Geographically embarrassed businesses

Geographically embarrassed. It’s a euphemism for being lost. Whenever you go wandering about in the bush on an Army exercise, individuals or groups are sure to get lost. In my experience, the first assumption made when you realise you are lost is that the map was wrong.

Unfortunately, it almost never is.

The army of course, knows people will get lost, so it gives them tools to figure out where they are. And no I’m not talking about GPS. The problem with GPS is that they need batteries, can break and don¹t always work properly.

One of the first things young soldiers learn about navigating (apart from reading a map and using a compass) is how to conduct a resection.

Effectively what you do is:

1. 1. Look around for three major features (e.g. hills).
   2. Find them on your map.
   3. Use your compass to get a bearing to each of the features.
   4. Draw that bearing on your map, making the line go through the feature.
   5. You should have three lines on your map that (depending on your accuracy) create a small triangle where they meet.
   6. Unless you have buggered things up, you are in the centre of the triangle.

“But,” I hear you say, “So what?” Well navigating from point A to point B in the bush is not that dissimilar from getting your business from point A to point B.

You start off with a well thought through plan that normally begins to fall apart as soon as you move. The terrain isn’t how you expected it to be, holes in you plan become gaping chasms, people in your team have their own agendas and if you end up running into a little bit of competition, all bets are off.

So one of the things that I regularly see in both businesses that I am an investor in, and my clients, is a business plan that regularly mutates to suit the current situation. This always seems rational at that moment in time and is described as a benefit. They say: “We are dynamic and not a moribund corporate, we are constantly changing to market conditions.” Unfortunately, like the dodgy map, it’s just not true.

It’s very hard in start-ups and SOHO firms to have strong management and governance, but I suggest that in monthly management meetings, a resection is conducted.

Take three of your KPIs for the year, metaphorically draw a line back to where you are and figure out whether you are still on track. Which KPIs should you pick? Material ones of course ­ are the large drivers of your business, the ones that matter. This is normally around customer acquisition, revenue and cashflow management.

If you’re not where you expected to be, don¹t change your plan, change your actions to get yourself back on track. Your map is almost never wrong.

Brendan Lewis is a serial technology entrepreneur having founded : Ideas Lighting, Carradale Media, Edion, Verve IT, The Churchill Club, Flinders Pacific and L2i Technology Advisory. He has set up businesses for others in Romania, Indonesia and Vietnam. Qualified in IT and Accounting, he has also spent time running an Advertising agency and as a Cavalry Officer with the Australian Army Reserve.

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