Twice weekly, I head to the gym to challenge myself with Octavio Cifuentes, a South Florida trainer for world class athletes, who graciously agreed to work with me. He has a process and method, often not readily apparent, building my strength to be both durable and explosive.
Durable and explosive… that sounds like a great business attribute. We’ll discuss that in a moment.
In my third session, after dragging a 250lb sled up and down the gym floor, I caught my breath long enough to ask – “Octavio, why all this sled dragging?” He paused, looked up from his energy drink and said. “I know you can’t see it now, we’re building your core. A strong core is essential to overall health, strength and agility. Without building a strong core first, building anything else would only lead to injury.” Then, he said. “Rest time is over, twenty push-ups please.”
17, 18 , 19… and 20. Breathless once again, I looked down at my still extant gut. Octavio was watching. “Also, I want you to remember this hard work when you decide what to feed your core.”
Your business has a core. Is it durable and explosive, or flabby and indulgent?
Do you feed it healthy fuel, and exercise it? Or do you binge on junk food and work super hard in spurts to try to create the appearance of health? Does a business core workout leave you breathless and panting to recover? Is your business injured because you ignored the core? Do you know where your core is?
We’ve found that there are three actions key to a strong core, and resulting strong business results.
Action #1: Define Your Core
In this action, it is important to describe your basic business activities and their tie to profitability. Look for the twenty percent of the actions that contribute eighty percent of the profitability. Know how you measure these key activities. Are your mission, vision and values consistent with these activities? Which skills and processes are essential to creating these services and products for your customers?
Please also note that just as your personal core includes the gut, your business core will also include the ability to go with “gut” calls, pivoting and aligning quickly. Cores can change too. Make sure you’re revisiting your business core and appropriately changing or expanding it.
Collecting cash by managing accounts receivable is an example of a core skill and process. Without cashflow, companies will suffer serious injury possibly leading to death.
Action #2: Feed and Exercise Your Core
Time to get real here. How much focus do you put on your business core? Building your business can feel a lot like dragging that 250lb sled – a painful slog. Are you feeding it with nutritious and clean burning energy in the form of the right leadership, skills training, process and employee development? Do you have a continuous feedback loop with your customers? Are the basic functions of your company people or process dependent?
When you look at your company, do you see a bunch of heroes? Do you observe shouting, running, extreme last-minute adrenaline-fueled efforts? While this is interesting in a Marvel Comics sort of way, it shows me that more feeding and exercising of the business core is needed. In a company with a well fed and exercised core, it often looks like not much is going on.
Action #3: Notice the results. Be patient, they’re often just under the surface.
Companies with a strong core can be a bit stealthy with Action #3. Competitors may see a gut, when the real strength and power lie just below the surface, and at first you might only see a gut too. Just know that muscles are being exercised, teams are forming, skills are being built, profitable business results are supporting company financial health and agility. And when the time is right, the time that you decide, these results will show up in the market with explosive strength and durability.
Tesla is a terrific example of that latent core, ready to burst forth. For years, the company was a custom manufacturer of funky electric roadsters. Then over a few years, stepped into the light as the world’s leading maker of electric cars.
I’m reminded of the words of coach Gabriella Goddard,
“Connect with your core and you’ll find strength. Act from your core and you’ll move mountains.”
What’s your core? How to you measure it? Do your customers and competitors know it, or is it an industry secret?
Do you have an expert coach like Octavio supporting you on the path to building it? Let’s start a dialog.
Jeff@COOForYou.com
888-588-0357