On Growth
Eduardo Nofuentes
Photo taken by Bianca Tuckwell
We just finished a Financial Year in Australia, and by all accounts, it has been a tough year for many organisations. Interest rates have gone up and so has the cost of living. There are less jobs out there. Businesses are spending and investing less and many organisations like ours have suffered the consequences. I have spoken to many small and medium business owners over the past 12 months, and almost everyone is feeling the pain. They have had to let people go; revenues are down, and margins are also down.
Obviously, there are exceptions, and I am sure some organisations in some specific sectors would have done better this year than the year before.
In a world where pretty much everything and everyone is measured and valued by how much you have financially grown from year to year; I have been wondering how all those business owners and executives may be feeling right now. This made me think of “Growth”.
At Neu21 we have had an ok year financially. Our revenue has gone slightly backwards and so has our margin; we still made a profit, and we finished the year with an optimistic outlook for the next. Since launching the business, we have never set ourselves any financial targets at the start of the year. We have always believed that profits, growth and financial results were exactly that: a “result”. And rather than focusing on the result, we have chosen to focus on the “process”.
We have always believed that if we create a good culture, develop great products and services and provide an excellent customer experience (the process); the financial outcomes (the results) will take care of themselves. Of course, there is more than that; but I am trying to make a point here that one should focus on what you can control. There are many things that are outside our control, like the general economic outlook, market conditions or how much a business or organisation decides to invest. What is in our control is how we try to continuously evolve, how we make our people feel during low times and how we continue to provide value to our customers.
I am pretty sure that many executives and leaders have felt the anxiety of not meeting those “aleatory targets” set at the beginning of the year and have had sleepless nights thinking about how they are going to meet those unrealistic numbers. Numbers, that if met will result in a bonus, which perhaps they have already spent. I also think about how many meetings and time has been spent (wasted) in organisations recutting those targets, looking at excel spreadsheets and thinking how the business will meet them (usually through cost cutting); instead of thinking how the organisation can better serve their customers or create new ones through new products and offerings.
So how might we think about “growth” instead?
I recently watched Eckhart Tolle talking about the “meaning of life” – I know, bear with me for a second. He was saying that the meaning of life shouldn’t be to be happy; but to achieve “enlightenment” or “awakening” as he called it. And that we couldn’t achieve those if we didn’t face difficulties. That it was only through the “growth” of facing problems that we could achieve it. Because only under pressure, will we be able to experience growth. If everything goes well, and we are not put under pressure, we won’t achieve growth.
I thought that was a beautiful analogy of growth in organisations too. I can tell you that for us this year was a year where we faced difficulties and pressure. And I think many organisations and leaders out there would have too. Well, when you look back at this year, don’t think about how much “financial growth” you have achieved; but instead, think how much you have learnt, how much you have changed, how many more different situations you have been able to deal with and how many more skills you have been able to add to your repertoire. And that is the real growth.
What do you think? How much have you grown this year?
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