My work is done.

And thanks again, Steve.

Thanks to Kelly and Steve for thoughts – very helpful indeed!

Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post…How I Get So Much Done Each Day

Glad to know you’re still with us. I have to say…

No. I’m speechless.

That’s a very funky business model. Must leave staff constantly worried.

Makes you want to find a way to wake up that President. Oy, oy.

What can you do when the top can’t see the problem? Seth Godin talks (in Tribes) about transformation from the bottom and I’m a big proponent of doing what you can no matter what position you’re in, because you can better things for the customer, but this guy sounds like someone who wouldn’t recognize transformation even if it became a movement. I wonder if real change is possible in a situation like that.

More empathy for you than ever…

Until later,

Kelly

Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Just a Mark?

Obviously, no company can satisfy all of the people all of the time. If you represent their core customer, then they better not mess with the things you value so greatly. If you’re more on the margin, they may be willing to lose you if it enables them to better serve their core. Unfortunately, most companies probably don’t make decisions with this type of analysis–at least not as much as they should.

If you think about it, the ultimate target market from a customer’s perspective is one person–then the company can be exactly everything you need it to be. On the other hand, the ultimate target from a corporation’s perspective is everyone, the ultimate mass market. No company can be profitable serving just one person, nor can it be effective serving everyone, so the trick is to find that “happy place” somewhere in the middle. It’s an imperfect science and a continually moving target. But that’s what makes it interesting, I suppose.

And the reason being is part of my comment here.

I work for a group of companies. Each started one after another until there are now 13 in all. The first 2 in the group are dead and gone. The standard MO around here is President gets an idea, starts a business, business grows, business starts to stall/gets boring, president hands over daily control to managment team. Growth flatlines. President gets an idea etc…

So we have never solved our growth\stall problem. Each business has its ups and its downs and we are very diversified. So in our current economic climate about half are down but the other half are keeping the rest of the groups afloat. When the economy picks of then it all balances out again.

Currently we are in a massive growth spurt. We have started 3 more ventures in the last 6 weeks with 3 more coming. Our tact has changed slightly in that we now do joint ventures with established leaders in the field. Spreading the risk and the booty.

So we grow by adding limbs, not by continually growing the limbs.

We do not have the focus, the leadership nor the desire to un-stall ourselves. But if we did, each company in the group would be massively profitable.

Then I could hire more staff to help run this galopy.

Eyetiredguy

Eyeteaguy’s last blog post…Can’t hold a tune to save thier lives.

What about businesses that we count on to remain consistent or a constant “known”? For example I really would go a little berserk if certain suppliers changed anything about my favorite brush or paper, or a pigment that no longer does exactly what I loved it for in the first place. ( that did happen) When a company’s mission is to provide that constant and yet for some reason a stall happens (maybe economic) What are they to do?

Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Just a Mark?

@Kelly and Steve — reminds me of the Polaroid. When it first came out, it was so exciting to have “instant” photos. Now it would be a pain to wait that whole three minutes for it to develop…

~Graham

Also, great point about the false idea of “making it once and being set for life.” It’s just not reality, is it? Business is constant growth throughout the life of the company. Sometimes the real work and real growth begins when the honeymoon is over.

Todd Smith’s last blog post…Preliminary image selection for next year’s calendar