An interesting question came up the other day which warrants attention. The question was whether entrepreneurs should hire entrepreneurs. In thinking about how to answer this question, I started thinking about a book written by Michael Gerber entitled The eMyth.

In his book, Gerber discusses that an entrepreneur encompasses three roles: the technician, the manager, and the visionary. As a technician, the entrepreneur is able to perform the core tasks that the business performs such as baking a cake or coding software, etc.. As a manager, the entrepreneur is able to direct others in the organization to work effectively as a team. Finally, as a visionary, the entrepreneur is able to develop a picture of where the business should be in one, five, and ten plus years and plot the course to get there.

Gerbers analysis sheds light on the question of whether an entrepreneur should hire an entrepreneur. In some respects, entrepreneurs should only hire technicians and managers. These people will enable the organization to perform the necessary tasks effectively and provide value to customers and shareholders. However, if the employees are not entrepreneurial, will they be able to come up with new ideas and better ways of doing business?

Conversely, entrepreneurs within an organization can be a threat. They may constantly come up with new ideas that prevent them from expertly completing the tasks at hand. These ideas may also cause other employees to lose focus on the current execution strategy. Likewise, the entrepreneur-employee may be prone to start a competing business in the future.

In summary, there seems to be no right or wrong answer to whether hiring entrepreneurs is good or bad. There are positive aspects to hiring entrepreneurs as they will come up with new ideas that could positively shape the business. Conversely, they could pose a threat. The key seems to be in the entrepreneurs ability to effectively manage entrepreneur-employees. This can be accomplished via legal mechanisms (e.g., non-compete agreements), economic incentives (e.g., stock options, profit sharing) and constant monitoring and feedback.