Our business is doing too much of the wrong sort of work. Help!

We all agree that our business is doing too much of the wrong sort of work, but we just can’t seem to take the plunge and stop doing it. Help!

Last week I met with two businesses whose modus operandi was essentially to be “all things to all people”. After a bit of debate the CEO’s agreed that their businesses would be more effective if they focussed on delivering fewer services. But when it actually came down to deciding what to stop doing and when, they were reluctant. It reminded me of this story about a previous client, Paul. I thought you might like it too.

Even Paul described his business as chaotic. I remember naively asking him what his business did. “Everything” he said. I subsequently realised that “anything” was closer to the mark.

Paul started the business about seven years ago. He originally set himself up as a freelancer but started hiring people when he won more work than he could manage. The business grew, albeit haphazardly, from then.

Unfortunately, the GFC hasn’t been kind to Paul’s business. After a particularly awful few months Paul decided it was time to make some changes. It wasn’t an easy decision but Paul and his team agreed that they needed to de-clutter the business and stop chasing random work. They came up with a simple framework for the business and vowed to stick to their new focus.

A few weeks later one of Paul’s sales guys called me. He had (finally) got a first meeting with a business that I know reasonably well. He wanted some advice about the client he was going to see, so I asked him what he was going to talk to them about. When he told me I was more than a little surprised.

“But I thought you weren’t doing that stuff any more,” I said.

“We’re not,” said the sales guy.

“So…” I started to say, but he interrupted me gruffly: “Look I don’t know how serious Paul really is about giving up this stuff. Nothing has actually changed in the business so I thought my best bet would be to just go ahead as usual. I do have targets to meet”.

I tell this story because I come across this scenario often. A business decides to take a brave new path, the team gets incredibly excited about the prospect of change to the business and then – nothing. Nothing actually changes, nothing actually happens. Everyone just continues doing things in exactly the same way that they did prior to “the big decision”.

If this happens to you then here is what I suggest. As soon as possible after making “the big decision” do something bold and symbolic that shows your team exactly how serious and committed to the change you are. If it hurts, all the better – it will make it more memorable.

I once worked with a CEO who, in the middle of a strategy session, listed his beloved (but rather ostentatious) company car on Carsales.com.au to demonstrate his commitment to repositioning the business as a no frills outfit.

When I spoke to Paul he wasn’t entirely surprised that his sales guy was in business-as-usual mode because, he confessed, he hadn’t quite come to grips with saying “no” either.

After a bit of nudging from the senior team Paul did something bold. He culled the business’s bottom 20% of clients and in doing so sent a very strong message to his employees. That was six months ago. Today the business is more profitable than it has ever been.

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).

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