Critical components for your business' success – Business Daily
Listening to politicians sell themselves recently before the polls many Kenyans looked forward to a new government and a new Kenya. A new dawn to usher in low cost of living, lots of money and opportunities to better lives. All contestants promised better things within a record short time of ascending to power.
Now it’s time to face the reality. We should not expect miracles from the next government. We must play our roles by working hard and taming our expectations to avoid disappointments.
In engineering, it is said that out of the three critical components of successful project – speed, cost and quality, you can only have two at a time. In other words, if you want a project to be completed very fast you either have to pay high cost or compromise on quality. You cannot indulge in all.
One of the greatest challenges most people face in pursuit of their goals, especially in business is balancing cost and quality within a specified timeframe.
We must build a solid foundation for our businesses. This requires time and lots of resources and sacrifices.
Most business and management problems spring from focusing on speed and forgetting the cost element. In the process either quality is forfeited or cost becomes insurmountable. In most cases it is the quality that is sacrificed. When this is done customers flee in drones and this marks the beginning of the end.
As a start-up business consultant one mess I am mostly called upon to sort by my clients has to do with quality of one thing or another that was sacrificed at the altar of saving costs.
Most people jump into business and right from the start ignore key components such as conducting a feasibility study, setting up systems, investing in good product development and establishing an ethical business culture.
Later as business grows or fails to grow it becomes either very expensive or impossible to correct past wrongs.
Starting a successful business is not one off or hit-and-run sort of thing. It is a long-term investment that requires to be founded on the right values and clear mission and vision that can withstand the shocks and adversities of the market place.
Most successful businesses we see around took time, hardwork and persistence to grow and gave handsome returns to the owner. Their owners painstakingly and diligently established what products customers needed and took time to build them to their satisfaction. They worked hard to establish a brand that communicates something that can be understood, verified and trusted.
If you want to succeed in business the cardinal rule is first establish what the customers need and how they need it. This is where marketing begins and if you get it wrong, everything else that follows will be wrong.
Always guard and tame your expectations to avoid disappointments. Commit to overcome the temptation to expect luck, miracles or to grow very fast.
We are optimistic that the new government once formed will bring positive change but there will be costs too and time factor as well.
