Action

Sage advice from Jack Welch

We love the philosophy of former GE CEO Jack Welch; "when the rate of change outside your organisation is faster than the rate of change inside your organisation - then you have a problem"

Fact. Our world is changing faster every day.

It is becoming more connected, networked, leveraged, customised, 'social', personalised and instant. There are greater choices, competition (direct and indirect), stimulation, noise and more possibilities. Gaining the attention of customers is harder, and servicing their needs more complex.  Brands are becoming more powerful, the brand landscape more complex, and customer churn can happen in a heart beat.

Some companies are becoming successful faster than ever, in some cases creating millionaires overnight.  Predictably, those that aren’t reacting to the changing world are becoming irrelevant at an alarming rate.

And so whilst most in business accept that change is inevitable, we subscribe to the approach that “growth” is intentional.

Which leads to a critical question that every business owner should be asking themselves. How do you intend responding to our rapidly changing world and business environment?

The way we see it there are only two choices (well, just one really). You can become a victim of change. Or you can use this unique moment in time as a powerful motivator and catalyst to innovate, invigorate and transform your businesses.

Our world is changing faster than ever before and more dramatically than most people know and understand – it is time to wake up and innovate!


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Awareness

So what has colour got to do with your brand message?

As business owners we are all enormously proud (and attached) to our brand and brand messages. We invest huge amounts of time, thought, energy and $$ in creating our business or product name, logo, bi-lines, mission and vision statements.

But how much thought have you invested in your choice of brand colour? Just as words, names, symbols and logos demand an immediate response and reaction from our customers, so too does the colour we use.

Every colour has its own unique look, feel and message.

In the case of 3YO we deliberately chose the colour orange because it stood for so many of the values that we hold to be true for our business.

The meaning of orange:

Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. To the human eye, orange is a very hot colour, so it gives the sensation of heat. Nevertheless, orange is not as aggressive as red. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus colour, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Orange is the colour of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.

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Awareness

What are you focusing on?

The #1 Law of Entrepreneurship states that “opportunity will always exceed resource”.

Just ask anyone in the middle of a ‘start up’ and they’ll tell you that their greatest frustration is in not being able to bring more resource (time, $$, people, energy, expertise) to the table to execute on their idea.

The same goes for established businesses wanting to drive innovation and business development. 

Fact is I’ve never met anyone yet – start up or established – who has claimed they have all the resource they need!

So here’s the trick. It is all about building momentum – and momentum is all about directing your attention (resources) on a few key things that will get your boat moving in the right direction and in the right sequence.

Organisations tend to grow in the direction they focus their attention and that is always at its most powerful when the whole crew is paddling in the same direction.

You may well want to diversify your offer, reduce costs, improve customer service, innovate service delivery, de-risk, rationalise and standardise, simplify the business, increase margins, outsource, drive revenue growth (these are just some of the more common things on a business owner’s wish list) – but the fact is you can’t achieve focus by trying to be all things to all people all at the same time.

It is far better to do one or two things really (really) well, because where your attention goes the energy flows and the results show.

Try this simple little test. Stop what you are doing right now, get your Team together and ask them individually what is their current major ‘focus’. You’ll soon know whether you are all paddling in the same direction with focus, purpose and clarity.

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Action, Awareness, Clarity, Commitment

3YO Process: Awareness, Clarity, Commitment, Action

For decades, the organisations that have achieved the greatest reward and meaning are those that:

  • Operate from a place of heightened Awareness
  • Have absolute Clarity of purpose and direction
  • Demonstrate a deep Commitment to implementing strategy
  • Take massive and consistent Action on things that count

Here's the trick:

  • What You Focus on in your business expands - focus on what is right, not what's wrong
  • What you Think about you become -  are you looking at your glass half full or half empty?
  • What you Fear you attract - obstacles are the things you see when you take your eye off your goals
  • What you Resist persists - make the tough decisions early because nothing will change until something (or someone) moves
  • What you Examine disappears - there is always a solution when you are committed to the outcome
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Action, Refelection

Lessons and Insights from the year that was: 2019

For the 3Y0 crew 2019 was a thoroughly fascinating and rewarding year.  Like everyone else we had to get our heads around the fact that 2019 was a year that once again rebased many businesses (how many on the trot is that now?)

Globally and locally it was a year of big winners and big losers.  Equally valuable lessons came from both sides of the ledger for those who were willing to embrace both winning and losing as true learning experiences.

Fact is two things made a real difference:

First, The decisions you made (or didn't make) and 
Second, the actions you took (or didn't take) 

Despite the hype, despite the stories, despite the numbers, despite the currency, the capital markets and the banks, despite consumer confidence surveys, commodity prices and technology trends – for most in business the year came down to just two things. 

Too simple?  Not really.

Success belongs to those who respond quickly, adapt to an ever changing playing field, make big decisions early, access and leverage the ideas, talent and resource they need to execute.  And most importantly then followed through despite the noise and distraction going on around them.

We observed plenty of local businesses struggling in a flat market.  Sure, the economy and general trading environment didn’t help but at the risk of upsetting a few people our observation is that most of the struggle came from within.

Why the struggle?  Well, speaking from my own personal experience – most struggle comes from our not being fully awake and 'present' for the full experience of the moment.

In other words, if someone is spending more time pondering why things should be different – than focusing on what is, then they will surely be deep in struggle.  Brian Tracy has a lovely saying, “deal with things as they are, not as you’d like them to be.”

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