DeepThinking - Building A Better Biz

As CEO of BodyChance, when I employed my first full-time staff - at a real, support-your-family salary - our negotiations finally got around to the starting date… "April 1st" At the time, I was ready to go NOW. It was only November: "April 1st. Huh?" That's Japan for you. Companies here operate on an advanced planning rhythms. April's the beginning of a new financial/educational year - everything changes. In the months leading up to April, you will see brigades of young, black-trousered youth in white shirts, traipsing the streets from one company to another, seeking a new employment contact or - the holy grail - legislatively guaranteed full-time employment. You can't sack so easily in Japan. This post may not speak to many readers of mine, but today I am DeepThinking the issues that face transforming a small company into a bigger one. It's September now so guess what? I am planning for massive changes - next April. As a company grows it size, the pressure to make standard all you do is immense. I resist that and instead look for simplicity. Simplicity is far more complex to achieve than standardization. Standardization often means writing manuals which staff are expected to dumbly follow; simplicity means re-engineering your biz in a way that everyone understands and follows. As BodyChance's staff increases beyond 10 full-timers, the pressure is on to supervise and control. Hourly sheets and regular reports. I resist that: instead of letting fear rule the roost, how about we continue with trust? Fear frightens people into obedience, trust liberates people into excellence. Compliance is another biggie, harder to avoid because the Government itself steps in with rules and regulations it legislates into your life. The attitude can bleed into the company itself, stifling it's counterpart - creativity. For some people these are meaningless concepts you might read in a management book - for me it is about real people, in a true environment, challenging the corporate precepts that have been handed down over many generations. What kind of a company does BodyChance want to be when it grows up?