Tornado Warning? Be Prepared
What do you do when the weather report warns of an impending large-scale storm? You hit the hardware store for flashlights, batteries and candles, nail sheets of plywood over your windows, and make sure your storm cellar is ready for occupation. You buy gas for the generator if you have one, and you line up with your neighbors for milk and bread at the supermarket. In other words, you prepare. You may not be able [...]
Define the Job, Not the Worker
Your long-time executive assistant just came into your office with some good news/bad news; for her, the good news is she’s retiring to a beach house in Cabo. For you, the bad news is that you’ve got to replace her – and she’s been a terrific employee. So – how do you write up the job description to find her replacement? “Wanted: Middle-aged lady named Dorothy. Must have black hair, a sense of humor, and [...]
Don’t Forget Your People!
So often during the consolidation that follows the precipitous drop of the Avalanche phase of the business storm cycle, companies throw a lot of money at technology and forget about the people and the processes. That’s a big mistake – and a missed opportunity. This is your chance to bring your people and your process together so you can use the technology you have, or replace it with what you need to get your margins [...]
WHETHER YOU’RE GOING UP, OR COMING DOWN…
It doesn’t matter if you’re in an accelerating or decelerating phase of the Business Storm Cycle; the transformation is a similar process. What you’ll find on the upper slope when you’re accelerating is that you don’t have the right applications; you have people in the wrong roles, or you don’t have enough people. On the deceleration slope, you’ll find you have redundancies. You probably have double or triple entries. You have too many people on [...]
ARE YOU LOYAL TO A FAULT?
“But Dave – I don’t want to lay Bob off. He’s been with me since the beginning!” Loyalty is a wonderful thing, but don’t be loyal to a fault. If you have staff members or a team that helped you get where you are, that doesn’t mean you can afford to overlook their inadequacies. Remember, as you revamp processes, you’ll also be creating new roles, and once the initial fear is over, most people love [...]
HOW TO WIN A THREE-LEGGED RACE
Why do so many businesses run into trouble during the start-up phase of the business storm cycle? Often, it’s because the start-up tries to run before it can walk. It needs to take the time to make the people-processes-IT triangle equilateral so that it can scale to the Business Storm Cycle as it turns around. It’s like competing in a three-legged race; if any one leg is out of kilter, it throws the whole balance [...]
THE UPSIDE OF A DOWNTURN
When it comes to going through business cycles, there’s always some good news that goes along with every phase, even the ones that seem the bleakest when you’re in them. Consider the caterpillar: If someone was to tell it, “Hey, buddy, time to stop crawling around eating leaves! You have to climb inside this tiny little sack for the next few months,” that’s going to sound like pretty bad news to the caterpillar. The good [...]
Is It Really Urgent, or Just Important?
In the business world—and in life in general—we have important things to do, and we have urgent things to do. What’s the different between the two? Well, something that is important will have a real and profound impact on the company; it’s important because it’s strategic. It will be critical to attaining your long-term business goals. Meanwhile, urgent means that if you’re going to get this thing done at all, you’re going to have to [...]
AFTER THE STORM: Professionalizing IT
When you’re coming out of that dizzying hypergrowth business phase we call the Tornado, it’s time to get things back in order. That means salvaging as much as you can that you chucked out the window, and then getting it all organized once again. Professionalization of IT often has to be re-implemented after a heavy-growth phase. It needs policies and procedures to follow and standard operating procedures. While professionalizing your team, you want to focus [...]
THE POWER OF MODERATION
When your business is sucked up into the hypergrowth phase I call the Tornado, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is, no phase lasts forever. That’s also the bad news! The faster you shoot up the acceleration curve of the business cycle, the faster you’re likely to drop on the other side. The faster your production outruns your back office, the faster your Tornado will turn into an Avalanche. The rule here [...]