Logistics Management

Dave Schneider

You Can’t Shrink Your Way to Greatness…
May 13, 2008

 I have a rather large collection of books. Kind of goes with being someone who started reading at a very young age and a genetic makeup that is part “pack rat”. Do I have books! It would really be a serious problem if I did not go through a process of culling out the ones that are not “worthy” of being on the shelf, or the habit that I have of “sharing” some of the better ones with friends. 

Last week I was looking at the book shelves in my office, considering what should stay and what should go. Part of the criteria is the question; “Is the book still relevant? Is the material or ideas in the book still relevant to today?” If the answer is no, then the book goes off into a box and sent over to the local thrift store.

Each time I go through this I find a book that I don’t remember reading. Don’t know why I don’t remember reading the book, just that I cannot remember reading it. Does not surprise me when that happens, I get books sent to me by friends who are authors, and books sent to me by friends returning the favor of the book “sharing” practice. When I run into a book I can’t remember, I put it into the “To Read” pile and refresh my memory, or discover a new book.

There was a book by Tom Peters that I just could not remember; “The Circle of Innovation – You Can’t Shrink Your Way to Greatness”. I couldn’t tell you where the book came from. It is a thick book, lots of pages. But the type is big,(in some places huge) and the writing style is more like a multi-part powerpoint presentation. I stood there in a moment of indecision to toss or to read.

I am glad it went into the “Read” pile.

Innovation is the only ongoing strategy of success. Keep that thought in mind for the next few minutes.

Change is around us, in us, over us, under us, behind us and in front of us. Change surrounds each and every one of us. You cannot escape; Life is nothing but change. Change is a dual edged blade, cuts to the good and the bad. Change cuts away the things that no longer work, and give light to the new growth below. If you stand still and attempt to fight change, the blade will cut you down.

There are examples of the people who fight change all around. There are examples of people who embrace change all around. There are examples of people who fear change, welcome change, and make change.

So which are you?

With all of the talk of economic recession in the press, in the political arena, in the coffee shops; there is an argument about if we are in an economic recession or not. You can argue it all you want. My question is “by what measure”? Is GDP shrinking? No, it is still growing, just much slower than it was.   Job losses are up, job losses are down. In this “recession” we are not loosing as many jobs as we were in the last.

Do you get the idea that everyone is confused? Are we better off or not? Or is it more of a story that some companies are doing much better than others?   Is it that some people are really doing better than others?

It appears to me that there is some evolution going on, and there is a fair amount of noise being made by people that are resisting change. They are standing up and crying that it is not fair, and the blade of free market change is getting ready to slice them down.

Or is has already sliced through and they don’t even know it.

Part of how I make money to feed my family is through my investments. Right now, as people moan about the economy and the market, I have been watching some of the investments that I made in the past year come up for harvest. Some faster than I expected.

The investments that are growing nicely are the innovators in their markets. These companies are growing their businesses making better products than what they sold yesterday. Some of it is really boring stuff, until you realize that these “boring” things are the guts of what makes the  guts of the world work. These companies focus on the value of their “Human Capital” and the resources of intelligent people to come up with new solutions to problems, adding value to their products.

The winners innovate. The rest complain.

Which gets to the heart of the idea of not being able to shrink to greatness. For every moment you spend on cutting costs, driving that extra cent out of the carrier, out of the supplier, that is another minute that you are not thinking on how to make whatever you do work better.

Do you want to be known as a cost cutter, or a value generator?

Posted by Dave Schneider on May 13, 2008 | Comments (1)