The G20 protestors in London today have got it wrong. And I don’t mean because of their political biases.
They’ve got it wrong because no-one’s quite sure what it’s really all about. They’re protesting about too much; climate change, capitalism, recession, world debt, third-world debt, war, banks, bonuses, redundancies, low interest rates, food shortages. The list goes on. I saw the early marches around parliament on Saturday myself and it’s just baffling.
Too much to say just becomes noise, the message gets lost, and the danger from the protestors’ point of view is that their demonstration becomes interpreted as just a bunch of angry people.
The thing to take away is that when you say too much it’s too close to saying nothing at all.
Showing posts with label Paradox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paradox. Show all posts
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Friday, 19 December 2008
Beating the Paradox Conundrum
There are so many confusing paradoxes in the world of business.
Woolworths’ problems stemmed from the fact that it didn’t have any particular focus, yet there are many companies that are failing because they didn’t diversify enough.
Many businesses enjoy success because they take risks – Porsche’s Cayenne off-roader for example. Many cause themselves problems because they do – take Toshiba’s now-defunct HD DVD format. Or who could forget the calamitous Sinclair C5?
Some ventures fail because the board or the owners give up too early. Others because they didn’t give up on something early enough.
Some will say your primary focus should be to maximise the value of each client above all else. Some say you should have as many clients as possible to spread risk.
If you do lots of marketing people will think you’re desperate. If you don’t do lots of marketing you’ll fail.
Whether you succeed because you do one thing or succeed because you do another is down to the perceptiveness of the people in charge to consider a situation – maybe a situation that hasn’t even presented itself yet – make a decision on it and then take conclusive action. Even if that decision is then to do nothing about a particular situation. The problem is that if you do nothing because you’ve considered nothing then you’ll be a very mediocre business, and one thing that’s absolutely black and white in business is that mediocrity always fails in the end.
It’s simple to explain how to make decisions that will more often than not bring you out on the right side of the paradox: you drop all your own pre-conceived notions about how right you are about something, learn to always be researching and taking calculated risks, map out your end game with every venture, continually communicate your core values, and ensure you can deliver.
Easy to explain, not always so easy to do. Which is why perceptive decision makers are a rare and often very wealthy breed. Why not decide to be one?
Woolworths’ problems stemmed from the fact that it didn’t have any particular focus, yet there are many companies that are failing because they didn’t diversify enough.
Many businesses enjoy success because they take risks – Porsche’s Cayenne off-roader for example. Many cause themselves problems because they do – take Toshiba’s now-defunct HD DVD format. Or who could forget the calamitous Sinclair C5?
Some ventures fail because the board or the owners give up too early. Others because they didn’t give up on something early enough.
Some will say your primary focus should be to maximise the value of each client above all else. Some say you should have as many clients as possible to spread risk.
If you do lots of marketing people will think you’re desperate. If you don’t do lots of marketing you’ll fail.
Whether you succeed because you do one thing or succeed because you do another is down to the perceptiveness of the people in charge to consider a situation – maybe a situation that hasn’t even presented itself yet – make a decision on it and then take conclusive action. Even if that decision is then to do nothing about a particular situation. The problem is that if you do nothing because you’ve considered nothing then you’ll be a very mediocre business, and one thing that’s absolutely black and white in business is that mediocrity always fails in the end.
It’s simple to explain how to make decisions that will more often than not bring you out on the right side of the paradox: you drop all your own pre-conceived notions about how right you are about something, learn to always be researching and taking calculated risks, map out your end game with every venture, continually communicate your core values, and ensure you can deliver.
Easy to explain, not always so easy to do. Which is why perceptive decision makers are a rare and often very wealthy breed. Why not decide to be one?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
