What should you stop doing to start winning?

The Chinese have a saying that loosely translates as, “Sacrificing the plum tree for the peach tree”. If you are more chess player than horticulturalist you might like to think of it as, “Sacrificing a pawn to save a rook”. Either way, it’s a useful strategy to reflect on for a business.

I recently spent time with a business that was founded by three former media producers to develop an interesting and unique product. The product was at the “just-about-saleable-but-nowhere-near-perfect” stage and the founders were gloomy that the product was taking way longer to take to market than they had expected.

When the founders started the business they took on production work to generate cash to fund the product development. Because of their track record in production it was relatively easy for the founders to win and deliver the traditional type of work, so they scaled up that side of the business always doing it “to fund development”.

In truth by the end of year one the production side of the business had produced more than enough cash to fund product development, but the production side was so familiar – like a comfortable old shoe – that the founders continued to focus on that side of the business. Now, three years later the business is really a 12-person production company with no more than a side order of product development.

The founders had to make a decision. Do they continue their successful but unremarkable production company or do they re-focus the business and put the oomph behind the development and sale of the product? In other words, do they sacrifice the plum tree for the peach tree?

It was a tough decision but the founders decided to go with their original plan. The product was the vision they had had for the business in the first place; they had simply got sidetracked by tactics.

Sacrificing the plum tree for the peach tree is about giving up short-term benefits to win the overall victory. Is there a plum tree in your business that needs sacrificing?

Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses:Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business”  and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).