Industrials

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Moving fast means eliminating obstacles. The FOUR main obstacles that slow companies down &nbsp;are:</span></p><h2><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">1.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Lack of a System to Collect Seemingly Unrelated Market Data</span></strong></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Industry boundaries are collapsing. Geographical boundaries mean less and less. The sheer amount of information that a company needs to absorb today to make sure they know what could hit them tomorrow is enormous. Does your company have the system, processes, capabilities, and tools to do it?</span></p><h2><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Slow Decision-Making</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Most decisions are reversible. They need to be taken FAST, with often insufficient data, no committee approval, appetite for risk, and love for uncertainty - unchartered territory for the old generation of managers.</span></p><h2><span style="font-size: 12pt;">3.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Slow Allocation of Resources</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Often the decision is the easy part. Making it happen is what stirs the organization&rsquo;s ruffles the feathers, and increases the risk of failure. Jobs and reputation are at stake.</span></p><h2><span style="font-size: 12pt;">4.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Failure to Listen to Iterate</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Invite the outside world in and refine your intuition with other people&rsquo;s insights. Then have the courage to go back to the drawing board, admit failure, if needed, and improve. Do not let the EGO be in the driving seat. Get going, then get better.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ditch what does not work and keep refining what does. Nothing is ever complete. Every day is day one. Keep beta in perpetual motion - the ultimate manifestation of the beginner&rsquo;s mind.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If all is under control, we are not moving fast enough. Speed takes courage, focus, and determination but gives back efficiency and rewards intuition.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Culture in an organization is a by-product of a specific behavior. Cherish your love for speed, learning, and risk-taking, and you cannot help but build a fast and innovative culture.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><em>This <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/four-main-obstacles-slow-companies-down-christo-popov/">article</a> was contributed by our expert Christo Popov.</em></span></p><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Frequently Asked Questions Answered By Christo Popov:</span></h3><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">1. &nbsp; &nbsp;What is a slowdown in business?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Fast beats big. The pace of change in today&rsquo;s business environment is more significant than at any other time in history. The main driving force is technology and information. Fast beats big and the biggest advantage comes from having more data than your competitors and the ability to launch new products and services faster than your competitors. If the change on the outside is faster than the change inside &nbsp;the organization &ndash; the end is near. The slowdown is caused by:</span></p><ul><li>Old mindsets &ndash; this is how we have always worked.</li><li>Having a rigid organizational structure &ndash; centralized decision making and slow transfer of information throughout the organization.</li><li>Legacy systems and IT infrastructure that can-not be changed.</li><li>Stupid or narrow-minded people.</li></ul><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2. &nbsp; &nbsp;What is business velocity, and how can a business increase it?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Organizational speed is a critical trait of business today. There are 6 building blocks of speed in a contemporary organization:</span></p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Ability to ask crazy questions and come up with new ideas &ndash; this is a function of the open-mindedness of people, ability to collect information and connect the unconnected.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Ability to make decisions quickly.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Rapid allocation of resources.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Ability to test, fail and learn.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Ability to identify what works and roll out fast.</li></ul><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">3. &nbsp; &nbsp;What is the biggest challenge facing the workforce today?&nbsp;</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is no one answer.</span></p><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">For the employees, and especially the young generation, the feeling of entitlement and that the world owes them something. Working hard is not considered a virtue anymore. Unfortunately, this is not how life works. You can still live in this dreamland, but this is until you have 2 kids and a mortgage. Then reality will strike back, and the Gen Z guys will struggle to adopt the working habits necessary to survive.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">For management &ndash; the speed of change driven by technology, the unbelievable competitive power of the companies who have more data and technology at their disposal, and the huge gaps in behavior between the generations.</li></ul><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">4. &nbsp; &nbsp;Is 2022 a good year to start a business?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">The best moment to start a business is always NOW. However, we need to abandon the notion that our first idea will work &ndash; it will NOT. A start-up is NOT a business. It is a laboratory that tests business ideas until it finds an idea and model that works. A laboratory does not operate as a business &ndash; the goals, matrices, and management are different. It must test and fail fast and cheap. It is about thinking out of the box and having the guts to verify ideas with customers and admit defeat. The biggest mistake is falling in love with our ideas, and we all know that love is blind.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Once we know what works &ndash; it is execution and scale-up time. It is all about speed of growth and efficiency.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So &ndash; what is a good time is the wrong question. What is a good industry is the wrong question? Is this a good idea being the wrong question?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">JUST START THE LAB NOW!</p>