The Road to Business Hell
Chances are that most people have, at some point, heard the expression “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. This captures in a nutshell the destructive tendency people have to procrastinate and put off making important decisions until they literally land in a place of heat and discomfort – all while saying to themselves they would make the necessary adjustments tomorrow, next week, next year…but never now.
This sad reality is as true in business as it is in the lives of individuals. Have you ever experienced instances at work where seemingly “legitimate” reasons are given for why the new accounting software should be bought later; why the new corporate stationery should be printed later; why employing new staff to infuse fresh energy into the current team should be postponed until much later…? Think how many organisations have failed because management had an excuse why what needs to be done NOW should be put off for one week, then a month, then two and finally, it is lost in oblivion.
Whilst not alluding to being an expert on the subject, if more people and business managers adopt the following simple, yet impactful practices, they would find themselves far removed from the wide and seemingly beautiful road that, nonetheless, leads to business hell.
Have a goal – Although it has become a cliché, yet very few people practice the simple act of setting goals. There is nothing quite like a big picture to guide you in taking the right business decisions to achieve success. A number of businesses have finely drafted vision and mission statements (the purpose for which majority are totally clueless about), but beyond these often grandeur mix of words, there must be strategic goals to guide the business on a shorter, periodic basis (quarterly, semi annually or annually, depending on the needs of the organisation). Think about this as the picture within the picture. Imagine how difficult finding books in a library would be if all the books were bunched together without proper delineation and labelling of the different field and subject sections.
a. Plan – It has been said that if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there. Even when you do know where you are going, you still need to map out a strategy of how best to get there. As I like to put it, it’s about finding the path of least resistance. Once you have a goal in place, you should plan the tactics for achieving it. Just like in warfare – you know you NEED to defeat your opponent, but just knowing it will not help you; you have to plan how to go about it. As A.A Milne said, “Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” One thing to note about planning is that having an unwritten plan is as harmful as having no plan. If you do not write it, it just does not exist. It is so much easier to get sidetracked with unwritten plans. Even in our day-to-day interaction, I encourage members of my team to have a notepad and use it; it is less likely you’ll leave out an important task this way.
Pick your battles – in much the same way that you can’t be everything to everyone at the same time, you can’t be everything to every client or customer. There are times to say “no” to a brief, to a client or to a project. There is no point stretching your resources too thin and in the process missing the benefits that come from doing something and doing it well. I read somewhere that one reason so few people achieve what they truly want is that they never concentrate their power; they never decide to focus on and master something in particular. We should note, however, that choosing which battle to fight should be guided by a consideration of how important such a battle is, strategically or tactically, rather than just based on money or convenience. I have worked with clients before who were important to us not because of the value of their cheques (which were in fact small relative to the efforts we had to put in), but because of the leverage we could get from such clients in terms of exposure, active word of mouth and a foot in certain crucial doors.
Measure performance – In Nigeria, we are not quite into numbers yet; statistics, where available, tend to be old and outdated. However, the only way to know if you have truly succeeded in reaching your goals is by measuring where you are now from where you were at the start and where you wanted to be. This way, you can track areas that functioned superbly and should be sustained, as well as those areas that require adjustments. This works not only for businesses, but for individuals as well. Think about this: how many individuals can answer the question “can you justify what you have earned as a salary these last six months”? Not keeping track of your achievements and performance means that you short-change yourself when it comes to negotiations, either with clients or with bosses. Apart from monitoring your own performance, you should also keep tabs on competition: what are they up to? How are they faring compared to you?
After all advice is given and suggestions made, the responsibility lies with business managers to inspire those they lead to charge forward in pursuit of the goals that will propel the organisation to its desired land of promise, rather than end up in some miserable place populated by rundown business has-beens.
‘Lola Egboh is head of business development at Kore & Company, a Lagos-based marketing communications agency.
