The Apple Lesson to Business Growth...

The Apple has been part of human history from Adam and Eve, to the discovery of Gravity and the health benefits of keeping the Doctor away simply by eating an apple each day...

The Apple can also give an important lesson about Business Growth that you may find surprising...

If you take an Apple and cut it in half, you'll see a series of seed pods contained within the core of the fruit...

You'd think that if you took the seeds from the apple and planted them, they you'd get your own apple tree delivering the same apples as the original..

But you wouldn't...

Lets take the case of the Granny Smith apple for example...

Planting the seeds from one of these may get you a tree - but the seeds are all different...

Picture Credit - www.wrensoft.com

Some will die, some flourish in different circumstances and some will get you a green apple; but you almost certainly won't get yourself a crisp Granny Smith just like the original...

Duplicating the Granny Smith is impossible when using just a Granny Smith apple seed to produce it; they are genetic hybrids that produce new genetic combinations in their seedlings...

The Granny Smith Apple as we know it, was "discovered" in Eastwood, New South Wales, Australia in 1868, by Maria Ann Smith; locally known as Granny Smith in her old age...

The apple was the product of a "chance seedling" and all the Granny Smith apples we know today can be traced back directly to that first original apple - not through the growing of the seeds but through the grafting of the buds from the original tree onto new root stock...

In fact Paul Barnett in the UK has produced a single tree that has 250 individual apple varieties growing on it - all from successfully grafting buds onto a healthy root stock...

Grafting entails taking a "bud" from a healthy apple tree and "grafting it onto a different root stock such that the root feeds the bud and the apple produced is the same as those from the original tree...

You can find out more about Grafting by clicking on the LINK below...

What has that got to do with Business Growth...?

Everything...

When growing a business, opening new branches, divisions or departments - we tend to assume that duplication is simply a case of putting a sign up and getting everyone to show up and create value...

But it doesn't work that way - as the apple is a hybrid, so is the business system. When you simply allow the new venture to evolve from the original it will tend to morph into something different - it may be similar, but it wont be the same...

It's like photocopying a photocopy time and time again - after a few, the image will become less precise, it will lose it's sharpness and definition; and so it goes with a business, as it grows so it tends to lose it's identity and personality...

Eventually the Values and Culture of the business that made it so unique and successful in the first place get diluted down to some faded "Vision" statement pinned to the wall in the reception area...

Culture and Spirit is built in not bolted on...

How can we fix this...?

The principles of Fruit Grafting applied to business - will enable you to grow and duplicate your business without the fading and loss of identity...

The "root stock" of the fruit tree are your people - providing we graft onto the the healthy desired "buds" of the product, service and value proposition you offer, then any healthy root stock can be used to deliver a variety of "fruits"...

Imagine that you are opening a new branch of your company 500 km away from your head office. You have locally recruited the best team, you've rented the building, bought the furniture and got the signs up...

Marketing has done the local launch and the business is due to "go live" on the first of the month...

The Root Stock is all in place - what you need now is the success Grafting of the Bud; this has to be someone who lives and breathes the Vision, Mission, Rules of the Game and Spirit of your organisation. They will be grafted into the new root stock and make sure that the fruit the new venture delivers is the same as that at HQ...

It is this final aspect that in my experience tends to go wrong...

Rules of Business Grafting...

1. Root Stock - get the best you can. Hire the best people, not from your industry necessarily, but who have the personality, aptitude and attitude to enable your business to flourish...
2. Feed - the Root Stock with training, inspiration and motivation. Reward them well and encourage them to be creative in their approach to achieving the objectives of the business...
3. The Bud - graft the bud. You can achieve this in two ways...

• Grafting the Bud - #1 - through systems. Using the principles of Franchising, Systematising and Training such that duplication of the host is possible...
• Grafting the Bud - #2 - put your manager in place immediately to take with them the spirit of your company and make sure the product remains consistent and doesn't get diluted by the new team...

If we don't take control of the system, then a system will emerge - one that may not be consistent with the values and culture of the original...

Here at Results Rules OK - we do things a little different...

We combine Creativity, Innovation and Excellence into Business and Personal Development Programmes, Workshops and Events that will enable you and your team to achieve remarkable results more quickly...

David Holland (aka Dutch) is the best Coach I've ever worked with. Not only did he help train me in coaching but he walked with me during the most difficult period in my professional career and helped me get back up after I had been knocked down. I will always love this man and my only complaint is he no longer lives in the U.S.

We work with Business Owners and their Teams, Executives and the Entrepreneurially minded and have a range of Products, Programmes and Events to suit everyone...

To find out more about how we can help you - simply drop me a note to...

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