Do you treat your business like a rental car?

October 5, 2017

ISSN# 1545-2646

Do you treat your business like a rental car?

All of us have rented a car for business or pleasure at some time in the past. Depending on location and rental company, your experience may have been most pleasurable or some what of a disaster. This week we are not discussing the operational high or low points of the rental companies. We are focusing more on the vehicles and how some of those using these cars treat them. So before you email me indicating you would not do any of these things…. I ask you to pause and simply appreciate that there are people that treat rental cars without the greatest of care.

In over hearing business travelers while waiting at the airport rental counter I recall such phrases as, it’s not my car so who cares how it gets returned or better for me to blow up the engine in this rental than my own car.  I would then watch as they raced away from the parking lot having little regard for the vehicle let alone property or pedestrians.

So the question could be raised as to how they treat or use their own vehicle when back at home?  Maybe they drive the same way?  Maybe their car at home is on a lease so they will be returning it to the dealer anyway so why care?  Answers to these questions are not readily available as I never tracked their personal use of their own vehicles. More importantly is did they draw a contrast as to how to use and protect the vehicle they rented/leased vs. one they purchase?

This contrast not only applies to rental cars but also how a business is grown and nurtured.  If leadership views the business as disposable, they will make different choices in how they develop and mature not only the business but the resources inside the business.

As leaders we may not even recognize these subtle but important choices made regarding our business’s.  Running the resources in the business at Red Line, much like a car engine, eventually has its toll on the organization or vehicle. Something breaks and now added cost and delays come into play.  With the rental car you may not be the one to have the trouble but you contributed to it. In your business, you not only contribute to it but because you own it then the problem is yours.

This week take a walk around the rental car you call your business.  Where are the nicks and scratches? Is the fabric torn from too much internal stress pulling on the various fibers/people in your company? Do the employees look at your business as something they have pride in or are they just looking at it as a rental car?

Your business much like your personal automobile is part of who you are. It is a reflection of the way you treat people and things. Over use them and they can fail.  Shine them up by investing and developing in them and they can bring greater value in the future.

Is your business in need of a complete detailing? Call JKL Associates at (313) 527-7945 so we can help you inspect your business from the perspective or pride of ownership.

Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
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 Copyright – JKL Associates 2017

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