Look for Lever / by Alexander Lyadov

"Give me more resources, and I'll solve this problem."

If your top managers talk like this, things are screwed up. It means they're desperate and don't get the real problem. Most likely, after blowing through another million in six months, managers will just throw up their hands.

Sure, with endless time, money, and people, someday there's a chance to solve everything. But the market won't passively wait for you. Diverting resources will breed other, more dangerous problems.

"There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs," bluntly said Thomas Sowell, an American economist and social philosopher. In other words, everything has a price, and it's good to know and accept it beforehand.

Complaints about a lack of resources are just admitting there's no Big Idea. Back in my advertising days, that's what we called a bright, creative idea that shook up the market with bitty ad spend.

But the skill of finding non-trivial solutions is valuable for top managers too. That's how they ensure high returns for shareholders. And that's why they're worth their weight in gold.

Today in business therapy, my job is to help CEOs find the Lever. It's still the Big Idea, but in a broader context. Ideally, the CEO realizes, "I already have everything I need! And by concentrating efforts on point X, the effect will be 100x for every cent."

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander


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