Think Three Years Out What y...

Think Three Years Out

What you do this year drives success for next year and the year after. You must make investments for the future.

Years ago, we received criticism for spending "too much" on marketing for a $250 million company, but when we were a $250million company, we weren‘t thinking like a $250 million company. Wewere trying to build a bigger company, and the only way to do thatwas to act like one.

Later, as we neared the $1 billion in revenue mark, we didn‘t focus on $1 billion in revenue, but what we needed to do to get to $10 billion in revenue.

There was a major attitude sh...

There was a major attitude shift we had to adopt as a public company, and this, perhaps, was the biggest change of all. At each level of growth, adjustments are required; it‘s the process of maturing. That said, growing up isn‘t always fun. It can be tough for a fast-moving entrepreneurial culture to adopt more structure, but bringing outside talent into the organization can make it easier to see what changes are necessary to ensure a smooth transition.

Whereas our earlier history h...

Whereas our earlier history had been defined by figuring out how to survive, an entirely different set of standards applies to managing a public company. Overnight, there were vastly more shareholders and a different level of responsibility.

Our new focus was on maintaining rapid growth for our investors, while at the same time complying with an alphabet soup of procedures (GAAP, SOX, SEC rules) and corporate policies, local laws, and business values and ethics.

We determined to measure ever...

We determined to measure everyone on revenue—not profitability. Most accountants would disagree with this philosophy.

"Revenue is vanity; profit is sanity, they often say. I‘m suggesting that profits aren‘t necessary, pivotal, and even beautiful. It‘s just not appropriate to stress profits over revenue in the beginning when you are starting out and building a company.

지속적 개선의 주기는 다음 여섯 가지 주요 단계들로 ...

지속적 개선의 주기는 다음 여섯 가지 주요 단계들로 이있다. 나는 이 과정을 위그월(WIGWAM) 방법이라 부른다.

1. 보라 (Watch): 무슨 일이 일어나고 있나? 효과가 있는 것은무엇이고 그렇지 않은 것은 무엇인가?
2. 아이디어를 형성하라(Ideate) : 무엇을 개선시킬 것인가? 취 할 수 있는 선택은 무엇인가?
3. 추측하라(Guess): 지금까지 배운 내용을 바탕으로 할 때 어 떤 아이디어가 가장 큰 효과가 있을 것인가?
4. 대상을 선택하라 (Which): 어떤 변화를 실행할 것인지 결정하라.
5. 행동하라 (Act) : 실제로 변화를 실행하라.
6. 측정하라 (Measure): 어떤 결과를 가져왔나? 긍정적인 변화였는가, 부정적인 변화였는가? 변화를 유지할 것인가 아니면개선 전 원래의 상태로 되돌아 갈 것인가?
다 잘할 수는 없다.

지속적인 개선은 주기이다. 변화의 결과를 평가하고, 어떻든지간에 변화를 지속하기로 결정한다면 처음으로 다시 돌아가 무엇이 변했는지 관찰하고, 같은 과정을 반복하는 것이다.