LAST week in our business discussion, I looked at the smallest business entity in the chain of our Small and Medium business entities, today I want to focus my own business organisation and take a look at some examples of business entities that have evolved from small businesses?to medium and large organisations.
Business organisation as the word suggests, is the manner in which a business is organised with clear business objectives and focus on its growth.
Just like a vehicle is driven and controlled by the driver, a business is steered by business owners assisted by managers who report to shareholders in a case of a business incorporated or partners for a partnership and where a business is owned by one person.
That person becomes the principal owner where managers report to.?Business growth is cultivated from the retained earnings of a business through a procedure known as re-investment of profits. Sometimes a business is assisted to grow through borrowed funds which beef up capital from outside sources.
The growth is seen in the expansion of the fixed assets or the growth of the working capital, however, the cardinal point is on how the business funds are applied through business organisation.
Business organisation encompasses business management which sets out goals for achievement including business expansion and diversifying over a period of time and this is done in stages.
I’ll take an outside view of some businesses in Lusaka that have moved in that have graduated from small businesses to large entities that are unable to be supervised by the business owners but are now being supervised by systems put in place through business organisations.
Auto World Company Limited born out of Impala Service Station (same main shareholder) started as an auto shop selling motor vehicle spare parts on Freedom Way where the Auto World business empire is currently located.
The business organisation and the vision of the shareholders in this company have managed to transform it into a large business entity over a period of time.
Auto World which boosts of state-of-the-art equipment and offers a number of specialised services in the motor service industry is an example of business expansion and diversification from the original business concept.
While it was easy to mingle with the business owners in the early 1990s in the auto shop at that time today it is not easy to see them because the business entity has become large with several branches opened over the period of time and employing an increased number of people.
On the south-end of Cairo Road, a stationery shop in the early 1990s started trading as Book World. One wondered why a stationery shop could exist under such a name.
However, today the vision of the shareholders has been vindicated in the sense that Book World now deals in books and also supplies to learning institutions.
The company has transformed itself from a stationery shop on Cairo Road to a large book shop and has opened several branches dealing in books and to vindicate the shareholders further, the Book World has now opened a branch at the University of Zambia dealing in books.

•BOOK World which started as a single stationery shop is now a chain store

The Book World head office has since shifted from Cairo Road to off Lumumba Road in the light industrial area.
While it was easy to mingle with the business owners in the stationery shop along Cairo Road, today it is not easy to see the owners of the company as it is supervised by the business systems.
In Chisamba area, ZAMBEEF started as a small ranch rearing cows for sale and supplying beef to butcheries. This business idea today is translated into multi businesses and has diversified into several related business investing in high technological equipment and creating employment.
The expansion of Zambeef into a conglomerate is an example of a business organisation that has invested in human resource and has utilised business managers by giving them better incentives to work hard in order for them to meet the business intended expansion objectives.
While parastatal companies were shot down by the take over government through policy change, it is not easy to change a private owned company under the current business environment.
For comments call 0950458228 or email: wklpublications699@gmail.com