In my last few assignments I have been a victim of too many too soon. While I would partly attribute this to the management style of the owners and their inherent maverick approach, I would also attribute this to the way the industry in which I functioned.
A key agenda for growth that many companies (especially at the start) would have is push many products and services, be present in all categories, get a virtual spread, de-risk, etc... Tell me , while most of us landed up doing all this, it is very late in the day that we realise that we had done one or two of this correctly and hence we are where we are today in success terms and we did not have the plan and resource to do the rest well and hence we are where we are today.
My own personnel experience of the latter has had its own consequences.. Pushing for many things in parallel is essentially a result of
a. lack of clarity on what we need to do
b. A paranoid mind which keeps telling if you are not there then you will miss out.
c. Your organisation does not have the key strengths to make it and hence you are all over the place.
The resultant effects, multiple focus (de-focus) areas, poor or incomplete planning, no growth period for any of them, highly burnt out team and resultant loss of steam in the products.
The lesson here is focus on one key initiative and make it big. I understand the need to have a portfolio of services and the de-risking etc. But don't worry about the portfolio in the first few years of your growth. Make that one thing happen and then start pushing for many.
Once again Cricket has come to help in reminding the basics of Business. Steve Waugh the great Australian Skipper once said on his belief in on-field strategies and tactics," If you don't stand for one thing , You will fall for everything".
What a depth in that statement! Very true for any one in today's age and time when specialising in your domain is more important than being a jack of all trades.
In my next post lets figure out how cooking teaches philosophy!
A key agenda for growth that many companies (especially at the start) would have is push many products and services, be present in all categories, get a virtual spread, de-risk, etc... Tell me , while most of us landed up doing all this, it is very late in the day that we realise that we had done one or two of this correctly and hence we are where we are today in success terms and we did not have the plan and resource to do the rest well and hence we are where we are today.
My own personnel experience of the latter has had its own consequences.. Pushing for many things in parallel is essentially a result of
a. lack of clarity on what we need to do
b. A paranoid mind which keeps telling if you are not there then you will miss out.
c. Your organisation does not have the key strengths to make it and hence you are all over the place.
The resultant effects, multiple focus (de-focus) areas, poor or incomplete planning, no growth period for any of them, highly burnt out team and resultant loss of steam in the products.
The lesson here is focus on one key initiative and make it big. I understand the need to have a portfolio of services and the de-risking etc. But don't worry about the portfolio in the first few years of your growth. Make that one thing happen and then start pushing for many.
Once again Cricket has come to help in reminding the basics of Business. Steve Waugh the great Australian Skipper once said on his belief in on-field strategies and tactics," If you don't stand for one thing , You will fall for everything".
What a depth in that statement! Very true for any one in today's age and time when specialising in your domain is more important than being a jack of all trades.
In my next post lets figure out how cooking teaches philosophy!
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