Every growth-minded organization’s aspirational and unsustainable spreadsheet dream.
Most people can sniff out the BBFM thread of language for what it really is:
False or misleading marketing claims.
Running to the beat of the corporate drum (which is typically the opposite of disruption and, in turn, true innovation).
Unchecked hubris born of previous success.
An undisciplined and insatiable desire for more.
(Those last two are part of the five stages of decline that Jim Collins outlined in his lesser-quoted book HOW THE MIGHTY FAIL)
Yet it doesn’t prevent businesses from believing in the false promises of this mantra. In time, and always sooner than desired, this will happen:
Bigger becomes bloated.
Faster needs to increase its speed.
Yesterday’s version of more is not enough.
Better is subjective and becomes a point of contention.
If we can sniff this out as consumers, then why is it that we, as businesspeople and leaders, apply this same misguided thinking and bake it into our systems and processes?
We know that bigger isn’t intuitively or explicitly better.
Faster doesn’t guarantee greater efficiency or effectiveness.
And more gets you more of everything – the bad along with any good.
Better is the only meaningful pursuit on this list.
Better, when articulated what it entails and how you’ll achieve it, will present nuanced versions of more that you, as a leader, get to decide if the pursuit is worthy of the effort.
And while better might remain subjective to the end customer, you get to define the terms of what better means to your organization.
It will be discovered in the metrics, the anecdotal, the company culture, as well as the hard to quantify.
It will be in the ability to recruit and the ability to retain your best people.
It will be proven over the long term. Not last quarter or next quarter.
It will reveal itself in a loyal base of customers, suppliers, and partners.
Better has a purpose. It has a definitive feel.
The pursuit of better is ongoing, just like business itself.
It will be written (literally) in your company’s DNA.
And you will know when you are going astray.
Because all of us want – and are looking for – better.
We’ll all take the upticks of bigger and more as they come (and inevitably go).
Which is why our aspiration should be to laser-focused on better.
Better is achievable, measurable, sustainable, and profitable…
as long as we aren’t derailed by short-term, fleeting promises of bigger, faster, and more.