Learning business lessons

I went into College after breakfast this morning, but people I wanted to see were busy, so I went off and did a bereavement visit in preparation for this week's funeral - a man admitted to hospital with severe joint pain who contracted 'flu  while there and died of pneumonia. His widow rehearsed with sadness but no bitterness what sounded to me like a story of poor patient management, as if the staff just didn't know how do deal with his suffering - dealing with symptoms not the whole person.

I lunched in College, did the necessary catching up and then headed for town to spend the afternoon with Ashley working on an inventory of company assets that will give a necessary overview of what equipment we own, what we paid for it and what it's now worth. This was an outcome of last Friday's steering group for me. Again, this was spurred by a need to make available to newcomers such information as will help them get a more detailed idea of what it takes to run the company, and what subscription revenue has been spent on. The better the picture we convey the better the understanding can be developed that will support the next phase of our development.

It was a satisfying afternoon, crowned, when I got off the bus at the top of Cathedral Road, by the sight of the cherry trees lining the edge of Llandaff Fields in full blossom after a day of showers and sunshine. On my way into work buds had just started to open. In the course of the day, Spring arrived.
 

I felt much better for putting in place another piece of the giant jigsaw of company affairs which should have been there from the outset. It wasn't implemented at the start because of the way the whole enterprise was rushed into being without a proper management plan. Getting the technical side up and running was easy and only took a few days to get started. Getting the financial recording and administrative support in place without it costing a fortune and slowing down growth much further has taken four years. I wonder how many enthusiastic business enterprises flourish and then fade with similar weaknesses they are unable to overcome?

I think that a key business problem today is that successful growth and its rewards are presumed to be possible much quicker than is realistic. The speed of modern technologies is a huge advantage in the communication of ideas promotion of products, rallying support - but only if used to good effect. The benefits of good ideas, good products, may take longer to realise. The work involved in making an organisation sustainable, consistent, reliable enough to keep delivering the goods can be overlooked in the excitement for start-up. Big risks can reap big rewards, but also catastrophic failure. Carefully measured risk may not deliver as much in the short term, but yield more in the long term. Patience is still a virtue.