Perfection is not Perfect

If everything is perfect you have serious problems. Your product is a perfect fit for your clients. However there are other people where your product might be useful, and still others where it may only marginally meet the requirements. These would-be customers will demand product changes and grumble when they receive your bill, but without them you will stagnate.

So what's wrong with stagnating? Turtles have done it for hundreds of thousands of years. Perhaps swimming around eating seaweed is your idea of the good life. The rest of us live in an ever-changing world. The customers' needs are constantly evolving and your competitors are changing to meet those needs.

You may think that the need for your product is well defined and there is no competition in sight. You know your business better than I do, but you are wrong. You will do far better by trying to out perform non-existent competition than staying in your shell. Likewise you're customers will be more loyal if you anticipate their needs.

If your accounts receivable is zero, if every sales call results in a sale, if your clients never ask for more than you can deliver then you are not taking enough risks. If your business is only a hobby or you are only interested in catching a fad and then disappearing this is fine. However if you truly want to benefit your customers you must be constantly improving. To maintain your edge you need to be experimenting and taking risks.

Many people take risks of the wrong kind. Buying lottery tickets to fund your retirement plan is risky. You have no control on the outcome. The right kind of risk is where you can adjust your behavior as you see the results. For example if you introduce a new product and it doesn't sell you can find out why. Then you can adjust your marketing, modify the product, change your service or perhaps work with a different product. This adjusting to feedback takes the luck out of taking risks. By measuring your companies performance and improving the weak areas you will make a stronger company. Likewise by changing the perfect areas you will prevent weaknesses from creeping into your organization.

A few years ago I started bicycling for exercise and pleasure. I've met many biking enthusiasts over the miles. Most of the riders have a goal. They want to achieve a certain average speed or a total number of miles or just get outside twice a week. For someone who wants to ride 50 miles in a day measuring the average speed might be counterproductive. Maintaining a speed of 18 miles per hour might prevent completing the 50 miles. Make sure you are measuring what needs to be improved.

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