Defining a successful business (8 min read)
The definition of a successful business has changed.
We ran a mini poll this week to test opinion about what our audience defines as “successful” for a business.
If a company has high profits, but its people are stressed and exhausted, can the business be classed as successful?
The answer used to be “Yes”. It’s very different now.
100% agree, a business is not successful if its profits are high, but its people are stressed and exhausted.
Yet, we still see too few businesses investing in the well-being of their team members - even in this pandemic time. We still see an active expectation that it is the responsibility of the individual to take care of their own stress, and little recognition owned by the business that the Company may just be contributing to and generating stress for the people that are part of it.
Do you recognize any of these business examples that create stress?
High performers are capable, so keep adding to their workload because they will find a way to get it done.
Set stretch goals for people and when they meet and exceed them, reward the meeting of the goal, but not the exceeding of the goal.
Managers say it’s ok to take time off to staff for a mental recharge, but do not take time off themselves. They keep a record of who takes how many days off, and then conduct a periodic sorted review of who in which department took the most days. In doing so this instills mistrust and anxiousness.
Create a culture where individuals worry more about how they appear ‘against’ their colleagues vs ‘with’ their colleagues.
Team work is not rewarded, individual meritocracy is, so competitive behaviors emerge and toxic relationships are born.
The P&L is more important on a quarterly basis than the impact on individuals with hiring and firing swings.
Leadership changes cause strategy shifts every few months, leading to victim and disempowered mentality by team members.
Poor social and emotional behaviors are not addressed with leaders, managers, or team members. They are left to fester in the organization without consequences, and by doing so their poor behaviors are rewarded. Only tactical, transactional behaviors that generate profits are rewarded. Sacrifice humanity for profit. This leads to many and deep issues across the organization.
Ask if people are productive now working at home, but do not make any active changes to working schedules, workloads, goals, or expectations.
The concept of understanding the emotional well-being of staff is considered impractical and “…not for our organization, it’s applicable for other businesses, but we are different.”
Expect teams to pick up the work load when other individuals are off work (for sickness, appointments, childcare, mental health days, volunteering, or any other day conventionally considered ‘non-work’), without additional support.
Lack of emotional and social support for team members, lack of psychological safety measures actively adopted and implemented throughout the organization and culture in daily working practices and business lifestyle.
Lack of encouragement to enhance well-being. “Well-being, after all, is the responsibility of the individual, not us as the business.” is the common comment. We can always hire other people to do the job as there are plenty of individuals out there becomes an engrained belief.
There are many many more examples, which probably come to mind as you read this.
The Purpose of a Corporation
On August 19, 2019, through the Business Roundtable, 181 CEOs of the largest American Corporations came together and signed a new statement on the purpose of a corporation.
“Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity. We believe the free-market system is the best means of generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all. “
You can read the full statement here, with all the signatures of the CEOs. Including Jeff Besos of Amazon, Stephen Squeri of American Express, Rich Lesser of the Boston Consulting Group, Punit Renjen of Deloitte, Steven Swartz of the HEARST Corporation, Mary Barra of General Motors Company, Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, Brian Cornell of Target, and Mortimer Buckley of Vanguard among others.
If you read the statement you will glean that this group of Executives clearly agree that American Corporations have more purpose and responsibility than simply shareholder value. This was pre-pandemic, and a move in the right direction. So now, in these pandemic days what does our present and future hold for the playbook of not just Corporations, but for all businesses?
The New Playbook
As a result of the pandemic, we are now living and working in a different way.
In pre-pandemic days, organizations would implement 12-24 month strategic initiatives to determined if and how to move to a 100% home working / remote working model, it then would be a 2-5 year implementation model of action to get to 100%.
When the pandemic came, many companies did exactly that within 1-2 weeks. Moving thousands of people to home working practically overnight. This proves, that when we have to be; we are incredibly creative, flexible, resilient and adaptable.
So, let’s not waste this pandemic time, let’s put it to good use. There are plenty of reports that outline after significant challenges placed on global or national communities, tremendous periods of creativity and innovation emerge. As entrepreneurs one of the greatest gifts of having limitations on your business is that it forces you to get creative. There is no complacency, there is an appetite to strive for something greater than the present, there is an urgency to achieve that with purpose, and a level of unrelenting grit appears and develops.
In the same way, this pandemic is offering the world of business a chance to reset, to reboot, to upgrade and create a new playbook.
We have a real opportunity to define the ingredients list of what a successful business will look like in the years ahead.
The Successful Business Ingredients List
What will our society and industry definitions be of a successful business? What do we want to hold up as the core ingredients that say:
This is what a successful business looks like.
Let’s be intentional about what we want, write down what we want, let’s identify a destination to aim for. This will help us all spot and seize opportunities to move towards creating a pathway for the new successful businesses to emerge from.
A. What do successful businesses look like?
B. What does it feel like to work with one?
C. What does it feel like to use, buy, and interact with a successful business?
Comment below on what ingredients you’d like to see,
we’ll gather and start creating a playbook.
To get the conversation rolling, here are series of wish list ingredients we would put into the mix. As with all wish lists, there is no order, you start wide and vast and dream as much as possible, so get creative:
Conscious and empathetic leadership
An understanding of the emotional culture for employees, clients, outside communities, stakeholders, and investors
Human conscious business and impact assessment
Active inclusivity across the organization in individuals (throughout the entire organization and out to clients and communities), products, services, systems, processes, outreach, and engagement.
Steady and continuous profit growth
Sustainability impact
Carbon footprint impact measurement of all service and products
Community outreach - local and global measurements
Technology embraced and implemented to create automation
Humans lead with creativity and innovation
Business well-being impact on individuals - enhance individual well-being, do not reduce it
Re-defined work practices, schedules, and commitments to achieve individual and business growth
Strong financial position, not overly leveraged, yet conscious decision making - profit hits are expected in favor of protecting and supporting team members and communities
A move towards self-regulated organizations, a move away from hierarchical and authoritarian business models
What else?
Birch Cove is not a medical or therapy based business, we do not offer guarantees of any kind. We are not responsible for the well-being of businesses or individuals that read, watch, or hear our content, or take part in sessions, or use our services or the services we highlight. Birch Cove and our Collective members are not responsible for the physical and mental health and well-being of individuals we interact with directly or indirectly. We work to share best practices that inspire healthy living and revitalize a quality of life. If you personally are feeling unwell seek professional medical advice, and follow the CDC guidelines as appropriate.