Going Forward

That which got you to where you are now, may not be enough to take you forward and grow your business.

Doing business today is more complicated than in the past. Owners face a barrage of uncertainties that their counterparts in the past did not – technology that is always changing, new products that are brought to market at the speed of light, and levels of local and foreign competition that have never before been faced. In many cases, the market is shifting in geographical terms and the owner wonders why the business is static or in decline.

No owner can master the breadth of knowledge that it takes to understand, and react to, all the complex and evolving variables, which have become the norm of today’s business environment.
And the risk of taking your focus away from your initial success formula – happens so easily. The insidious creep of business problems will take your eye off the main game.
The business owners role today is not to know everything, but to reach out and find the knowledge he needs to make the right decisions.

Knowledge is the core competence of organisations today (you are increasingly hearing about “knowledge management”) and it is the knowledgeable owner that finds the competitive advantage. Not all the knowledge required by the owner is to be found inside the company - it is often found increasingly outside the organisation. Especially the knowledge and resources needed to grow the company.

Knowledge on its own, however, is not enough! There must be a will, resource and structure, that enables and leverages the knowledge. Often a disruptive influence needs to take place to shake all the old wood out of the tree – as long as the process is well managed and transparent!
This dynamic necessitates that the modern day owner must be comfortable with his dependence on others and he cannot see this as an insult to his leadership capabilities. Instead, he needs to use these independent relationships to stimulate teamwork and creativity – he has to master the art of knowing where to find everything!

He needs to switch his focus away from internalised positions and towards externalised powerful accomplishment!

An owners job is to make proper use of the assets at their disposal and to maximise the return earned on those assets. With knowledge now the primary differentiator in today’s world, the owner is obligated to surround himself with the right people.
He first has to source them and them he has to leverage them. His primary objective therefore is to build the IP and IC of the organisation into a highly effective mix made up from diverse resources.

For anyone to be even reasonably successful, intelligence, hard work or even knowledge is simply not enough – it requires something separate, something different. Not talking about special gifts, special aptitude, or special training.
But the ability and awareness to know that you need external expertise to take your business to the next level.

Remember that internal misjudgements are six times more likely to cause business failure than external factors. Success in business, as in life, is all about getting the fundamentals right … and the actions you take!

Makes you think, doesn’t it!