by: David Moore
What makes an on-line business effective are the same ingredients that make any business effective. The only difference is that in an on-line business we don’t see our customers. We don’t see the other people who work in our business. We don’t see most of the people we bring in to the business. But the principles are the same.
I did a research study a while back to find out the common factors of effective. My study design was a meta-analysis. All that means is that I studied what other people had already studied on the subject related to my interest, what causes businesses to be effective. The meta-analysis approach is considered the most powerful of research studies, meaning the results are considered the most valid.
After pouring over all the literature on successful business practices my findings boiled down to this.
1. Effective businesses build into their organization a culture of change because their leaders seem to understand, as William Bridges put it, that “unless organizations change and change quickly they will not survive.” That makes sense. I teach cultural anthropology at a local University. I teach my students that one of the fundamental features of culture is that all cultures change. And of course people change. And the rate of change is getting faster every day. The defining measurements of the pre-computer Cold War age was fear, control, and protection. According to New York Times Pulitzer price winner Thomas Friedman, the defining measurement globalization is speed. The most frequently asked question in the business world used to be, “whose side are you on?” The most frequently asked questions today is “to what extent are you connected to everyone?” According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Fact Book, there were 934 million internet users in 2004. It is estimated that there will be 416 million new internet users by 2007. At that rate 16,000 new users enter the world of the internet world every hour of every day. That’s change and that’s speed. The most successful businesses understand this and they are constantly adapting to tap into the resources these new users represent.
2. Effective businesses share information. The reason for this is expressed best by Sally Helbesson. “Withholding information and power from others assumes they are incapable of handling it and it deprives the business of a rich and powerful resource.” Let’s face it, trade secrets don’t exist in today’s information rich, speed-driven world anyway. Effective businesses also share information because they want everyone to see how the whole organization functions. This enhances understanding and in doing so enhances commitment, a powerful principle for business effectiveness.
3. Effective businesses have a high tolerance for mistakes. That’s because no mistakes mean no experiments. It demoralizes and reduces creative insights that could literally catapult a business to higher performance. Edison was ridiculed for spending almost every waking hour of every day trying to find a way to produce light through connectors inside of a glass bulb. When asked why he didn’t quit and spend his time on more productive activities he answered, “each time something doesn’t work I’m that much closer to finding the solution because I’ve eliminated one more application I know doesn’t work.” So effective businesses tolerate mistakes.
4. Effective businesses focus on the mission. I often refer to Peter Drucker as the mentor I never met. He’s over 90 years of age and has written over 100 books on management principles. I’ve read most of them. According to Drucker, effective businesses “constantly ask, ’what is our mission. What are our goals. They do not start with the question ’what do I want.’ They start out asking ’what needs to be done?” Effective businesses do this because they know if they are to survive long-term they have to have a reason for being beyond just making money. That’s why the mission statement of MacDonald’s is to be the world‘s best quick service restaurant experience…so that we can make every customer in every restaurant smile.” Coincidentally, MacDonald’s has also made a lot of money. If your only goal in wanting to get into the on-line business field is to make a lot of money for yourself you may achieve some short-term success. But you won’t find ultimate happiness. You’ll squander your earnings and wind up in worse shape than you are now. Look at the many professional athletes who made millions during their careers and are now living in poverty.
5. Effective businesses teach, and this may surprise you, but I found in the most successful business that their in-service training related more to behavioral than to skills training. That’s because effective businesses leaders know that what is needed most is not compliance from team members but commitment. And the wise business leader knows that the best way to evoke commitment is by emphasizing both organizational and personal values in everything that is communicated. It’s similar to what I tell my anthropology students.
I hope you understand what I am about to say you will not take it as self promoting in any way because it illustrates an important point on the principle of teaching. People often ask what my wife and I did that caused our children to become such responsible adults who really have their lives together. We have three grown children and none of them ever caused us any kind of major problems while they were growing up. They never went through the rebellious teen stage and they all have become professionals in their fields of interest and all are not only active, but are leaders in church and community service endeavors. No they’re not perfect and if they read this they would say, “Dad, you’re exaggerating. We made a lot of poor decisions when we were young.” But none of those poor decisions invalidated the values they were taught and that became implanted into their hearts that make them what they are today.
And you know what? We didn’t have a lot of rules. In fact w were pretty lax about when they went to bed and how much television they watched. Now I’m sure we made mistakes, but what we did do is emphasize values and tried to be an example of the values we taught them - values like honesty, integrity, caring for and being concerned about others, sharing, trusting, etc.
So to summarize, if you want to be an effective on-line business entrepreneur incorporate these 5 principles of demonstrated and you cannot help but succeed.
1. Build into your system a culture of change so you will have the capacity to adapt and respond quickly.
2. Share information freely so others can benefit from what you have learned.
3. Tolerate the mistakes of others so they can be freed to experiment with new ideas.
4. Focus on the mission so you will always be in tune with your reason for being as an on-line business.
5. Teach others and don’t get too caught up in teaching skills and techniques because without values competency alone will never satisfy the deep longings of the soul.