Asymptote was the second word suggested by me after clarifying about the innovation, as mentioned in my last post, in challenge #1. “Asymptote: A value which a function approaches but never achieves“. I asked the gentleman about the values his organization used to talk about in its infant days and how much of that value is still holding up. He was quite astonished to find that though he still talks about those values, there are very few things he’s actually done to reflect and get that value transferred to its intended audience.
I say that’s the classical case of avolition, negative symptom of Schizophrenia, which if not taken care of would lead to your business becoming schizophrenic. So, the next question was about the “reasons behind this avolition”. The answer lies in the catch word “Focus”. Often businesses become so short term focused on sales and business development that it leads to the long term ideals and values getting washed away. This is quite natural to happen, given anthropomorphic attributes, and is akin to a person who focuses more on the neighbor next door than one who lives at the end of the street. Talk to any amount of business owners, executives or managers about his/her plans and the first thing, may be only, they would speak about is the next deal or client. The breed which used to talk about creating long term sustainable value, it seems, is nearing extinction.
I simply asked the gentleman, how he views his business? As an asset or Liability. Do i need to mention the answer 😉
If your business is an asset then the value of any asset increases or decreases over time. What is that one or few things which you’re doing to create and build long term values, how do you adapt to divide your vision equally between the next sales pitch and at the same time on necessary strategies, planning and activities for creating sustainable value?
Making a sustainable value planning and efficiently managing the same requires capacity building and innovation planning. But that doesn’t means doing, or trying to do, too many things at a time and lose focus. Defining destination and the road map is as important as deciding interim milestones to reach there. The idea is to take one step, achieve one milestone, at a time and progress further. “A bonsai plant never grows to its full potential because the value creation process gets curtailed inside”. The same applies to businesses as well. Either you end up bonsai all your life or grow to your full potential. A bonsai plant may not be of any value to even one bird but a full grown tree remains of immense value to a flock of them. For an organization that flock comprises of its customers, investors and employees, linked in a way or two, and the value creation should happen across the pyramid.
I say the shortest possible path to know where, how, why of your business is to focus on value creation activities, planning, strategy and management. Organizational growth is a blandiloquence that comes with the value. Thank You
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