Is it easier today to start a business, create and market products and provide services to the masses than ever before? It’s a question worth asking.
We at Anant believe the world of commerce is improving every day, and we’re excited to help shape the future of business (if only on a small scale). So we’re eager to take a closer look at the Modern Enterprise. In a series of articles, we will explore the ideas related to the business of doing business, today.
A person that creates a boutique canvas satchel may sell on a one-to-one basis at the flea market, but they need to account for their sale and pay taxes to the government. If a web designer or an internet architect provides an hourly service to clients, the contractor will need to track their time and bill their customers. All in all, business has many steps involved in the creation of profit. Can any of these steps be streamlined? They certainly can in a Modern Enterprise, if the enterprise is designed and built on good foundations.
These questions are asked to preface a series of articles titled “The Modern Enterprise,” which will be published on an ongoing basis. Although there are many factors involved in becoming a business entity, we think it is definitely easier to launch a company than it was 30 years ago. The big difference between then and now is the internet. The apparatus of business has improved massively because of its invention. As electricity and telephones changed the nature of how people lived and worked, the internet has done just as much to increase efficiency – and our conception of what the internet can do is limited only by our imagination. The vision of a better world rests in the hands of people who can utilize the connecting power of the internet to serve each other and their societies.
We come into this world as part of a family, a group of people that works to sustain itself. In modern times, this family has learned to adapt to the rule of law, commerce, and the catalog of goods and services provided by either the free market or the government. As families have evolved to work within the modern system of “things,” so have other groups of people – including businesses.
Manufacturing, industrialization, computers and the internet have allowed businesses to grow much larger than they could have without the conveniences of modernity. The Modern Enterprise is a group of people that organize themselves, the information that is pertinent to their work, and the processes that constitute their work through technology. It is no longer a requirement for an enterprise to be contained within walls, or to work during a certain part of the day. Being modern does not exclude an enterprise, however, from working within the trappings of an office. Shared workspace only strengthens the group so that they can work efficiently. The Modern Enterprise is a group of people that collaborates to produce a product or a service using the collaborative technology of the internet.
Simply, the Modern Enterprise is a collection of People, Information, and Processes. The People may consist of Employees, Vendors, Partners, Wholesalers, Contractors and most importantly, Customers. The Information may cover the Products or Services Catalog, Accounts, Inventory and Contacts. Processes, being the engine of the company, covers everything from getting the work or creating the product to getting paid for the work or selling the product. Although the concept of a Modern Enterprise is as abstract as its existence in real life, it can be implemented.
As part of this series of articles, a Service-Based Modern Enterprise will be modeled to demonstrate how a Modern Enterprise may be created with tools available on the internet. As with any business, it will be formed to serve a mission and realize a vision. The Service-Based Modern Enterprise will start as a business plan and provide an easy-to-follow blueprint for anyone who is willing to put in the toil, trouble, sweat and tears into creating a service to help others create a better world.
