Newton’s first law of motion and your business.
– Why is it so difficult to start? – Why is it so difficult to drive a change in an organisation?
– Why do some of the biggest companies fail?
Because:
“An object at rest remains at rest, or if in motion, remains in motion at a constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force.”
To understand this in a business context, we have to understand that the economic landscape is not a smooth, level playing field. It has inclines and slopes, basic friction, showstopper boulders, and other competing bodies.
Corollary #1
If you want to start something from scratch, you have to apply consistent force (effort) in the right direction (strategy) with discipline, to put it in motion. Disparate, uncoordinated, random actions won’t let you overcome the intertia.
I see most initiatives or new businesses fail because the leader has too many priorities or is not experimenting enough (and fast enough) to discover the right market fit.
Corollary #2
If a business is running smoothly, it is not necessary that “all is good”. It may be running well because it has momentum, which happened due to the leader’s efforts, or favorable business conditions in the past. It has friction and roadblocks which are not visible and which are slowing the business down. At times the landscape and business is changing so slowly, and founders become complacent, that they cannot see the business dying a little bit every day.
Also, people lose track of big problems on the horizon. People tend to focus a lot on firefighting small fires around them which are immediately visible.
This is how momentum works in your favor, but also blinds you from guaranteed decline.
The big questions to ask – “what’s driving the business?”, “What’s moving the needle? How do you know? What if you are wrong?”
Corollary #3
Change management is one of the most difficult tasks for a leader. This means you have to change direction – which effectively involves – stopping the stone rolling in a given direction, and pushing it in a desirable direction.
This needs internal motivation of the organisation, so leader have to focus on the why, what, and how of the change with utmost humility. The leader may be wrong!
Also, it has to be a continious process, so that it is more like shaping the direction instead of really doing a big bang change management. This is what we do at Indus Net Technologies (INT.) which made us a resilient ship, sailing for over 26 years and getting stronger everyday, in a fast changing industry.
What are your thoughts on intertia and momentum in business?