What Matters Now

Sitting in the train I had time to read 'What Matters Now'.

I loved it. It's a very inspiring read. A great way to tap into the minds of great people. And all that for free! All contributors were asked to write a one-pager about a word. E.g. Power, Harmony, Compassion.

Here's some of the parts I enjoyed most:

• Vision is the lifeblood of any organization. It is what keeps it moving forward. It provides meaning to the day-to-day challenges and setbacks that make up the rumble and tumble of real life. -- Michael Hyatt (This relates nicely to my post about Vision vs Scale.)
• The One Percenters are often hidden in the crevices of niches, yet they are the roots of word of mouth. This year, your job is to find them and attract them. -- Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell
• Peer production, open source, crowdsourcing, DIY and UGC - all these digital phenomena are starting to play out in the world of atoms, too. The Web was just the proof of concept. Now the revolution gets real. -- Chris Anderson
• Don't worry too much about getting things done. Make things happen. -- Gina Trapani
• Wouldn't it make more sense for both men and women to appreciate each other's strengths so we all work on what comes naturally? -- Marti Barletta
• Educate a girl, and you educate her children and gernations to follow. -- John Wood
• The road to sustainability goes through a clear-eyed look at unsustainability. -- Alan Webber
• After a decade of truly spectacular underachievement, what we need now is less management and more freedom - fewer individual automatons and more autonomous individuals. -- Daniel Pink
• Stop waiting around for bosses and companies to get bette and complaining about how you are treated. Build skills - and use them - that will permit you to create the environment in which you want to live. -- Jeffrey Pfeffer
• When focusing on harmony, success becomes defined by different terms. Contribution. Dedication. Cooperation. -- Jack Covert
• Be compassionate to everyone no matter the level of connection. -- Mitch Joel
• Neoteny is the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood. ... It's time we listen to children and allow neoteny to guide us beyond the rigid frameworks and dogma created by adults. -- Joichi Ito
• Robyn Waters, Cheerleader of Possibilities. :-)
• Good dumb ideas create polarization. ... The fiercer the polarization, the smarter your dumb idea. Of course, dumb can be just dumb. You just have to be smart to tell the difference. -- Dave Balter
• Never forget, a small group of people can change the world. No one else ever has. -- Micah Sifry
• I believe the thank you economy will become the norm in 2010 and beyond, and brands that fail to adjust will be left out in the cold. -- Gary Vaynerchuk
• When information is evaluated without context - regardless of highly sophiticated analytics, an infinite amount of compute, energy or time, little if any relevance can be established with certainty. When information is first placed into context with prior observations, relevance can be determined with basic algorithms and insignificant amounts of compute power. -- Jeff Jonas
• You're probably trying to change things at home or at work. Stop agonizing about what's not working. Instead, ask yourself, "What's working well, right now, and how can I do more of it?" -- Chip and Dan Heath
• You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion. -- Derek Sivers
• The Mesh is a movement that is taking place all around us and will grow, reform and spread to engage many more of us. It's reshaping how we go to the market, who we partner with and how we find new customers. The opportunity is to embrace the Mesh and hopefully to discover how your current or new business can inspire customers in a world where access trumps ownership. -- Lisa Gansky
• How do you know when you've had "enough?" Not everything, all the time, completely, forever. Just enough. Enough to start, finish, or simply maintain. -- Merlin Mann
• Mistakes happen. How you apologize matters. Don't bullshit people - just say "I'm sorry." And mean it. -- Jason Fried
• More people will tell you can't than you can. Don't listen. Anything's possible. -- Aimee Johnson

Scale or Vision

I've been wanting to share a thought with you for some time now. Here goes!

Every now and then (too often in my opinion) you hear managers of companies say: "We need scale, we need to expand to be profitable." This remark leads to a new acquisition (sales channel e.g.) or a merger.

This statement puzzles me. I understand what it says, but I tend to disagree with it. It sounds like: The Bigger the Better. We all know and experience this doesn't have to be true. It can be true. This statement simply implies that it is true. Or am I mistaken? Is this a statement that is economically and logically correct? Please tell me if I'm wrong.

So, I disagree with this statement (for now). And I think it tends to mask an underlying problem. Talking about scale moves a company away from thinking about vision. Why does our company exist? What are we good at? Who are our competitors? What do we want to be good at? Etc. When you have a sound vision, you can define a roadmap to get there. Being bigger (growing) could be a path towards the future, but it doesn't have to be.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Tags van Technorati: vision,business model,business,scale