Book Review „Mastering the Rockefeller Habits“ – Increasing the Value of Your Growing Firm

Chapter 5: Mastering organizational alignment and focus

The organization with too many priorities has no priorities. Concentrate on your top 5 priorities.

The following could be good points to consider when looking for the top 5.

a) Not big enough to compete: Solution could be to merge with a bigger company

b) The company lacks a key player: Probably a key person is missing, like a CTO, CFO or COO. Oftentimes it’s hard to grow and be profitable without this key player. Take the hard decisions to find and hire/ include such a person.

c) The economic engine is broken: Maybe the economic model on which you founded the company no longer makes sense. Get out. Make that though decision.

d) Someone else is controlling our destiny: Somebody gains control over a key component of your business. Find a good counter-move or you are in trouble.

e) We need a war chest to compete: Sometimes a company needs a lot of money to compete. This mostly pertains to very large companies.

f) We can’t raise money till we grow: Focus not only on raising capital but also on increasing sales. It’s quite hard to get capital if everyone is focused on getting funds when at the same time sales are decreasing.

g) We have got to scale back or we won’t survive: Sometimes large segments of an industry collapse within a short time period. Often CEO’s aren’t  willing to make the necessary cuts fast and deep enough. Instead, the death is slow and painful.