"According to Pogo's immortal phrase: We have discovered the enemy, and that is us !!" Milton and Rose Friedman.
In all the companies that I had to help, and there are several, I run into the same difficulty.
Once the vision has been defined, the strategy has been established and the action plan has been drawn up, if the business model is viable (it always is, without major modifications, since entrepreneurs always perceive when a business is possible. And on the other hand, if This was not my job is to see how to radically change it or get out of it) begins the fight to prevent the business owner, with their own habits, with wrong actions or with unintelligible practices, to prevent the strategy from being carried out.
It may seem incredible, but despite having developed the entire action plan together, those old practices always appear, or those habits that seem to undermine your own company. And, always, my job is to show them what those actions are that only prevent the plans that he himself designed from being carried out.
Many of the problems that I perceive are common to all, so I imagine that most SMEs should be victims of these practices. Furthermore, I believe that countless companies do not develop and become large due to this problem. It is the same owner who keeps growth tied down.
I am going to tell you about the most serious cases that I have attended, with the aim of helping you to see if you are contaminated with this strange evil. Sometimes looking at other cases from the outside can serve to see yourself reflected and identify yourself.
What I am going to relate is the absolute truth, although sometimes it seems pathetic, the strange thing is that the owners, being immersed and being part of the problem, do not perceive the seriousness of it.
The most common symptoms are
The “bad harvest” syndrome
A popular story relates that a farmer was sitting under a tree when a walker passed by and asked him - "What are you doing friend?", He replied - "I am harvesting the fruit of this tree" - "And harvest sitting?" - "And, yes, when the wind comes down the fruit and I lift it" - "And if there is no wind?" - "And, that's a bad harvest year !!".
This type of behavior, oddly enough, is that of most employers.
Although they work long and long hours, they lose sight of the result. In other words, they occupy themselves without measuring the result of that occupation.
In a company they had delivery problems, orders were always pending for double what they delivered, customers complained and some stopped buying, although they were of excellent quality and that is the secret of their success.
The worst thing is that the company, with the level of turnover they were reaching, was very unprofitable and that made it very difficult for them to make the investments they needed.
At first I thought that the production capacity was insufficient, despite the fact that they claimed that they worked comfortably.
So I proposed to them, as a goal, to achieve a turnover level 40% higher than the average so far for four months. That was going to tell me if the structure was capable of producing more (when I say structure, I mean the entire company, purchasing, logistics, maintenance, service providers, etc.). Despite the appearance of small problems of outsourcing a service, which was solved by incorporating another provider, a process that took two days, the proposed goal was reached, during the proposed time, without any problem. Furthermore, in the last two weeks, production was always higher than usual, which they did to reach the requested delivery figure, but never a little more, they had set their own limits.
This showed that it was possible to deliver 100% of orders without major problems and without a large increase in staff.
Whenever a little more was asked for, excuses appeared (the lack of wind), that many people were missing, that the raw material supplier did not deliver, that such personnel did not do things well, that more people would have to be taken, that they would not they had time.
That businessman worked long and long hours in the company, even suspending vacations leaving the family aside, but he did not understand the importance of the result.
Everything was attributable to external factors, they were never guilty. He did not understand that the entrepreneur's job is to make things happen, that he must be constantly seeing what is preventing him from reaching the goal and solving it.
So, as all the meetings generated discussions about why the orders could not be fulfilled (I clarify that fulfilling what was sold meant a huge jump in profitability and accelerated growth) I decided to change the decision guidelines.
They always complained about the low withdrawals and the sacrificial life they led, so I encouraged them to withdraw what they considered fair or what they intended, which was four times what they retired until then.
In this way, if the company did not deliver, it would not be profitable and would melt.
This meant, as we say in Argentina, putting on long pants. If they wanted to live well, and it was possible to do so, they should think and work as entrepreneurs "Achieving the objectives in any way."
He also forced to delegate some functions and generate middle managers, which at first seemed impossible, everything had to be carried out by them.
They were caught in their own trap, they had no sales problems, because they had put all their energy into the quality of the product, and they are good at it, but they did not understand the need to reach a certain goal. So they did not have sufficient profitability, they could not invest, or take on more personnel, or automate for greater productivity.
After the change in perspective, two months have passed since the incoming orders are being fulfilled, and we are already thinking of incorporating a seller.
Many entrepreneurs in times of crisis know how to survive, are creative and make the necessary sacrifices to pass the moment and achieve what they want. But in moments of growth they do not feel the same rush to achieve the objectives, it is as if they are only good storm pilots who rest calmly waiting for the next turbulence.
This is related to the next symptom
Symptom: more or less well
I am fond of stories because I am convinced that they serve to define a problem much more than a thousand words.
A Zen master and his disciple were on a pilgrimage through a mountainous and desolate landscape, when they found a very poor cabin. In it lived a family made up of a man, his wife and six children.
They asked them for lodging and food, to which the peasants responded affirmatively in very good taste despite their poverty, they would share what little they had.
During dinner, the teacher asked what they lived on: The man explained that they had a cow, from which they got daily milk and a little more that they exchanged with other farmers for some food. That this allowed them to live as they did.
The next day, the travelers got up before anyone else to continue on their way, so the disciple tells the teacher - Master, that good people, they shared with us what little they had. And how poor they are. How I would like to help you !!. Can't we do anything for them?
Without thinking, the teacher said, "Do you want to help them?" Go and push the cow down the ravine.
-But, master, it is the only source of food !!!.-
- Do not argue, do what I tell you!
The disciple thought that the master had gone mad, but he had no choice but to obey, and so he did.
A year later the disciple returned to pass alone through the region, and full of fear and curiosity passed through the house. As he got closer he saw it much more tidy, and he even saw a lot of planted land that was not on the previous visit.
Seeing him arrive, the peasant approached him recognizing him and said:
-Welcome, you brought us luck !!! The day they left, our cow fell down the ravine. At first we despaired thinking that we were going to starve, so I started sowing to have something to eat, my wife started knitting some clothes that she sells at the market and she is doing very well, and my older son learned to work the wood and makes furniture for the entire region. We already bought the house that was not ours and we are thinking of buying more land to plant !!! ”
The story itself is quite clear. But this situation is much more common than we think, until many times immersed in it we do not perceive it.
Most of the opportunities appear in moments of crisis, many of the companies arose because the entrepreneur was fired from the job and did not know what to do, others because they lost the largest client and had to change products, or after the crisis of the 2001 we had to do something, and so I have a thousand examples.
Beware of mediocre results, companies that grow do not settle.
In this symptom I give as an example to all the companies that I had to help, when they call me it is because they know that they can be better and they are not satisfied. But I have had more than one interview where the answer is "this is enough", a company that does not grow begins to die.
This brings me to the next recurring symptom
Symptom: I don't want to be big
In the first work meeting with companies, the objective is to find the vision. The unavoidable questions are always: What would you like to be? What do you want to become? How do you see the ideal company?
The answers inevitably have the term "I don't want to be a big company".
Sometimes he asked me if it is a cultural problem in Latin America, and how would they answer me in Europe or the United States.
In successive meetings, of course, I convince you of the error of that answer.
They do not understand that big companies, the first thing they thought about is being big.
It seems that they want to have a small company, with very good profitability, without staff, without problems, working three hours a day, and because of some lucky break, or because someone decides, which is not them, to become Microsoft or Coca Cola, and this is not possible.
On the other hand, they admire those who made these companies possible.
An entrepreneur must always want to be great, and not with an exclusively economic objective but with realization, achievements, what a company means for society.
If they don't think about being great they never will be
They associate a bigger company with more work and less free time, and, normally, if they do things right, it's the opposite. It is to control the course of business and to delegate to people who know more than we do.
In one of the companies that I help it is a problem to define between the owners who arrives early to open and who stays to close, they would have to work on Saturdays to fulfill orders, but they themselves sabotage the decision, because none of them likes to work that day.
I can't get them to trust employees for that task, this comes from the father of the owners who thought that opening the business was a sign of responsibility. They themselves stop growth, because then more activity means more hours of work.
In another company, the one in the first story, they do not work overtime or another shift because the person in charge of production, one of the owners, thinks that if he is not in the factory he does not walk, so he avoids overtime. The incredible thing is that he lives half a block from the company.
As an organization, it is a system where everything has to do with everything. This lack of trust in the personnel leads us to the fourth symptom.
The “staff is the enemy” syndrome
It seems almost always impossible to make the employer understand that the employment relationship is a "win-win" relationship.
They believe that it is a zero-sum system where what one gains is lost by the other. I must clarify that the culture of our workers does not help much to think otherwise, but it is also true that the greatest responsibility for the success of the relationship lies with the employer.
There is a great distrust of one in the others and, before any problem, the first thing is to think about the other party's bad intention.
The employment relationship should be as simple as possible: this we can do, this we cannot do, this is rewarded, this is punished. The basic conditions: they are clear rules, justice for all equally (including the businessman) and, from time to time, a pat on the back.
If the rules are defined and the employee knows what is expected of him, he is periodically told that he does well and that he does badly and that he should change, the problem, if he does not comply, is exclusively his.
Entrepreneurs normally pose a relationship of I order and you obey, your life does not interest me, your problems outside, if I did not say it you should know it is obvious. They constantly monitor the how and not the what, they are attentive to how many times they drink water and not how much it produces, if they talk to colleagues and not the quality of their work.
Over the years, truly amazing working relationships are woven.
In one company they came to offer us a productivity control system, that is, to see which tasks were overworked and which did not add value, which consisted of placing a camera in the workplace.
The businessman, who seemed interested in the system, suggested not telling the employee that he was being filmed, because he knew him, that he was a difficult employee, that he was going to do everything wrong on purpose, that he was going to say that he was being watched and that then he was going to be in a bad face for a month.
It was as simple as explaining that the goal was to improve the task, that increased productivity improved everyone's profitability, and that he was part of the company.
Finally, the system was not used to avoid problems with the employee, and worse still, this employee was promoted after two months, as if he were an exemplary employee.
In a board meeting, where we discussed how to solve the problem of high absenteeism and apathy of the staff, one of the owners suggested giving an economic incentive to the employees. I replied that I could pay people double the salary and the problem would continue, as long as the toilets were still so dirty and uninhabitable, the temperature of the shed was unbearable, people should eat in the middle of the production or lying on the ground outside. the factory, or had to keep filling the troughs with tap water because the order was no more than two drums per week, as if the staff were using that water for some obscure purpose.
In one of the best companies, the one that has grown the most in recent times and the one with the best results we have, the owner is upset because the organization is going through a financial crisis, so he treats the staff badly, looking for those responsible for all the problems and not solutions, people began to tell him in the meetings what he wants to hear and not what he thinks, to avoid challenges.
He did not understand that being an entrepreneur implies being very careful of all attitudes and reactions because everything we do is an example and educates, and everything we do not also is an example and educates.
Conclusions
As you can see, the businessman is the biggest enemy of the organization.
They are generally responsible for the fact that companies with high growth potential continue, for years, in a state of torpor, earning something but not displaying all their capabilities (they live off the cow).
They work hard but without setting goals, they find all the excuses to explain why they couldn't (lack of wind).
They don't want to be big and boycott growth.
They transform personnel into an enemy of the company.
Companies that have a viable business model and are not growing should change their employer, although this is not possible.
So, if anyone reading these lines felt identified, they should consider right now how they are going to change their vision of the company.
"We have discovered the enemy and we are ourselves."
