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For most MSMEs, the gap between smooth operations and constant firefighting comes down to one thing: accountability in business.
In small organisations, people wear many hats, blurring roles, shifting targets, and causing missed deadlines. Without clear ownership, employees are unsure of responsibilities, leading to missed tasks, upset customers, and lower productivity and profitability.
A global McKinsey study found MSMEs are only 25–30% as productive per worker as large enterprises.
Yet, some MSMEs stand out because teams know exactly what they own, measure progress, and take responsibility for outcomes. This compounds performance and gives a competitive advantage that helps separate leaders from laggards.
Accountability is especially critical for MSMEs that operate with tight margins, lean teams, and a heavy reliance on execution. A culture of accountability in business ensures that promises translate into delivery to customers, partners, and the bottom line. Unfortunately, most organisations struggle to get it right.
A global survey of over 40,000 professionals found widespread confusion around accountability resulting from poorly defined objectives, vague roles, and mismatched responsibilities. The result is what many experts now call a “crisis of accountability.”
In this piece, I share how you can embed accountability in business culture through simple steps: role clarity, measurable KPIs, feedback loops, and leadership behaviours that reinforce ownership — turning your people into highly engaged, proactive drivers of growth rather than passive employees.
1. Everyone Must Know What They Own
Accountability in business collapses when people don’t know who’s responsible for what. In an MSME, each employee is expected to multitask, which creates overlapping responsibilities that cause confusion and chaos.
The key is to assign ownership, not tasks. Instead of saying “you handle inventory” or “you handle customers,” define measurable outcomes:
- Inventory stock accuracy above 98%
- Customer satisfaction score above 95%
Such clarity links individual roles directly to business priorities across sales, operations, and finance.
A useful framework here is the RASCI model: Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted, and Informed. Every critical process, from order fulfilment to vendor payments, must have one — and only one — accountable owner.
A furniture manufacturer with delays used RASCI for order-to-delivery. Assigning a single owner per step—the Sales Manager for confirmation, the Operations Head for scheduling and quality—reduced delays and ended blame games.
An integral part of RASCI is the weekly alignment meetings, which help reinforce and sustain this clarity, allowing teams to recalibrate priorities in fast-changing MSME environments. When employees know what they truly own, they stop waiting for direction and start driving results.
2. Measurable KPIs & Transparent Scoreboards
Accountability in business thrives on visibility. When performance is measured objectively, ownership follows naturally.
For objective measurement of performance, one needs to define quantifiable KPIs for each department and each role that directly connect to business outcomes:
- Sales: Conversion rate, average ticket size, and repeat purchase rate
- Operations: On-time delivery %, defect rates, and service turnaround time
- Finance: Cash collection cycle, gross margins, and inventory turnover
- Customer Support: Complaint resolution time and Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Track both leading and lagging indicators, for example, a drop in customer satisfaction (leading) will soon affect revenues (lagging).
Weekly reviews and dashboards ensure transparency in performance evaluation. Celebrating small wins and promptly addressing slippages reinforces ownership. When everyone sees the numbers, excuses fade, and execution gains momentum.
3. The Accountability Flywheel
Accountability in business isn’t about preventing mistakes. It’s about catching them quickly and correcting them promptly.
Too many MSMEs wait for quarterly reviews or post-crisis meetings to discuss issues. By then, the damage is done—you have unhappy customers, rework, and internal friction. Continuous feedback loops prevent this by turning reflection into a daily habit.
Quick debriefs after an issue — what went wrong, what changes next time — create rapid learning. Studies show that organisations using continuous feedback see a 26% boost in productivity.
Daily or weekly check-ins, after-action reviews, and routing customer feedback directly into KPIs create a self-correcting system. Recognising individuals who take ownership reinforces these behaviours further.
One needs to be careful when crafting and acting on feedback loops.
If employees fear that giving feedback might get them blamed — or, worse, penalised — they’ll choose to hide mistakes rather than address them. Fear kills feedback. Leaders must foster an environment where people feel psychologically safe to share concerns or admit mistakes, confident that it’s their actions being evaluated, not their value as individuals. The emphasis should always be on objectivity and continuous improvement, not on assigning blame.
When tight feedback loops are in place, teams evolve continuously, building skill, confidence, and efficiency with every cycle.
4. The Culture Is What Leaders Tolerate
Accountability in business starts and ends with leadership.
Employees mirror what leaders do far more than what they say. If a manager fails to walk the talk, the entire system falters. When leaders miss deadlines, communicate vaguely, or ignore established processes, teams quickly absorb that behaviour as the true standard. On the other hand, when leaders commit clearly, deliver visibly, and admit their mistakes, accountability flows naturally down the line.
Consequences also play a vital role. A culture without repercussions inevitably breeds complacency. Leaders must establish clear, outcome-driven rules — for instance, any missed delivery should be escalated within four hours, and repeated errors should trigger a process review.
Consistency is non-negotiable — no favourites, no exceptions. In many cases, what appears to be a lack of accountability is actually a capability gap. The solution lies not in reprimand but in building competence through training, mentoring, and better tools.
Ultimately, when leaders embody ownership, the system itself becomes the teacher — inspiring everyone else to take responsibility for their work.
Bottom Line
Accountability in business isn’t a buzzword; it’s a growth multiplier.
For MSMEs, where every rupee and every person counts, accountability transforms limited resources into exponential results. When roles are clear, performance is measured, feedback is ongoing, and leaders set the tone, the organisation begins to move in unison — with speed, purpose, and ownership.
Customer experience improves. Efficiency rises. Firefighting fades. Growth accelerates.
Start small with one team, one KPI, and one feedback loop. Watch how accountability in business builds ownership, ownership builds productivity, and productivity drives sustainable growth.