A recipe for business success

While I spend my days thinking of how to help customers succeed, few know that I spend a significant portion of my leisure time cooking. I’ve often thought that the art of cooking well is similar to the art of running a business well in many ways. Here’s why:?

?You have to pick the right ingredients?

?Just as you typically need to combine several ingredients to create a dish, several factors go into helping a business succeed. When it comes to running a business, good combinations of people, process and technology blend together to create a whole that ensures your business is market-leading, cost-efficient, and agile in the face of disruption.?

?The quality of your ingredients matters?

?High-quality ingredients can make all the difference between a dish that succeeds and one that fails. Businesses should get the best people, processes and technologies they can afford.??

?- When employees are chosen not only for their caliber but also for their willingness to learn, it becomes easier to ensure that the business remains relevant in the long-term. Such employees can hit the ground running from day one, and will not need convincing to upskill, reskill or generally improve themselves, either?

?- When processes are streamlined and integrated, businesses can maximize efficiency while minimizing costs. Consolidating silos of information through a platform approach can minimize error and ensure there is one up-to-date source of truth for data organization-wide?

?- And when infrastructure is designed to be secure, compliant, and continually updated to accommodate emerging technologies, it will always support the business as it grows. Pick technology partners which are committed to helping their customers stay future-proof??

?The right recipe is critical?

?Recipes detail how much of each ingredient to use, how to prepare it, what to combine and how to heat (or chill) the ingredients. Similarly, business strategies consider all the people, processes and technologies in play and concrete techniques to support business operations going forward.?

?Grandmothers can cook with estimates for ingredients, but the rest of us need to more precise measures. A recipe that is accurate and written clearly helps to ensure a consistent result. In the same way, business strategies, execution plans and goals should be made clear to all stakeholders.?

?There is some leeway to tweak recipes?

While we know what the outcome will be when we follow a good recipe, we may need to change it a little. It could be that we’re cooking for someone who has a low tolerance level for spices, so we adjust the spice levels accordingly. Business leaders know their customers best. It may be that those customers prefer solutions that are slightly different from the standard offering, so a case exists to develop a custom offering.??

Dishes are meant to be eaten?

A good recipe leads to a consistent result, but it’s still a failure if no one likes the food. Tastes can change, so the recipe may have to be tweaked to appeal to a target audience, or perhaps retired. Similarly, business leaders will encounter emerging trends that may require portfolios to be tweaked slightly, transformed significantly, or even replaced with something else.??

While unlimited budgets and time would exist in an ideal world, we may have to do the best with what we have. But when you know how to combine various ingredients to come up with a tasty meal, you’ll be able to enjoy good food every time you cook. Similarly, you can succeed at business by combining what you have already, looking at improving what you’ve got, and refining your strategies and execution. There may be failures along the way, but ultimately, you get better and better.?

?Let me know if you agree in the comments. I would love to know what you think.?