You cannot think yourself to a solution. There must be action as well.
How similar is your business, and your way of managing it to Eskom? And before you respond off the bat, think about it. Do you talk, and complain, and think, and hypothesize, and philosophize, and share ideas? How much of all that involves people with different perspectives and experiences? How much of all that goes into a tangible implementable and measurable plan?
I have a keen interest in – my words – the psychology of Business Owner success. Why is it that some businesses “get it right”, and others don’t?
I define “get it right” as –
They pay themselves a salary;
They pay all their Taxes;
At the end of each year, they have Retained Earnings of which they take some, some stays in the business for next year, and some goes to their employees;
They don’t complain about not having time;
They own the fact that they don’t have all the answers;
They have external people that hold them accountable, where accountable is – How’s it going? How can we help? Have you thought about this?;
They spend time learning.
Look at Eskom, and your business, no matter size and industry…
Both have the six pillars of business –
1. Vison (what we do), Mission (how we do it) and Purpose (why we do it) (VMP);
2. Implementation and Measurement of VMP;
The 3 resources for pillar 2:
3. People
4. Time
5. Money;
6. And, Exit/Entry – products, systems, business.
Now think of your business as a house. The six pillars are the foundation.
Inside the house are ten walls –
1. Communications
2. Customer Service
3. Finances
4. Human Resources Procedures
5. Marketing
6. Operations
7. Employee Development
8. Planning
9. Sales
10. Technology
Now look again at Eskom and your business. Same walls…
I am 56, and I remember an Eskom that was doing well. I also remember Kodak, Polaroid, Yahoo, Xerox.
I also worked with stiffy discs and floppy discs, listened to LPs and had a telephone book next to my landline telephone…
Businesses don’t fail overnight. They fail over time. And time is all we have the same amount of in every day.
Business Owner, are you spending your time on maintaining AND improving your “house” – foundation and walls?
Or are you talking, complaining, thinking, hypothesizing, philosophizing, and sharing ideas, with no plan?