At a big conference of HR professionals in the US last year, one of the resolutions arrived at was that companies needed to encourage employees to think more like entrepreneurs. What do you think this means for an HR practitioner?

Entrepreneurialism means knowing who you are and what you want to achieve, understanding your context, having a vision for the realisation of the one within the other, and implementing your vision come what may. This principle is the same for entrepreneurs in the free market and those in organisations. (What differs is simply the context.) Contrary to what certain stereotypical viewpoints would suggest, entrepreneurialism is not about being self-serving and mercenary, but centred around making a difference to the world, realising personal potential and making a good living from combining these two things.

Entrepreneurialism in organisations means the same thing for everyone: being an entrepreneur. HR practitioners, who are often the most disenchanted people in the organisation, are hard-pressed to turn this around and lead the implementation of the future of work. Entrepreneurialism is an all-or-nothing scenario for which HR professionals need to take personal responsibility.

Who should be driving the move towards entrepreneurialism in companies?

Anyone driven to drive. The official structure isn’t necessarily going to direct entrepreneurism, so the informal leadership, comprising of individuals with strong personal vision and unwavering belief in realising it through the organisation, need to drive it. HR has a huge role to play. It is also essential, of course, that the official leader walks the talk.

Does it involve learning a whole lot of new skills, particularly financial skills, which are usually restricted to the accounting department?

It involves learning like mad, but not what most people think. The learning comes from pursuing vision, striving always to do things better, understanding and supplying what customers need, and constantly growing the business. All secondary skills, like managing finances, follow from this. They are not the core of it. Focusing on so-called entrepreneurial skills development without fostering the spirit of enterprise is meaningless.

Are some jobs within a company not more suited to entrepreneurial thinking than others? Like sales and marketing, supply chain management, new business development and new product development. How can people managers be more entrepreneurial? Should they become more entrepreneurial?

If you define entrepreneurialism as a list of personal qualities on a psychometric test, then some jobs may be more entrepreneurial than others. But if it means living your work, loving your products, focusing on service and fostering urgency, then it applies to everyone in the business. Great entrepreneurs, who lead growing organisations, envision and instil in every staff member the same drive, commitment and sense of deep personal reward they choose for themselves.

Can people learn to be entrepreneurs or are they born that way?

Anyone can make him or herself into an entrepreneur. It isn’t easy, but it can be done. It is more often than not circumstantial and internal pressure that pushes people to take the irreversible step into entrepreneurialism, and the same pressure that keeps people surpassing themselves and breaking new ground.

Is it desirable to have everyone in your organisation thinking like an entrepreneur or do you still need to keep a balance between the people who organise and manage the office, and the 'scouts' who go out and break new ground?

It is optimal to have everyone in your organisation being entrepreneurial, combining business success with personal fulfilment. Practically, this amounts to living your work, believing in and constantly improving your products, and listening to and servicing the needs of your customers. Everyone needs to gear themselves towards  these three things.

Can you have too many entrepreneurs in your company?

Only if you don’t like growth, innovation and going down in history! Don’t worry about having too much of what you don’t yet have. If that ever happens, you can deal with it then. For now, get going! And watch out for reasons why not to take action.

Does developing entrepreneurial aptitude not put a company at risk of losing all their best staff when they realise they can do it for themselves outside the company?

On the contrary, the best staff leave because of dissatisfaction and blocked ambition. Providing them with the need and opportunity to realise themselves in the organisation increases your chances of retaining and benefiting from them. Also, if someone wants to leave, it is in the best interests of both parties that they do so. Risking losing someone is preferable to keeping them unhappy.

Don't we have enough consultants - people who used to be regular employees with a yen for freedom - running around charging astronomical sums of money?

Consulting is a very tough business to be in, and these are tough times. We may have a lot of people trying to get going but only the strong survive the challenging life. Those who do, become increasingly valuable to structure-bound organisations wanting to survive and thrive. And intelligent organisations purposefully use consultants who are anti-establishment.

The trend towards outsourcing (from an organisational point of view) and meaning- and value-based free enterprise (from an individual perspective) is in its infancy. The consulting business has a huge future for those willing to take the entrepreneurial path.

How do you maintain company culture, loyalty and teamwork if everyone is doing it for themselves as entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurs do not just do it for themselves. They almost always do it for a greater cause, which is inseparable from their ambitions for themselves. Their personal purpose and business vision is one thing. The path to real loyalty and teamwork from people is entrepreneurship. And trying to maintain company culture doesn’t work, you have to continually grow it.

How does South Africa rate on the 'entrepreneurial scale' i.e. how entrepreneurial are we compared to other emerging countries, and countries with established economies?

South Africa is the future. What we are doing here, in entrepreneurial terms, is leading the way for the rest of the world to learn and benefit from, and follow. Humans (and organisations) tend to take steps only when pushed, and South Africans are taking huge strides. Increasingly, the world is buying what we have to offer. The realisation of our global value is just beginning.

Can we have some examples of really successful Fortune 500 and local companies that were built with the spirit of entrepreneurialism?

Almost all organisations were founded and built through entrepreneurialism. The challenge is to keep this spirit alive and central as organisations evolve. Only about 15% of the biggest businesses at the turn of the 20^th century made it to the 21^st century. The natural organisational life-cycle, from being founded to becoming systematised and then facing re-invention (and possible death), means that success can contain within it the seeds of demise if entrepreneurial spirit is not fostered as a matter of course.

Any other burning issues you would like to mention?

Entrepreneurialism is not a debate, or the next HR initiative to be rolled out like the last one. It is paradigm-shifting action, a visionary way of being and doing business. You don’t learn it by thinking, putting yourself through an assessment battery or going on a course. You learn it by living it. This means embarking on an ambitious venture in which personal purpose, organisational vision and sustainable global well-being are aligned. It means bucking the system for the good of the system, and forever facing the challenges of pushing the envelope. And it means reaping the rewards of doing so. Entrepreneurship is hard, it is incomparably good, and the results speak for themselves.