Business and life are never straight-forward.
And if you run your own business you know that it
presents a unique set of challenges.
In 2009 I met a Dublin based business owner, Morgan Browne.
In the space of a couple of months he’d lost 2 deals worth €400k
which was essential to cash-flow, had to let go key members of his
team and the banks halved the company’s overdraft and credit facilities.
He was a few weeks from going out of business.
He had also been prescribed anti-depressants and made a throw-away remark
which has since become a joke between us…’At least it can’t get any worse’.
I said ‘Never say that. It can always get worse!’
A week later Morgan broke his leg.
To managers faced with such deterioration (in results), a more flexible measurement system often suggests itself: just shoot the arrow of business performance into a blank canvas and then carefully draw the bulls-eye around the implanted arrow. – Warren Buffett
One of the wealthiest people in the world, Warren Buffet’s company
Berkshire Hathaway is one of the largest companies on the Fortune 500,
with annual revenues in excess of $195 Billion.
The above quote is taken from his 1982 annual letter to shareholders.
In it Buffett derided businesspeople who set targets and then,
confronted with unsatisfactory results, simply change the target.
What those people do, Buffett said, is move the target to suit the results
as opposed to the best business people who hold the target and
force themselves to change their approach.
