In trying to run a business successfully there are so many things a person needs to be able to do. But there is ONE thing a person MUST do if they are to be successful.
This is not a magic fix thing and it isn’t necessarily easy. In fact once you get this one thing bedded down it will likely be challenged for quite a while until it becomes second nature.
It should be what you are known for and respected for. Some will love it, some will be put off by it.
It will win you many clients but at the same time it may cause you to lose a few. If you do it right, the clients you lose will be of no real concern long term, though it will be painful at the time.
The one thing is what Jim Collins and Jerry Porras call a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal“, or a BHAG.
The BHAG is imperative for any business to break out of the average and become a business of significance and definitely a business of Choice (Big C) rather than commodity (little c). Everything done in the business then becomes defined by the BHAG.
You can go here for an illustration and you will see how the BHAG determines how your business is seen in the marketplace. You will also see that how you are seen is totally dependent on you and your BHAG.
The BHAG defines the strategies you will take as a business. It will compel you to do things a certain way. If the BHAG is loosely defined then the strategies will be harder to define and more vague. This will damage or hinder your progress. So the BHAG must be well defined and very discriminatory (in a legal fashion).
The strategies then will allow you to staff correctly. The staff you bring on board must be catalysts to you achieving the BHAG. “Just anyone will do … won’t!”
The right staff means the right values and the ability to share your vision to help you achieve your goals. Here, again, is where being able to clearly define and articulate your vision to others is so important.
The staff/team are those people who will put in place activities to help you achieve your strategies. This is very important. The day to day activities can be seen as humdrum, run of the mill and not nearly as exciting or motivating as the BHAG. But without the strategies and activities there will be no BHAG.
But what goes on day to day becomes your culture. Culture has been defined as “the way we doing things around here” and every business, by intention or without intention, has a culture. Positive or negative. Constructive or destructive.
The culture then defines how people within the business think about the business. “It’s great to work here” versus “This place is the pits!” It defines the internal reputation of the business. If people thoughts about work were plastered on a TV would you be happy with what you see and read? That is your internal reputation. A reputation is not defined by one good day and not by one bad day. Every person and every business has those. A reputation is formed over time and that is what you have to work n. If you look at one day as a measure you’ll lose too much sleep.
The culmination of all this is that the internal reputation you form over time will define the external reputation to the market. What you and your team think internally is inevitably what the market will see and how your business will be reputed.
To shortcut all this: your BHAG defines how the market sees the business and will determine your success. But if you look at the steps in between, you’ll see that how the market/clients view you and your business is totally up to you, your team and defining the BHAG as well as you can.
