There is a phrase (I’m not sure how common) about good businesses being boring businesses. I don’t know how you feel about this, but I want to work in an interesting business.
But here’s the thing. If your business is out of control then you need to define what interesting means to you. If it means that chasing your tail and always being under severe pressure from customers then I could understand you not wanting a boring business.
On the other hand, if a controlled and methodical way of working that generates results does it for you then a ‘boring’ business makes sense. Routine, orderly and disciplined ways of working are usually far more productive than continuous fire fighting.
So, what about this? Let’s say that you move from a state of chaos to an orderly way of working. Arguably the business is now boring. But, and this is the point of this short article, the time you no longer spend on fire fighting can now be invested in doing interesting things.
- You can work on the process improvement projects that you haven’t had time to do.
- You can mentor and develop your up and coming talent, in the way that hadn't been able to do before.
- You can partner with your best customers to increase your ‘share of wallet’ by offering new and innovative ways of delivering your products / services.
A good business may be boring, but only from the perspective of fire fighting. A boring business lets you work on the really interesting stuff, the projects that get you fired up and make the business a whole load of extra profit.
Do you want to be boring?
Giles Johnston
Author of 'Business Process Re-Engineering', a practical plan to improve business performance.