Are you Ferrari or Toyota?

I am currently the CEO of an Internet banking corporation called JSA Technologies. In some ways the company is seeing unprecedented growth and in other ways it seems to be dying. The question is: which is it? Is it dying or growing? Is it doing well or poorly? A series of animosity seems to have developed among some people. To make matters more complicated, the equity holders are diverse and include friends, ex-roommates, and my ex-wife. How do you make decisions in an environment like this and be successful?

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making in business or any organization for that matter is not being clear who they are who they want to be. Without a clear identity how do you know whether you are succeeding and failing? How do you make decisions?

Many people have the ideal of “we just want to be successful!” But what does that mean? People would probably say that both Toyota and Ferrari are successful but they are completely different. Do you want to be the biggest company in the world with the most customers? Or do you want to be a more niche company highly profitable with high quality standards and a limited market?

Minimize Power Struggles

If you have an identity, decision making is easier. Team disputes are minimized because you can talk about whether it consistent with the identity rather than who is right and who is wrong. It is much like raising kids. With family rules or a routine, when you have a problem you can simply point to the rules you all agreed upon.

Increase Efficiency and Speed

When you are faced with so many decisions you can reduce your financial costs by increase your efficiency and speed. You will spend less time debating what is right and wrong and more on how to achieve success.

Improve Employee Morale

People work for more than money. This is a big mistake managers often forget to remember. People work because as Stephen Collins author of Good to Great says, because there is a higher purpose. A clear identity is that higher purpose. At first the idea of making money appeals to most people, because in the beginning it seems easy and it's easy to forget about all the work involved, but after awhile this ship runs out of steam because it's a hard path and we desires something greater. We desire a path which invigorates us and keeps us going on the long haul. Something that when our life is over we can be proud of.

Festering Petulance

Without a clear identity, people can become restless and you foster an environment that seems cold and inhuman where people work countless hours without a clear reason in mind. They get grumpy and negative. They back talk. They lose focus. They fall short.

Create an Identity

To move forward we are creating an identity. I an excited about the identity we are developing and hope to share some of it here. Your identity doesn't need to be a cold mission statement. It does probably have to start with a clear understanding of your own identity. What do you want to see in the world? Be bold! As Stephen Covey said "Begin With The End in Mind". Life is short, have fun. Not everyone is going to get behind it. That's okay. If you can't agree on an identity as a team, then maybe you need to find ways to go in different ways. It's frustrating, but better to face reality now than avoid real problems which will only get bigger with time. Life is short...very very very short.