A Thousand Things Done 1% Better Monday, April 28, 2008 As a strategy consultant I get asked many questions when I sit down with a new client. The most common question is always a creative variation of “how can I make more money?” While MBA graduates cringe at the innocent petition, it is a very good question and one that I’m sure we have all asked ourselves at some point in our life. My purposefully ambiguous answer is always something to the tune of: “by profitably doing what you do best better than anyone else. Jim Collins in his best-selling book “Good to Great” submitted a Venn diagram called “The Hedgehog Concept” that serves to illuminates this point. He maintains that to optimize your sustained business success and profitability you should be operating at the conceptual center of three overlapping circles. The three circles represent the answers to these important business questions: 1. What you can be the best in the world at? 2. What drives your economic engine? 3. What you are deeply passionate about? Indeed, every business large and small should consider these three questions, and in an aggregate theoretical space, the proposition is sound. However with micro-firm owners the plan must be decidedly more tangible and accessible on a day-to-day level. The vast majority of the overwhelming minority of entrepreneurs that do seek strategic help (read that twice if necessary) do so in troubled times when they are more open to suggestions and less guarded of their territory. But if we revisit the hedgehog concept that Collins proposes and fill-in each circle with careful thought, then one thing that we will find is that the hedgehog concept not only tells us what we should be focusing on, but also reminds us what we should not be giving too much time or energy to. One of the reasons that the survival rate of micro-firms is so dismal is that the complete range of business functions has to be served by a few people or even a single person. It is not difficult to imagine how a business owner could have difficulty managing all the functional areas covered in larger businesses by esoteric teams with scores of individuals. As a micro-firm owner it’s important to remember that your back office is someone else’s front office. You do not need to be an expert on graphic design, marketing and business strategy. What is important is that you realize that without these functions you may be headed for trouble and try to fill them with professionals who are equally passionate about what they do. Large multinational corporations are always coming up with new initiatives to try and get their business to function more like a start-up venture and when it comes to strategy and planning, there is no need for them to have the market cornered. All business large and small had a beginning sometime and somewhere. Your goal should be to assemble all the pieces necessary to make this a reality for your endeavor. The above insights are excerpts from the original essay and forthcoming book “Survive to Thrive” by Alexander Michael Gittens Alexander Michael Gittens Home Page © 2008-2007 Copyright Alexander Michael Gittens. Contents may be used without permission when credited |