Thoughts For Founders And Investors

Building and backing a business may operate from a different vantage point but each draw from a similar kind of judgement.

The numbers are an outcome of the offer, the customer base, the team, the environment leadership creates and the collective abilities to effectively navigate and benefit from market complexity, volatility, opportunity and challenge.

Founders and investors have to continually distinguish progress from activity, opportunity from distraction and apparent growth from operational reality.

Here are some thoughts.

A Good Place To Start

The six areas below are a practical high level lens for thinking about the business you are running and the environment you are creating.

'When we're looking to improve our B2B business, I think a good place to start is to consider and, where necessary, take action in these six areas:

-- Firstly, the clarity and appropriateness of our offer in the context of the markets we serve and the resources, both operational and financial, available to us. We don't want to be stretched too thin or applying our efforts in areas that don't suit us or our configuration well.

-- Secondly, the quality of our customer base, paying particular attention to their ability and willingness to pay for what it is we have to offer. The better the quality of our customer base the stronger our business.

-- Thirdly, the environment we have designed, consciously or otherwise, for our people. A good question to ask and to listen carefully and take positive steps in response to is "are we as a team, are we as an individual, easy to work with and easy to work for?"

-- Fourthly, the business and people acumen of each member of our management team. The more adept our leaders are in these areas the likelier they'll set a positive, collaborative and commercial tone for their respective teams and make good decisions.

-- Fifthly, the confidence, consciousness and capability of our sales professionals to engage on a business level with business leaders and other budget holders. The more of an asset our people are to our customers the likelier we succeed.

-- Sixthly, the confidence, consciousness and capability of our non-sales customer facing professionals in building strong productive relationships both externally and internally. The closer we collaborate the stronger our bonds.'

- Rob Evans, Founder Of Outperformance Highway, Based On 35+ Years Working Inside 150+ Businesses Worldwide

Allocating Our Assets

Consciously or otherwise, we're always making choices.

And not all choices are equal.

We never have endless reserves of cash, time, energy and attention.

We have many ways to allocate the assets we do have.

Some steps hardly move us forward.

Perfection burns resource.

Bad choices destroy progress.

Sometimes we catch sight of a good outcome with reasonable certainty and modest cost.

We need to really go for it when we do.

How proactive and deliberate are we in finding those big leaps forward for modest investments and risk?

Are We In Too Deep?

Are we actually drowning in too much volume or choosing to have no breathing room because we haven't found a more strategic way forward?

Is getting each task done, each report out, each fire extinguished and each request attended to really a way of rationalising our distance from a state that we feel we ought to be at but which we haven't yet figured out how to reach?

The big picture is so easily lost in a sea of operational volume.

It takes determination to shift our state, and it begins with the reality of where we are today.

Are we clear headed enough about where we are, or are we too deep in the operational to see it?

What Would They Say?

The answers to human questions matter as much as strategic ones.

Feelings drive behaviours.

What would they say?

About us.

Are we as an individual, are we as a team, are we as an organisation, both energising to work with and energising to work for?

If all the answers are yes, we're in a great place.

If any of the answers are no, why and what are we going to do about it?