by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
In The Ten Commandments for Business Failure, Donald R. Keough, takes us down the road of his experience as director of Coca Cola to show the roads to avoid for certain business collapse. His experience is impeccably strong and worth listening to. So in a business, if you do these things, failure is just ahead.
Make one of these your practice, and you can expect the others to come crumbling in around you. One step to failure, unchecked, leads to another.
Quit taking risks
One of the pitfalls to success is to stop forward advancing when things appear to be going well. Keough likens this to a sports team who gets a commanding lead then starts being conservative to hold the lead, versus still being aggressive and daring in building on what they got. Many may lose the lead or barely pull the game out. Having things too good is not good. Keough's favorite activity was going around the company and asking what can be better and we should make it better. To create profits in the long term requires innovation in the short term. When you are comfortable, the temptation to quit taking risks is so great, it's almost irresistible. And failure is almost inevitable.
Be Inflexible
Being set in your ways because you have "the" formula for success, and you don't see any other way for doing things is a certain set up for failure. Coca Cola didn't take the rise of Pepsi seriously and felt they had the right answer. They kept their packaging the same, when the consumer was being drawn to the larger size of Pepsi bottles. Coca Cola's inflexibility cost them dearly then. When conditions around you change, remain inflexible, keep on keeping on and stand firm. You will fail. Flexibility is a continual, deeply thoughtful process of examining situations and, when warranted, quickly adapting to changing circumstances. It's like standing water, that eventually breeds reptiles of the mind.
Isolate Yourself
If you don't know the truth of what is really happening in your business, you will fail. Some don't want to know and only hear what is good. It someone gives an honest appraisal that is negative, they are reprimanded for being insubordinate. Keough was always walking around his business, just dropping in offices and asking what could be done better. Top to bottom saw him. Create a climate of fear, put yourself first, take all the credit, take no blame, hog the limelight, and failure's headlights can be seen approaching. In isolation, you will not only not know what you don't know, but you develop a sense of being absolutely right. When the "we can do no wrong" attitude overtakes the top, the bottom is near.
Assume Infallibility
Always find someone or something to blame. The infallible we-know-best attitude of management has caused many companies to ignore reality and miss opportunities. It really pays to see all of your companies operations for yourself, the good and bad outlets. When Keough traveled he not only wanted to see his successful operations, but the little stores that no one wanted to pay attention to. It pays to listen to your own people face-to-face instead of through the filters of layers of bureaucracy.
Play the Game Close to the Foul Line
Walter Cronkite said, "Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles." Recently we have seen quite a few very smart, energetic people who have evidenced a fuzzy view of the right thing. Ignored little cracks in your body of ethics will over time seep the life out of your business. Eventual collapses have been seeping through their ethics cracks for a while, when they finally collapse, it is many times over night. Celebrity status have seduced many into the cult behavior of crossing over the ethical behavior line... to maintain your praise-filled image. It's doing the right thing, and holding up honor and decency. There is no such thing as business ethics... just ethics. "A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder."
Don't Take Time to Think
Technology does many great things for a business, but the brain still sees things with a greater perspective. Allowing technology and data to take over our own thinking is the a step to failure. Three major problems are inherent in unprocessed data flowing without time to think. When we delve into all kinds of data we need time to decompress. You must take time to think. Moving faster, without processing information leads to failure. Second, data not processed can mask reality. We want the numbers to be true, so we don't look into what is behind the numbers, or what is really going on in the entire operation. Third, not taking time to think is just plain foolish. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity. As human beings, we are constantly making mistakes. We need to recognize this, find them and constantly fix them. If you want to fail avoid looking at and analyzing your mistakes. When you don't they will continue to haunt you in the future.
Put All Your Faith in Experts and Outside Consultants
Consultants come in as authorities with absolute direction. What you get is a narrow perspective of what appears to be genius, but is often the inverse of wisdom. Management is a craft, not a science. Beware of those who try to mathematize and quantify human behavior. You simply cannot put numbers on everything. The business is your baby. It is your responsibility. Anything that has strong psychological impact deserves face to face communication.
Love your Bureaucracy
The machine of the organization should not get in the road of human creativity and productivity. Personality, personal creativity, personal feelings, personal emotional commitment, personal imagination... there has to be room for these ineffable qualities in every job through out an organization. It seems eventually the rules and regulations of a business become more important then the ends they are to serve. Then the bureaucracy itself becomes the major impediment to progress of any kind. Layers and layers of people become a standard, and meetings are the religious services of a company. If you want to lose some of your best talent, make sure the administrative concerns take precedence over all others... love your bureaucracy. Decisions need to be made by those with the best information, not those with the most power.
Send Mixed Messages
Sending mixed messages or confused messages to employees and customers will jeopardize your competitive position. Like when a parent who tells his child to clean his plate or no dessert, but then when he doesn't finish his meal, he gets dessert any ways. Sometimes we say it doesn't matter what you do, you will be rewarded. One year Coca Cola didn't have their sales meeting at a resort, with wives. They picked a city, in the north, in dead of winter, at an average commercial hotel. They got the message. We aren't spending money we don't have. Sales did pick up and the next year they met at Hawaii with wives.
Be Afraid of the Future
There is a great difference between prudent caution regarding and unbridled fear of that future. Science and world conditions could paint a painful picture of what's ahead. Life has always had its things to be concerned with, but when pessimism sets in, it will set you back. As human beings we have always found new markets and ways to capitalize on what's going on around us and create new opportunities. "Worst case scenarios rarely happen." Pessimism focuses on failure. That focus leads to failure. We have a tendency to be thrill seekers obsessed with safety.To aspire to any kind of leadership in business you simply have to be an optimist. American business has constantly reinvented itself. If you want to fail, be afraid of the future. If you want to succeed, approach the future with optimism, and passion.
Commandment Eleven: Lose your passion for work, for life.
"Nothing great in this world has been accomplished without passion." Life is best expressed in our declaration of independence. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." We aspire to be happy. If you really want to fail, lose the passion for whatever you are doing. "I have never met a successful person who did not express love for what he did and care about it passionately." Make an emotional connection with your customers, your brand, with your people, with your dreams. Don't be afraid of the criticism that great enthusiasm and optimism sometimes engender among the "realists." Be an idealistic goal setter of a vision of something extraordinary perhaps that others around you do not yet see or understand. And failure is not final. When you fall pick yourself up and move on.
For more on The Ten Commandments for Business Failure:
http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2008/08/business-failur.html
Interesting to note that when God gave the Ten Commandments they were all "thou shall not". In the New Living Translation it uses the "You must not" phrase. We were told when you do these things you will fail in life. So the admonishment was not to do them.
3 "You must not have any other god but me.
4 "You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
7 "You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.
8 "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
12 "Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 "You must not murder.
14 "You must not commit adultery.
15 "You must not steal.
16 "You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.
17 "You must not covet your neighbor's house. You must not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor."
(Exodus 20:3-17, NLT)
But then when Jesus gave the Great Commandment He used "You shall" or in the New Living Translation, "you must."
"'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."
(Matthew 22: 37-40, NLT)
Life is complex enough, and we need principles simplified. Our laws have gotten so involved, we can't keep track, so we have lawyers and accountants gainfully employed to help us figure them out. But Jesus simply said....
All the laws ever given are based on this commandment to love God with all our hearts, mind and soul and love everyone else the same way. And treat them the same way we would want to be treated... with respect and consideration of who we are.
And if we do this we make complete all the laws that exist.
The next challenge is to define love.
Paul said love is "patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NLT)
Interestingly, very little is said about achievement. It's about character. Actually, achievement was down played by Paul the Apostle. If you don't have love he said, everything else you do is worthless.
"If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing."
(1 Corinthians 13:3, NLT)
We have an achievement-based society. Money makes the world go round, but the admonishment was to have only one debt, one obligation. and that is to love each other.
"Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law."
(Romans 13; 8, NLT)
That is what we owe. We owe only that and are asked to pay off that debt continually. A debt is what we owe, what we are obligated to do. And that obligation is we should love... Love God, love our fellow man, our friends and work associates. Love is patient, kind, gentle, suffers long with us, and holds not grudges.
We can live in this, and when we live in this, all the other "things" grow out of this. It is sort of a magical formula. It produces miracles. Out of love God gave us the right to be His sons, and as His sons we have a co-inheritance in His privileges and kingdom.
"Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering."
(Romans 8: 15-17, NLT)
Being a joint heir, we have a Deed of Trust with God's name and our name on it. What is God's is also ours. We share in the assets He has, God has, which is the entire universe. All things of substance and spiritual are part of us.
It boils down to that He loves us to the level that he is co-signing with us so that we have His assets as well. We share in all He has to the infinite extend of His glorious riches... Through our legal counsel Jesus Himself. Jesus, is our petitioner and is our power of attorney to all of God's wealth... materially, but most of all in our spirit and emotions.
This love is boundless and makes us happy like we never can fully understand.
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