Is your business a “why” business or a “how” business?

Last week was bookended by opposites. I spent Monday with a visionary, energetic, but largely undisciplined business, and Friday with an efficient, busy yet somewhat lethargic business.

None of this would have been obvious to an outsider (well, I don’t think so) but it was glaringly obvious to me as I was spending a bit of ‘inside’ time with both businesses.

In my line of work I get to see the nakedness of a business, or – if not its birthday suit – then certainly its underwear. And I am witness to its wobbly bits (the saggy stomachs if you will) that are clothed and hidden when the business is facing its public. Very few business owners get to see this picture of other businesses. Only in the most trusted of relationships do business owners honestly share their true shape. And accordingly many businesses don’t know whether they have similar or opposite problems to their contemporaries.

So that is how I happened to be with the two businesses last week. The business owners knew each other reasonably well, and had asked me to spend a day with each of them so that they could then help each other with the homework that I would undoubtedly give. They had buddied up because they completely expected the businesses to have similar issues.

I started with the Monday business and found there a team whose sense of business purpose was akin to fighting for a cause. They were completely focused on the purpose and compellingly energetic about creating ideas to achieve it. But when it came down to how they were actually going to affect those ideas in a systematic way and make the business a profit; well that’s where they let themselves down.

Meanwhile, the Friday business had a team that operated with machine-like efficiency. You could tell that they were the sort of people who ‘got stuff’ done. They weren’t very energetic but they were very, very disciplined. They didn’t know why they were doing half the stuff they were doing or why the business was in business. But boy, did they know how to do their stuff.

The Monday business knew ‘why’ it was in business but was short on the ‘how’ to do it. The Friday business was strong on the ‘how’ but short on the ‘why’. Most businesses I come across – except for the super successful – fall into one of those two camps; they are short on either the ‘why’ or the ‘how’. But it’s no good being primarily a “why” or a “how” business. The “whys” make no money and the “hows” run out of energy. You need to work on being both. So which one are you?

Funnily enough the Monday and Friday businesses thought they would be able to help each other because they had similar issues. In fact, they are complete opposites. But that doesn’t matter. It may show just how little the business owners know about each other but it means they are going to be even better homework buddies.

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Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses: Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business” and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).