Those who know me know I love running my own business. I love continually working towards building something bigger than myself. I love seeing the growth of the people who work for me and knowing I have played a role in their development. I love that it provides me with constant inspiration (I can barely remember a day where I didn’t want to do something, however small, related to improving my business) AND I love the flexibility it provides me when it comes to how I choose to live my life (read “Travel”).
Notwithstanding that, having watched Simon Sinek’s TED Talk from TEDxPuget Sound in September 2009, I wondered about why I do what I do, why I chose an accounting and business advisery path.
So “Why do I do what I do” and while I am here I will ask you “Why do you, do what you do”?
Oh and, to quote Simon, the answer is not “to make a profit” that is a result, it’s always a result (of any business), by “why,” I mean “What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?”
The answer actually didn’t come that easily. But here’s how I have come a little closer to it …
Four Decisions
Recently I took a small group of CapitalQ Clients who own small businesses to Melbourne to see Verne Harnish “The Growth Guy” present a full day business learning event titled “Scaling Up: Four Key Decisions to Drive Revenue and Profits”.
Verne’s suggested Four Decisions revolve around your –
- People
- Strategy
- Execution
- Cash
One of the tools Verne presented in relation to the People decision was his Function Accountability Chart (or FACe). The tool is available for free from his web site though while the document itself is pretty basic, it’s the idea behind it that is of most value.
The following are the initial steps to implement the Function Accountability Chart idea –
Step 1
List the primary Functions of your business, which to be honest will be pretty much the same as for most other businesses as follows –
- 1. Head of Company
- 2. Marketing
- 3. R&D / Innovation
- 4. Sales
- 5. Operations
- 6. Treasury (Money In)
- 7. Controller (Money Out)
- 8. Information Technology
- 9. Human Resources
- 10. Talent Development / Learning
- 11. Customer Advocacy
Step 2
Write down next to each Function the name of the person in your business that is currently Accountable (Responsible) for this Function. (Hint: Don’t write “Everyone” because that really means “No One”.)
Now at this stage if you are the owner of a small business, it is highly likely your name has been written next to 8, 9, 10 or quite likely even all 11 of the Functions (as it was for me). If you own your business in partnership with another person, it is likely you are the only two listed and it is likely you are both listed in many of the Functions.
That being the case, I expect the tool has already done much of its initial job because you are probably already staring at your piece of paper and thinking one, more, or even all of the following –
- No wonder my To Do list is so long
- No wonder I feel swamped and can’t get my head above water
- No wonder most of those Functions are not being done as well as they could because I can’t do them all and frankly I’m not an expert in all, if even most, of them
- No wonder I hardly ever, if ever, get to take a holiday 5. No wonder when I do take a holiday, I am always being bugged by work being asked to put out fires
And if you are thinking those things, hopefully you are also starting to think about what you can do to improve the situation, as I did. If so the tool has proved immediate value.
Getting Your Name Out of Some of the Boxes
Most will very quickly hit a number of stumbling blocks, if they even get out of the starting blocks. Not least of which will be your financial ability to hire more people to take all these jobs off you. Firstly, let me say money is rarely a resource issue, it is usually just a priority issue. And maybe this is an opportunity to re-evaluate those priorities in the short term and assess them against the long term return (and not just financial). But having said that, don’t get too hung up on money at this stage, let’s just try to make some progress …
So, I think you need to be a little creative and most importantly a little open minded in order to find ways to start the process of getting some other peoples’ names next to at least some of those Functions.
In my own case I knew that if I am going to find ways to get my name away from being responsible for some of those Functions in my business, I first needed to decide which were the ones I should keep.
So the first Function I know must stay with me is Head of the Company. You might think that is pretty much locked in for everyone who owns a business, but actually I’m not so sure that is true (perhaps that is a topic for another day). But in my case nobody has any doubt, CapitalQ is my business, I make the final decisions and it is run the way I want it run. Equally I believe I am a leader. Maybe that’s an ego thing, but hey, it is what it is. I have lead sporting teams my entire life and similarly in business I believe I can (or at least I seem to be able to) convince people to follow me into battle (without the use of a big stick nor gun in their back).
Next, while I don’t have any formal training in it, nor am I convinced I am terribly good at it, yet, I am interested in and do enjoy the concept of the Marketing Function in business. So I decided I wanted to stay responsible for that (albeit with the knowledge I have lots to learn and I still need plenty of help from my outsourced marketing consultants). Also worth noting, interestingly Verne discussed last week how while people assume marketing people should be creative, more and more these days the best marketers are actually proving to be more analytical and often people who did well in maths and physics at school. And as it turns out I kinda fit into that second category.
Next, R & D and Innovation. Similar to Marketing, I thought maybe these needed to be a more creative person, but I do find myself always looking for new ways to provide our services and new ways for us to run our business better and for our Clients to run their businesses better. So I decided to keep this one as well.
Next, Sales, now that is most definitely not me. Even just trying to think about why I don’t like selling makes it obvious I know little about the art.
The rest, well to be honest most of them I felt are specialist skills that are most easily delegated (especially Treasury, which is recording and managing the money coming into the business, and Controller, which is recording and managing the money heading out). (I know, I know, that’s what an accountant does! But for me it is the easiest Function to delegate, the same way I believe our Client’s should delegate it to my Team so they, the Client, can focus on the things they want to do and are good at.)
Equally, while they are all very important roles, and a business can’t function (properly or successfully) without them, they seem to me to be more support roles, as opposed to the first three to five which really get the primary role of the business done and in particular propels it forward.
The Order is Not Random
Something new I learned from Verne last week is that the order of the Functions as shown on his Function Accountability Chart, and as I have listed them here, is not just random.
The order is actually based on Verne’s recommendations, and the findings from all his years working with and surveying growing businesses around the world, as to where the individuals in each role should be located (ie. sit) in relation to each other within a traditional office environment.
The Marketing and R&D/Innovation Executives should be right next to the Head of the Company, continually working together, strategizing on how to take the business to the next phase. The Head of Sales needs to work alongside them (while acknowledging that Marketing and Sales are in fact two very different things).
But Sales also need to be near Operations, because the sales people so often want to sell things the business doesn’t make, so while they are very different, Sales and Operations need to communicate consistently.
And so on down the list (including the fact that IT and HR are actually now days very much linked due to the fact that basically everyone in a business is (almost literally) connected to their technology).
So, there I had it, and it turns out it seems I made the right decisions by choosing the three things that should work most closely together (if we were a larger organization) and the things I chose to delegate should sit elsewhere.
The next thing to do was to find ways to get others to take on those responsibilities I wanted to delegate so I could get on with doing my handful really well! And I will talk about that (ongoing) process next time.
So Why Do You Do What You Do and How Did this Process Help Me Find an Answer?
Well I realized the things I enjoyed most about this business were actually educational aspects. Both from my own personal education, but also in relation to the passing on of that knowledge and assisting with the development of both my Team and my Clients.
It obviously started with the technical learning, but then it developed into the learning of more subjective skills. Firstly it was the leadership skills required in business, then the research and development aspect of the technology we use and the services we offer, and now it is the inexact science of marketing, networking and promotion.
Then best of all I get to spread the word and pass on all these skills I am learning to both my Team and to all our Clients.
As it turns out our most valuable role is not crunching numbers, the reason we get out of bed each day is we actually get to be educators and guides.
And through that educational process we get to play a tangible role in improving our Clients’ businesses and financial affairs and even better we get to help them achieve the great lifestyle that we believe all those gutsy enough to start their own businesses and/or to actively seek financial independence deserve.
So I guess it boils down to the fact that I do what I do because I believe we should all continue to learn and develop throughout our lives, I believe risk takers should be rewarded and the brave deserve to live the life they seek, and I believe those with the knowledge can play a role for those that are important to them in achieving their own goals!
Here is Simon’s Ted Talk.