- View our entire Business Blog archive.
Less is More
We live in a society where control is a fixation. Maybe it is common throughout the world, but somehow I think it is uniquely an American trait born of the dominance of our culture throughout the last 100 years since the Industrial Revolution. In the end it always seems to work out for us and it always seems, in the prism of our own historical view, a result of something we did. Whether it was the World Wars, Depression, putting a man on the moon, defeating Communism, or spreading democracy and capitalism globally, it seems that we are in control. This history is what makes it such a shock when we ultimately discover how foolish this point of view is and that control is just an illusion.
In modern warfare it is the combatant with the largest industrial output that wins. This is the real reason Germany never had a chance in either World War and Japan was doomed from the first bomb that hit Pearl Harbor. Oh sure, we had great generals but so did they. In the end the real general that mattered was General Motors, not General Patton. Communism would have collapsed in the end under the silliness of its underlying premise. Oh sure, we hurried it along but again (and as Reagan understood), we couldn’t lose. The Depression didn’t end because of the New Deal. It was getting worse as we entered the war which in the end was the real reason for good times later. The point is that things have a way of working out on their own for reasons independent of the plans we make. Men plan and God laughs.
Bringing all this down to home in our businesses, we all face challenges as we do in every other aspect of our lives. As Americans we naturally start making plans on how to deal with these challenges and in the end, most of the time as evidenced by business failure rates (56% in the first four years according to the SBA) the plans don’t work. Taking it a step farther, most of what entrepreneurs do to solve problems end up making things worse. It’s the Law of Unintended Consequences. Pull a thread on one end and unravel the other side of the garment.
Here is my advice. The best plan of action for most things is….nothing! Most, but certainly not all, problems iron themselves out most of the time if we just let some time elapse and don’t get frantic. Sometimes sales might be down for no good reason other than the business cycle and they will recover on their own if we don’t bankrupt the company spending money on action plans. So, how do you know the difference between a problem that needs immediate action and one that doesn’t? Get an outside view. Distance brings clarity. Use professionals who are dispassionate to tell you when to be sanguine and when to act.
Posted by Herb Kay on Thursday, May 08, 2008
Post Your Comments
If you would like to post comments to this blog entry, please login or register for free.