dispatches from the new world of work

Go, Larry!

You may recall my applause for Larry Janesky, who has turned "dull" basement transformations into a powerhouse business, Basement Systems Inc. (His portfolio includes his best-selling book, Dry Basement Science.)

Well, Larry's hit a home run, as far as I'm concerned, with an idea he passed on to his dealers—in my experience it's an original.

In short, Larry distinguishes between "busy" and "growth." Simply put, "busy" is booking business in good times—which boosts your revenue growth to the heavens, in the short-term. As to "real growth," it occurs "when the troughs in sales come up, not when the peaks go up." That is, on a chart, the bad times bottom-trough today is higher than the trough during the prior problem period.

In a little more detail, directly from Larry's dealer presentation (imagine quotation marks around what follows):

"Busy": OUTSIDE forces acting positively on my business.
"Growth": INTERNAL forces acting positively on my business.

Busy:

Good news: Lots of work available, go get it (but it probably won't last).
Bad news: Can't count on it continuing—so don't let your overhead soar!!!

Growth:

Good news: [Internal-basic] improvements are paying off.
Bad news: Probably been growing because your [internally driven] good work allows you to take competitors' business. But when you [succeed and] become a "big fish in a little pond," you'll have to add higher value to your products to redefine what you do and thus expand the marketspace.

Your call, but I think this approach to business makes a helluva lot of sense—especially to those firms, the great majority in my experience, which did indeed get sloppy during the now departed "good times."

Tom Peters posted this on 05/20/09.

Comments

TP,

Sort of a twist on the old axiom "The test of a good manager is not how things go when he's there but how things go when he's NOT there," huh?

To wit, "The test of 'growth' for a business is not how things go when the overall market/economy is good, but how things go when the overall market/economy sucks."

THE BIG QUESTION/litmus test for a business then becomes: the "market" is down... are you "going bust," or are you "busting the trend?"

Posted by Dan Gunter at May 20, 2009 4:48 PM

Good point. Without universal values instituted, there cannot be EXCELLENCE. Without excellence, GROWTH is impossible.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at May 20, 2009 6:11 PM

As the old saying goes, "Tough times don't so much build character as they reveal character"

also as proven in the book 'Built to Last', truly lasting cos have lived through, and grown through, several market ups and downs.

Posted by Anurag Sharma at May 21, 2009 2:40 AM

IMHO, this is the gem:

" . . . you'll have to add higher value to your products to redefine what you do and thus expand the marketspace."

That's the imperative from here on out. The modern marketPLACE is saturated. The marketSPACE - the most important SPACE to own is the one between people's ears - is limitless. And if you can't define the value that an activity delivers to the customer, then it doesn't exist. Stop making stuff and doing things. Be obsessed with delivering value in ALL activities. If you can't figure out how to add value to an activity, get rid of it or outsource it.

Posted by Tom Asacker at May 21, 2009 1:16 PM

This is absolutely true. It's the continuous, below the surface improvements that really make a long-term difference.

The problem is, those long-term improvements don't always pay the day-to-day bills. There are times to celebrate "busy", too. And a recession like this is one of them!

Posted by Project Management Tools & Techniques at May 22, 2009 12:15 AM

EXCELLENCE is only achieved by implementing/executing a truly heightened awareness, awareness that must be heavily (and progressively so) systemic, systematic, holistic, ecumenical, a la Gestalt, so forth.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at May 22, 2009 8:34 PM

Instead of busy and growth, I will focus on (a) Extreme Adaptability, and (b) Resiliency. Then, one can prioritize being busy and into growth. Can one keep carrying on not noticing the forthcoming weird futures and their tutelaged contexts (markets, places, times, etc.). They'll get here in no time. One can ask the prominent people of "Singularity University," their incorporators (NASA and GOOGLE), and its noted president, Dr. Ray Kurzweil.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at May 22, 2009 8:52 PM