Discussion: View Thread

Hey Jack,

I think you are right on track with your recommendation about the
process a small company should use, i.e. vision,
processes,objectives, etc...but you said they should "focus on
growing the business from 50 to 150"...and I think that was a bit
of a premature statement. I think I know your thoughts on this
well enough to assume that there was more implied behind that
statement than what you said. It concerns me that some people out
there really see it that simple and would actually focus on growth
without focus on service...so I wanted to clarify.


I don't think the goal of a company should ever be to
grow...what if I were their competitor and could provide the same
service to the same market in the same quantity with only 30
people?

I am NOT advocating stretching people to their limits and doubling
their work...not at all. What I am suggesting is that the company
should have the goal to provide knock-your-socks-off service and
products for a low cost, delivered on time. IF they focus on this
they will increase their business.

By getting them to focus on size without linking it to service may
give them the mind set to throw labor at problems instead of
making good lean processes. Labor = cost, Time = cost Many
companies do not establish easy, quick methods for identifying
waste or problems and then eliminating them. They will often
suffer with a problem, then throw labor at it, instead of looking
at the root cause and fixing it.

I worked with a Methodist Church where the minister had a goal of
doubling the size of the congregation. He and his lead staff had
done phone soliciting, selling, selling and selling. When I went
through the visioning process with them they found that what was
exciting about their facility was WHAT THEY DID, not HOW MANY.
When they began to focus on the 'what' and on doing the 'what'
very well, they saw that the size of the congregation grew
dramatically, on its own.

Part of this was due to the attitude of the lead staff...they
hated soliciting!...and this felt like and became a chore.
Whether they knew it or not, when you attended the church they
were always unhappily soliciting. This did not make you want to
join them. When they began to focus on 'what they were about'
they enjoyed themselves and this sold the congregration. They put
on plays, held fairs, did modern book studies, all of the things
they enjoyed - or from a business standpoint - they provided the
service and products to the customer, that the customer was
looking for.

Customers are not looking for a product or service that the
provider does not even enjoy providing.

"If you build it...they will come."

Thanks,
Rick Corcoran
Mark I
Employee Empowerment / Kazien

I agree, particularly when there are so many organisations out there who are content to be a 'small' business - getting too big may scare the pants of them.

PHIL RUTHERFORD



-----Original Message-----
From: RICHARD CORCORAN [SMTP:CORCORANRE@EXCELINC.COM]
Sent: Monday, February 09, 1998 7:08 PM
To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: Right on Track

Hey Jack,

I think you are right on track with your recommendation about the
process a small company should use, i.e. vision,
processes,objectives, etc...but you said they should "focus on
growing the business from 50 to 150"...and I think that was a bit
of a premature statement. I think I know your thoughts on this
well enough to assume that there was more implied behind that
statement than what you said. It concerns me that some people out
there really see it that simple and would actually focus on growth
without focus on service...so I wanted to clarify.


I don't think the goal of a company should ever be to
grow...what if I were their competitor and could provide the same
service to the same market in the same quantity with only 30
people?

I am NOT advocating stretching people to their limits and doubling
their work...not at all. What I am suggesting is that the company
should have the goal to provide knock-your-socks-off service and
products for a low cost, delivered on time. IF they focus on this
they will increase their business.

By getting them to focus on size without linking it to service may
give them the mind set to throw labor at problems instead of
making good lean processes. Labor = cost, Time = cost Many
companies do not establish easy, quick methods for identifying
waste or problems and then eliminating them. They will often
suffer with a problem, then throw labor at it, instead of looking
at the root cause and fixing it.

I worked with a Methodist Church where the minister had a goal of
doubling the size of the congregation. He and his lead staff had
done phone soliciting, selling, selling and selling. When I went
through the visioning process with them they found that what was
exciting about their facility was WHAT THEY DID, not HOW MANY.
When they began to focus on the 'what' and on doing the 'what'
very well, they saw that the size of the congregation grew
dramatically, on its own.

Part of this was due to the attitude of the lead staff...they
hated soliciting!...and this felt like and became a chore.
Whether they knew it or not, when you attended the church they
were always unhappily soliciting. This did not make you want to
join them. When they began to focus on 'what they were about'
they enjoyed themselves and this sold the congregration. They put
on plays, held fairs, did modern book studies, all of the things
they enjoyed - or from a business standpoint - they provided the
service and products to the customer, that the customer was
looking for.

Customers are not looking for a product or service that the
provider does not even enjoy providing.

"If you build it...they will come."

Thanks,
Rick Corcoran
Mark I
Employee Empowerment / Kazien

On Mon, 9 Feb 1998, RICHARD CORCORAN wrote RE:Right on Track
---snip ---
> I don't think the goal of a company should ever be to
>grow...what if I were their competitor and could provide the same
>service to the same market in the same quantity with only 30
>people?
---snip--->
>By getting them to focus on size without linking it to service may
>give them the mind set to throw labor at problems instead of
>making good lean processes.
--- snip ---

I take what you say as a "given" but it is certainly worth noting. Growth
for growth's sake is the wrong direction. Thanks for noting that.

However, when a company gets as efficient as possible and still has more
customers who want to give it money, then grow they must.

The point I was trying to make is that planning for growth in revenue or
profit or number of customers or anything else is potentially blinding.
The two leading limits to profitable growth are a) number of people and b)
interpersonal styles among the people. So the key -- IF you are planning
growth -- is to plan how to get from 50 to 150. These are important
numbers because the plan for getting from 150 to 500 will be a quite
different trajectory.

On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Phil Rutherford wrote Re: Right on Track

>I agree, particularly when there are so many organisations out there who
>are content to be a 'small' business - getting too big may scare the
>pants of them.

Well, my (unstated) assumption was that they wanted to grow. I understand
your point that some may not. OBTW, So what do they do -- turn away new
customers? And then one of their employees leaves to become a competitor?
It might work if they are running a nursery that specializes in Banzai
trees <[;-)+ but most organisms need to grow.
>


Jack Ring
Kennen Technology, Inc.
32712 N. 70th St.
Snottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
602-488-4615

On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Jack Ring wrote: [in part]

> It might work if they are running a nursery that specializes in Banzai
> trees <[;-)+ but most organisms need to grow.
> >

Perhaps Bonsai was intended? The only banzai trees I've heard of were
those of Burnham Wood (that advanced on and did in MacBeth). :-)

Tim Edlund

Jack,
Thanks for your thoughts.

It is unfortunate that some businesses do, in fact, turn away new customers. They may, as I have done, settle on putting all their eggs in one or two baskets and then guarding the baskets like crazy (apologies to the author) - in other words finding a few loyal customers and servicing their socks off. Or they simply live off 'one time' customers - ie those who only shop at that store, or use the organisation's services, once and then don't come back.

I agree that most organisms need to grow and, BTW, growing Bonzai trees is huge business in Japan. But not everybody wants to be a business leader and it is a mistake on our part to assume that they do. Such assumptions result in our trying to motivate them in a direction they don't necessarily want to go. Sadly I learned in the past two weeks when trying to implement business leadership skills into a group of local councillors who saw this as a major threat to their status quo. I was trying to give them leadership and all they wanted was survival.

We live and learn.

Regards

PHIL

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Ring [SMTP:jring@AMUG.ORG]
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 1998 10:27 AM
To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: Re: Right on track

On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Phil Rutherford wrote Re: Right on Track

>I agree, particularly when there are so many organisations out there who
>are content to be a 'small' business - getting too big may scare the
>pants of them.

Well, my (unstated) assumption was that they wanted to grow. I understand
your point that some may not. OBTW, So what do they do -- turn away new
customers? And then one of their employees leaves to become a competitor?
It might work if they are running a nursery that specializes in Banzai
trees <[;-)+ but most organisms need to grow.
>


Jack Ring
Kennen Technology, Inc.
32712 N. 70th St.
Snottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
602-488-4615

There are questions of "growth", there are also related but different
questions of "development". Put sucinctly, can a business develop
without immediate growth? While technically probably not so, once you
claim that "growth" means expansion then you can have one without the
other (have any of us ever tried at a certain age to develop ourselves
physically without "growing" i.e. putting on weight?). Development, for
example, could mean the same profit margin but working in new areas at a
time when other businesses are declining. One interesting question might
be how do businesses that do not "want" to go to the next level of
complexity or size maintain their vitality over time?

Mark Edinberg
610 Tunxis Hill Road
Fairfield, CT 06430
203 366-6650
markedin@snet.net