Lesson 1: Learn to redefine your business (contd.)
One of the fundamental mistakes business leaders make is in conceptualising what their business is. Traditional business thinking makes you consider what good or services your business is providing (product) and to whom these are being provided (customer). This seems straightforward enough, however, this is not your business. This way of thinking is where the problem often begins as it already limits the possibilities available to your mind.
A picture of your business
The best way to introduce a new way of thinking about our businesses is by using a metaphor. Imagine a person (you) is using a vehicle to deliver something (the essence/content) to a target (someone or some people). It is important to note that in this story, you have something you want to give and someone to whom you want to give it.
Illustration by David Idibe
The vehicle (contd.)
The vehicle (in our metaphor) is what most people mean when they are talking about their “business”. One reason for this is that it is usually the most tangible of the elements. However, in reality, as with most vehicles, it is only a means to an end. Your vehicle is the active framework that helps you deliver the content you have to your target. It includes organisational structure, your business operations, and logistics by which you are able to deliver your goods/ services and communicate with the market. Now, this is the surprising part for most people, your vehicle includes the product and services themselves!
Many times, people let the vehicle dictate to them what they carry and to whom they can go – because I have this type of factory, or this amount of money or these types of assets, I will go in this direction – but this should not be the case. Your vehicle serves your agenda and that agenda is about the content and the target.
Secondly, you can change vehicles. This is usually a traumatic idea for most but you are not wedded to your vehicle! Unfortunately, when we have prioritized the vehicle of our business (including our goods and services) in our business definition so that it has become the focus of our energies, changing vehicles becomes a traumatic idea. Admittedly, the larger and more complex your vehicle, the harder it is to change. Even then, some of the oldest companies have succeeded in transforming (changing) their vehicles over the years.
The essence – your real business
Your real business is the content carried by your vehicle. And this content is NOT the goods you produce and/or supply. You are probably wondering “what then is the content I am delivering if it is not the goods I supply or the services I deliver?”
Your true product, the content you are delivering is intangible, it doesn’t matter whether you make soap or help people procure airline tickets, whether you build houses or you help clean offices. These are really just the means to deliver something that is much less tangible than we like to imagine.
Your real business is delivering meaning to people. Human beings are creatures of meaning – the map of our lives is drawn in our minds and what matters to us is not what takes up the most space around us but what takes up the most space on our mental real estate. The real experience centre – where wants and needs are catalogued and accounted for in real-time is the mind. Even the most basic biological needs are maintained and modulated in the mind.
For example, when we say the world is in chaos, it doesn’t necessarily mean the physical environment is chaotic. In fact, the streets of major cities are “calmer” today than they have been in a long time however the meaning registered in the minds of most people is that the world is more chaotic and not less. Whereas, a busy weekend day at the beach may seem “chaotic” by comparison but for many people may represent a needed break from chaos!
You real business is about the meaning you are able to register in the mind of your target. And all your goods, services, business structures and processes simply form the apparatus for you to serve this end. Your aim, of course, is to register positive meaning and not negative meaning in the mind of your target. In other words, the object of your business is to bring true delight (meaning) to a predefined set of people (your target).
What meaning is your business currently registering in the mind of your customers?
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Dr. Osinowo is a thinker and teacher: coaching high-potential leaders, advising organizations and originating breakthrough ideas. He is the founder of CANTAB Associates and the pioneer of SAPIENCE which is both a philosophy and methodology of thinking. He previously worked in the London office of the leading global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company. He studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge where he was a Cambridge Commonwealth Scholar. He can be reached for your questions and comments.
Toluwanimi Osinowo
e-mail: info@cantab-associates.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toluwanimi-osinowo
