The Peril of Misdirected Focus
A friend of mine went to send a package by mail recently, at an independently owned business. He was behind someone standing in line at 8:55 with the owner visible and arranging some boxes and not paying any attention to his customers. Perplexed, he looked at the person in front of him who exclaimed, “he doesn’t open until 9am.”
Another friend went to buy coffee and donuts at a popular Canadian establishment. Looking at a stand of fresh donuts, they told the clerk which delightful flavour of donut they would like to partake of. The clerk informed them that the donuts they were looking at were ‘tomorrow’s donuts.’ He insisted that under no circumstances could he sell them today.
If studied at business school, these business exchanges would be an obvious example of business processes overriding the ultimate goal of business, sales and revenue. While these examples are so obviously a misdirection of shrewd business protcol, it’s easy for any of us to misdirect our resources at any given time, to a number of tasks that detract us from the ultimate success of building our business. At the end of the day, our business exists to provide something to people. Whether it’s a service, information or even a feeling we’re providing, we must not get distracted by processes to the extent that it interferes with the delivery of what our business exists to deliver. If we do, our business will be crippled at best, or at worst, irrelevant.
Always strive to keep the focus of your business and what it delivers a higher importance than the processes that exist to deliver it. Your business depends on it!
