We all fall into
habits over time. Some good, some bad. Businesses are no different. One way to
shed some of those habits - or at least identify them - is to imagine yourself
as a start up.
There are many things that define start-ups. You might
remember your own business in its very early days or be part of a start-up now.
What defines start-ups is very different to what defines long established
businesses because the longer you’ve been around, the more likely it is you’ve
acquired a lot more overhead, process, staff, routine and documentation along
the way.
You may be bigger, but you may also feel slower. Less
nimble. You may feel less innovative, less connected to your customers, less
involved in winning and delivering business. Your ability to listen to clients
seems less effective and your ability to identify and then pounce on new
opportunities is somehow more complicated.
Around you, new businesses pop up, with lower overheads and
more agile management. They’re starting to ‘steal’ some of your clients.
This is a common story, called free enterprise. Just because
you’ve been around for 100 years means nothing these days: it didn’t mean much
to the likes of Kodak, which went broke in 2012 after more than 100 years. Likewise for RCA Victor, Pan Am, and many
others. While some go broke others muddle on, mere shadows of their former
selves.
Avoiding the trap of complacency and mediocrity in business
is the subject of MBA Doctorates. But it does occur to me that if we could identify
the qualities that helped a business succeed as a start-up, and re-apply them
periodically, it might be a way to shed light on how some habits could be
re-thought.
Imagine your team indulging in a session of ‘what would we
do differently if we had to start over?’ I am betting plenty of hands would
shoot up with suggestions, some of which might include:
We’d be taking more
risks. Start-ups by nature have less to lose, so the whole venture is a
high risk exercise. It’s a different way of thinking. How would that translate
into an existing business?
We’d be much more
hands on. Start-ups are ‘hands on’ by their owner/principals by necessity.
There is no one else to consult, you just dive in and do it yourself. Is this
quality worth re-visiting?
We’d be more
decisive. Start-ups tend to make decisions quickly. Even rashly. Larger
businesses can be much slower in the decision making process. Is lack of speed in
decision making a handicap and if so, how do you address that?
We’d do things no-one
else would. And you’d probably do them just because no one else would. Being bold, brash and cheeky are qualities
that start-ups have that tend to infuriate ‘establishment’ brands.
Our values would be transparent. Start-ups are often closely aligned with the values
driven by their founders/principals. This can clearly define their market
position. Long established businesses sometimes lose this point of difference
as the ‘corporate vanilla’ takes over. Large businesses can also have
identifiable values: if yours could use some, how do you achieve that?
We’d be in cheaper
space. The fancy office is a lovely thing to have, and if designed well,
will add to productivity. But it is an overhead that start-ups do without. Their market position is defined by the
effort and sheer sweat of their owners, not by the business address or foyer
fit-out.
We’d get rid of HR. There
are some large businesses I know that have never adopted the ‘HR department’
approach to personnel. Some can’t live
without it. But it does impose process and tends to blur lines of
accountability. Are you top heavy with HR and is it a handbrake or an enabler?
We’d all be more
involved in chasing and winning business. In start-ups, everyone’s arse is
on the line, and it’s everyone’s job to be part of the new business effort.
Larger organisations hire people like me to help them do what start-ups do
themselves. How can you spread that new business load throughout your business
so that more people are shouldering the effort rather than waiting to be fed?
None of this is intended as a catalogue of options but
simply as a thought-provoker. It’s the sort of thing you can workshop in your
own business if you’re starting to feel sluggish and are watching newcomers outmanoeuvre
you for opportunities.
If you think it’s silly, that’s fine. But also think about
people like Richard Branson, who seems somehow to have very cleverly maintained
some of the values of a start up in what has become a very successful and very large global
business with multiple interests from consumer finance to space travel.
Virgin started as a small record label, with plenty of start-up attitude: attitude it’s
kept alive for more than 40 years. Think about it?
