To Succeed In Business On Your Job Skills & Talents
Is it important to focus on the details of your business?
We would all answer yes. But how focused are you on your business?
A few years ago, I was on the board of a venture startup in New Jersey. The startup had a “cash cow” product that paid the lights, the bills, the everything. Management wanted to build a new product portfolio to address a wide range of mobile needs – pictures, music, and more. It blossomed into an entire set of mobile phone products and the financial resources poured into product development. Millions. But we had our “cash cow” product to lean on. A number of board members warned that we need to get to market with a subset of the new products and balance out the revenue. Management “had a vision” and persuaded a majority of the directors to stay the course.
Suddenly, the business partner pulled the plug on the “cash cow” product. The resulting scramble for even one of the new products to replace the “cash cow” fell short. The company disintegrated badly.
Why the long story? The CEO was not focused on basic revenue sources for the business. He was at trade events and looking at technology partnerships. Granted, he did a number of things right and the board could have been more prescriptive in strategy, but the lack of focus on customer concentration and revenue risk ultimately destroyed a 50MM company in a matter of months.
The moral that I learned from this is – worry about your business first. Events, partnerships, business groups and such are fun because there is energy in those venues! With a focus on achieving and maintaining a stable business, the chief executive will serve his customers, employees and shareholders well. It must be his or her focus.
Fred King runs Cloud Choice Technologies, Inc. which provides Managed IT Services, Business Phone Systems and Cloud Services to customers throughout Florida. He launched this firm in 2014 after moving to South Florida leveraging his business expertise and technology background. The company is based in the Stuart, FL with customers throughout South Florida.
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