Tag: growth

All their lives

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People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.

If you work in marketing, you have certainly heard this quote by professor Levitt. But that is not true, because nobody wants a quarter-inch hole in their wall. They might want to install some shelves to keep things organized, or perhaps they want to fix the furniture to the wall to prevent it from falling, or they might want a tool that makes them feel more comfortable and ready when there is some work to do around the house.

The point is that you should never stop at your product, nor you should stop at the first thing people do with your product.

Go further, understand their motivations, accompany them on the journey they are taking, and you will be with them all their lives.

Doing and vision

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Doing is what anchors the vision. Vision is what lifts the doing.

Without vision, doing is pointless activity. At best, it is meeting standards, delivering on goals, complying to rules. It ends the moment it has achieve its purpose. It is static as it does not allow for growth.

Without doing, vision is but a dream. A gap that will just be filled with delusion and dissatisfaction. The continuous wondering of a restless mind. It is static as well as it does not set you out on a journey.

Doing and vision go together. Keep this in mind the next time you sit down to work on your goals.

What success means

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What is success?

Is it revenue? Profit? Cash?

Is it a title? A promotion? A bonus?

Is it likes? Shares? Comments?

Is it cutting corners, jumping on the bandwagon, getting distracted by the new thing?

Is it doing more of the same?

Is it the achievements of those around you?

Is it how many of your employees can afford a house, a baby, a debt repayment?

We quickly get stuck in habits. We think that just because things have been done in a certain way for a long time, just because somebody has achieved some status by doing that, then our only option is to follow the same path. Often miserably.

Find the courage to define what success means to you.

Bare minimum

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You need to subtract, not add.

You need to cut, not expand.

You need to combine, not fragment.

You need to connect, not divide.

And when you are down to the bare minimum, that’s when clarity kicks in. In life, in writing, in business, in projects, in marketing, in communication, you do not get to deep understanding by adding chaos on top of chaos.

And when you are down to the bare minimum, that’s when you can slowly start building. On solid foundation, in the direction you have chosen, taking the right people with you.

Folly

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Companies have a strong tool they can leverage to influence behaviour: rewards.

The problem then is not that companies cannot figure out how to increase employees collaboration, how to break down silos, how to foster innovation, or how to build a safe space for feedback. The problem is that the focus is – sometimes unintentionally – on a contrasting behaviour, which gets strenghtened with rewards.

Steve Kerr 1995 – On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B.