Decisions, decisions, decisions ...

I went to my eldest daughter’s school PTA meeting last night, an organisation which is truly run by committee just like many other voluntary organisations that I have been involved with over the years .  Now this may be the most politically correct way to make decisions, but certainly is not the most efficient.

In the interests of trying to please all the people, all variations of all options are considered.  The eventual outcome then being the option that pleases most of the group members, which is not always the same as the option that best achieves the objectives of the group. 

 

Now this is fine for a PTA, after all what a PTA needs more than anything else is volunteers to run it and so keeping them happy has to be high on the list of priorities.  But a commercial business cannot run successfully in the same way. 

 

It is vital for the survival of any small business that it is able to quickly adapt to changes in the market in which it is operating.  Many start-ups are competing against well established businesses and as a new entrant into a market there is a need to be able to beat competition when it comes to fulfilling ever changing customer needs.

 

Over the course of my career I have worked in businesses of many different sizes and, in my experience, the size of an organisation seems to be directly proportional to the level of bureaucracy.  This means that the biggest player in the market will probably be the slowest to react to unexpected changes in the market and this gives the little guy a chance to get a foot in the door.

The little guy also has the advantage of being closer to the customer.  For a one man band, the distance from the front line to the top is very short indeed allowing customer feedback to translate directly into innovation in a very short time scale.

 

But not all decisions relate to market changes, there can be strategic or budget decisions to be made or difficult decisions to cut costs or streamline processes.  It is never advantages for a business to remain in a state of uncertainty whilst unnecessary deliberations are made, the recent US shutdown is evidence enough of that. 

So good decision making is vital, as is innovation and a clear awareness of market changes.  And remember, you can’t please all the people all the time.