The Myths of Innovation. It can be found at blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/06/ten-questions-w.html.

In a question about what his investment thesis would be, he responds, "I’d invest in people more than ideas or business plans—though those are important of course. A great entrepreneur who won’t give up and will keep growing and learning is gold." I think that there is a lot of power in that answer.

If you think about the reasons many of the other concentrations focus on, it is really the people backing the asset that makes the other factors of the business meaningful. A company only looks as good as the accountant makes them look. A company could have tons of money and investments, however they need someone spectacular to use it correctly. A company could have the best business plan in the world, however if it is not managed right and tweaked effectively, the company will lose the competitive advantage. Even at the ordinary level, if the workers are not responsive, new, more efficient methods of business would not be found. Efficiency in general would be down. If you do not have the correct people at the front desk, no one will want to visit you.

It is in the people of your company that give it worth.