As a leader, your mindset, values and ways of doing things permeate your entire business, and can be the difference between a brand that enjoys enduring growth and success or one that simply fizzles out.
Immediate profit vs. lasting greatness
So many otherwise promising entrepreneurs fall into the trap of prioritising short-term gains over real, sustainable growth. These short-term fixes might yield immediate results but lead to long-term problems. Enduringly successful companies understand this, prioritising the strategic practices and planning that form the basis for future success.
One immediate example of this commitment to long-term thinking is understanding the importance of Net Present Value [NPV] of customers. Prioritising lifetime customer value over immediate profitability builds a loyal customer base and provides returning value, fostering deeper relationships and repeat business.
Building long-term relationships with business partners and employees is essential to creating a stable network that supports growth. Investment in both infrastructure and human capital, ensures a business that is steadfast as markets shift and change.
Get clear on your business model
Every business model should have a ‘why’ – the mission guiding your decision-making and aligning your team – and a ‘how’ – the core values that shape both your business practices and culture. Defining your own ‘why’ and ‘how’ is crucial, and feeds into your unique selling propositions [USPs].
A proper understanding of where and how you make money is essential. It’s simply not enough to know you are turning a profit, you must be able to identify your various revenue streams and most profitable areas of the business if you are to effectively allocate resources and develop long-term strategies around those areas.
When the business model is clear, it becomes easier to align roles and responsibilities across your organisation.
Embracing Integrity
Integrity in business means doing the right thing consistently – even when no one is watching. Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone who failed to keep a promise or behaved unethically? Would you consider doing business with such an individual, or recommend them to others? The answer is no, and this is why navigating the growth of your business with integrity is crucial. It shapes your brand, builds your reputation and determines the quality of your relationships across all stakeholders.
Your own integrity as a business leader should permeate throughout your entire organisation. A workplace grounded in integrity encourages a culture of openness and accountability. By having the courage to embrace integrity for both you and your business, you build a solid foundation for your business, as well as a reputable brand that thrives on trust and reliability.
Working on the business – not just in it
As a leader, your primary role should be to set the vision and direction your company is heading, but getting bogged down in daily operational tasks leaves less time for focus on strategic growth and development.
Consider how much time you spend steering the boat as a captain versus in the engine room working on daily operations. While you need oversight over those operations, becoming lost in the minutiae of your business diverts your focus from where it should really be: on strategic planning and leadership.
It’s a huge leap to hand over the reins of certain aspects of your business to others, but empowering your team to make and take ownership of decisions is vital to not only freeing up your time, but driving growth and responsibility within your team.
A successful business should not be entirely dependent on its owner as the linchpin holding everything together. It’s easy to become complacent, but regularly taking a critical look at your role within your company is essential to curtailing this before it creates larger issues.
Cultivating Discipline
A culture of discipline is perhaps one of the most fundamental drivers of long-term business success. Discipline ensures that strategies are not simply created, but effectively implemented, and without it, even the best strategy is worthless. Your long-term business strategy needs to be executed with both precision and consistency if it is to drive results, and this requires a disciplined approach where every team member is aware of, and committed to, following through on their responsibilities.
Investing in the right data analytics to measure and monitor your KPIs is essential to disciplined management, with KPIs providing a clear picture of performance and maintaining focus on strategic objectives, while empowering data-driven decisions. This similarly applies to customer relationship management, where a disciplined approach to tracking, analysing and optimising customer interactions ensures high standards of excellence are maintained. To put it simply – you cannot improve what you cannot measure.
Final thoughts
As a business leader, I regularly ask myself ‘Is my vision clear and understood by all my stakeholders?’, ‘Is our culture fostering consistent and disciplined operations?’ and ‘Have I kept my promises to my customers, staff and business partners?’. Not only does this keep me accountable, but it ensures my focus remains where it should be: on the long-term success of my businesses.
