Spoke in the Wheel…

One of the principals of my company asked me today, “What can [we] do differently?” I immediately started to talk about being more efficient in certain processes. Which is true. There are some things we could do a little smarter that would make life better for those involved.

A quick story. Our company is very small and the business development effort right now consists of one permanent person who is assisted by to of the company officers. I volunteered my help during one proposal effort and I could not believe the amount of gratitude I received for such little effort. It was nice but I did not think I was really doing all that much. I told the BD person, “There are a lot of people in this company with skills that can help. You just need to reach out.”

So, in answer to the question, what can be done differently, my first answer is the company needs to involve more people in the processes of running the company. One person to do it all becomes very overwhelming for that person, likely to cause them to burnout.

A little later I was reading through Seth Grodin’s blog and followed some link’s to this Squidoo page. It got me to thinking more about his question. What I am starting to see, too, is a company that has lost some its identity. In the quest to grow and find new opportunities, I think it has lost sight of how it originally saw itself. What is its definition and strategy?

I did mention this, somewhat, during our conversation. I said the company needs to broaden its horizons and not put all of its eggs in one basket, so to speak. We need to branch out, making our current customer-base one “spoke” in the company wheel. Once we identify who we are, our type of wheel, the spokes should fall into place.