If you want to deliver growth, cut down the number of priorities.
We recently started a project with a client with a brilliantly successful business, a killer brand, and an envious growth trajectory. So what’s the problem?
Well, like many markets, theirs is stagnant. Actually, it’s going backwards, so their challenge is continuing to deliver growth year after year. And recently, it’s been a struggle—not through the want of trying, the quality and quantity of their ideas, or the number of initiatives they implement.
The trouble is that too many companies are struggling to unblock growth, and they have done more and more.
And if everything is important, then nothing is. So we say: ‘Do less and do it better.’
Successful innovation can come from deciding what not to do and when not to do it. When you need to work out how to prioritise, try freeing yourself up to focus on the fewest possible things. Only one or two things will ever really make the difference. The trick is to find out which ones. And you won’t work that out by attempting to do everything at once.
So, cut your priorities in half. Then, cut them in half again. Call it focus, call it being smart, call it laziness—it doesn’t matter. Fewer, bigger, better is an easier and more effective path to revitalising your business.
