There are often times when company owners feel that they are alone. After all, they are the one person to whom everyone in the organization comes when there is a problem. Have you ever noticed that no one calls you just to let you know that Joe just landed that big account and they paid up front? It’s never a call about suddenly seeing sales triple for the end of quarter reports. It’s never sounds like “Hey Bob, we’ve just been named exclusive supplier by the state procurement office”.
No, those calls you get are usually more like “Hey Bob, we have a big problem”. When they say “we”, you know they really mean you…and oh, they would like the solution right now, if that’s ok.
So what happens when you don’t have that solution readily available at your fingertips? You go to the sources of information with which you have been successful in the past. You go where “…everybody knows your name”, and it’s not Cheers! You go to people who can feel your pain. I’m thinking here that friends and family are pretty much out of the question. They’ve heard your groanings before and were never that much help anyway. Your accountant or lawyer? Nope, they are all about compliance and billing you. Besides, they don’t really know your business, they just think they do.
So where do you go? You go to colleagues. That’s right, you go to other business owners in your industry who you have met at conventions, conferences, or other meetings. After all, they know exactly what you are going through and certainly can feel your pain, because they have those same pains. And besides, you are all pretty much the same, right? Not exactly…
As much as you feel you are all the same, you are mistaken. Sure, you may have some similar issues; but those issues do not mean all else is the same. Every situation is different, and the danger with going only to those industry exclusive sources is the exclusion of other perspectives that may be far more valid and offer solutions that your unique situation really needs.
Let me give you an example. I ran a photofinishing lab for over 20 years. I went to all the industry conventions and seminars. I came to know many of the owners of the better run companies in the industry. I was even invited into an exclusive marketing group comprised of the best and smartest of the industry. We met twice a year for nothing but brainstorming and comparison of experiences and data. I became president of our international industry association. Life was good and I had access to many great sources of information. But, that is not good enough.
Why not? Surely we were all the same. I know we often faced the same issues. When I sat down with Brian I would start off with what was, at the time, one of my most pressing issues. I was having help problems. I just couldn’t find any qualified applicants for job openings in my company and sales or production was suffering as a result. Well, guess what? Brian had the same issues. So we compared notes and tried to figure out which possible solution might best fit our dilemma.
Different years brought with them different issues, and many of us would discuss them and offer our sage advice and potential solutions. But what were we missing? Sometimes we just don’t see the forest because the trees are in the way. Sometimes we get so myopic with our industry specific issues, solutions, and mindsets that we fail to also consider broader, perhaps more salient solutions. We develop a myopic system for problem resolution that excludes potential solutions that are either generic in nature or macro in perspective. I would look at solutions that were sourced from other photo companies exclusively; often ignoring other marketing procedures that could have a far greater impact on root causes that would never be addressed.
So what is the solution? Very often we must force ourselves to seek out unbiased perspectives. We must search for non-industry specific viewpoints that are more generally business centric. We must incorporate more tested marketing and business management principles into our processes that could result in preventing fires rather than simply putting them out when they occur. Proactive growth of business systems is an essential part of growing your business. Have you ever heard the platitude “spend more time working on your business rather than in your business”? That doesn’t mean that you should close your office door once a week just to spend an hour with uninterrupted meditation. Rather, it means that you must actively develop new processes aimed at growing your business and planning for eventual scaling up to incremental “next levels”. Failure to do this in an organized way results in stagnation at a minimum, and eventually in unrelenting deterioration.
Often, a “back to basics” approach or even a concerted effort to regain the business planning “high ground” can result in surprising results in a remarkably short time. We sometimes don’t realize just how much our neglect of business management has impacted the smooth (efficient) operation of our companies.
If your company is not running in what you would currently characterize as an efficient mode…if you are constantly putting out fires…if your calls deal more with problems than successes; this may be a great time to refocus on the business management and marketing disciplines that your vision originally contained. The rewards of systematic audit and review of policies and procedures can be enormous, and the problems that result from neglect can be painful. In which direction would you prefer your company to travel?
© 2009 Best Business Associates – May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission and attribution.
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