Being a Quitter is not my cup of tea but on my transformation journey to giving up bad habits, I did learn some important outcomes of quitting.
It all started with my quest to lose weight. I joined the gym, hired a trainer and went on diet. Sounds like the perfect recipe for weight loss. But even after being regular for two months, I had just lost 1.5 kilogram from the 20 odd kilos I had to lose. Apart from the weight loss, my running pace had just reduced by 15 seconds on a kilometer.
Surprised? That’s because, apart from doing the right things right, there were too many wrong things in my recipe. And that was the moment of awakening. So I started by quitting a few: alcohol, smoke and something really nice: sugar! Not just the sugar in coffee but anything and everything with sugar. Few more things gradually went on my list including caffeine, packaged food, fries and dry snacks.
And the results? Within 7 months, I had lost 7 kilograms without any workout. I shaved off a minute per kilometer in my running pace by barely running 80 kilometers in total. These runs also happened to be my only workouts apart from occasional yoga sessions.
Doing the right things right while continuing the wrong things is like hiring a creator and destroyer simultaneously. Whatever good output you may have earned from the right things is wiped clear by the wrong ones. And the same principle has similar implications on all our business activities.
If your company is making losses, you not only need to take corrective actions towards under-performing efforts but also need to cut down on the counter productive efforts. For instance, if you are unable to generate sale during a particular season, you should also plan temporary overhead cuts in advance. By only preparing for marketing (right things) but being inactive on the counter or non-productive fronts leads to double costs.
These wrong things are usually small leaks. You never notice them unless the right things stop working and the leaks appear to consume the hard earned margins. For instance, for products early in the life-cycle, companies have good margins, hence smaller leaks in form of inefficiency or unproductive activities are left unnoticed.
Now slowly when the product matures and competition increases, the margins start shrinking. As the trend continues, at one point the margins no longer suffice to support your resources on the right things. And it is that that point when the management starts denying budgets, managers start to look for these leaks.
Just as I started wondering what was wrong in my recipe for weight loss!
So once in a while, even if you are doing all the right things right, you should be asking yourself as well as your managers and executives one question:
What is the ONE thing that we are doing but should NOT be doing?
Since I love to share my learnings and you have read this far, I will share a FREE access link to my course on Business Essentials which focuses on 7 key concepts, the understanding of which can help anyone unlock rapid and sustainable growth!
Feature image: flickr user airpix
Savvy Munshi 