what happens when you build a real business and you want to retire and sell but allow one function to fall short because its leader is incompetent or lazy… same as what happens when you fumble the ball on the goal line every down….
The Movie Any Given Sunday was famous for highlighting the battle for inches on both the football field and life. From personal experience I can tell you the inches look deceptively simple and often it’s just a few that separates the consistent winners from the losers. This week we’ll go into more detail on why that’s the case in business.
In the story with David and Nathan, David was having an “affair’ with his business by being so busy in day to day thankless tasks that he was neglecting growing the company and his own family. In my experience, several owners who were too busy to invest 20 minutes in finding out the strengths and risks in the underlying value of their business are no longer in business today. It’s not a coincidence.
In the story with David and Nathan, David says in passing he stepped away from a recurring revenue opportunity because he was focused on potential costs. In Business, predictability is sexy. You don’t want your business to come off as challenging, volatile, and a “bad boy”.
in the story with David and Nathan, David is allowing himself to take his eyes off his business by indulging the wishes of a customer that has become too big. You don’t want to be at the mercy of a big whale of a customer or it can evaporate your business in a second or keep you up at night worrying about it..
in the story with David and Nathan, David had his “black knight” Jack, who is destroying the value of David’s business by being completely inept in his finance role. It’s an unforced error and 100% avoidable. It just requires a commitment to producing and providing high quality financial reporting.
in the story with David and Nathan, Nathan started by how David’s poor customer experience from outsourcing is destroying the value of his business. Some metrics in this article make Nathan’s point pretty clear…
In the world of business, the real thief may not always be who you expect. David finds out finally the uncomfortable truth – that the thief jeopardizing his company’s value and his family’s future is closer than he thinks.