August 9, 2018
ISSN# 1545-2646
Three Little Pigs Businesses
Most of us know the story of the Three Little Pigs and their three houses made of straw, sticks, and bricks. The first two pigs which quickly built their houses of straw and sticks laughed at the third pig because their houses were completed very quickly and they could then sing and dance while the third pig worked diligently on the building of the brick house.
Ultimately, when the big bad wolf came along and destruction came to the first two houses and the pigs needed to seek shelter from the third pig in the brick house is when they realized there short-sighted view of building their houses.
Although this story can have many meanings, this week as you focus on the building of your business, you need to look at the foundation and framework your business is being built upon. A weak framework and foundation cannot withstand the daily challenges of a marketplace which demands great things of a business. You end up building and rebuilding your business after each and every change in the marketplace. In other words, you continue to work in the business rather than work on the business to build it better. The third pig, who started out taking time to build a solid structure, can now work on the house doing improvements to build it even better rather than having to rebuild it from outside threats.
The foundation of your business is not your unique product or service that you ultimately deliver to your customers. It is the purpose, culture, and core values that are the foundation of how the business is to be conducted. Your products and services will change and evolve with the demands of the marketplace. Your foundation you build your company on must be as solid as the brick home the third pig built.
This week as you build your company, look at some of the recurring issues that are taking you away from building and pulling you back into repairing your business. These are symptoms of issues which are far more central to the growth of the business. Like building with sticks and straw, if you don’t take the time to address these fundamental issues, they only create more and more downstream problems for the business. The first place you must look at is yourself. Ownership does not automatically translate into leadership of the business. More frequently than one might think, the business owner is a contributor to the chaos. Dictating and demanding, yelling and screaming, ranting and raving to your staff is not acceptable. Employees tolerate it for various reasons but eventually, they disengage and performance drops dramatically. This only infuriates the owner and more of the same behaviors take place. Muck like the big bad wolf, the owner huffs, and puffs until all the good employees are blown away to the competition.
Interested in having a business scan of your organization done to see what are symptoms and what are actual issues? Give JKL Associates a call at (313) 527-7945 to start building your business of bricks.
Questions or comments – email us at partners@jklassociates.com or call our Office at (313) 527-7945
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