The short answer is…you. But how does this relate to your business?

Confront The Brutal Facts

Confront the Brutal Facts comes from Jim Collins’s book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t. Collins describes this principle like this:

“Productive change begins when you confront the brutal facts. Every good-to-great company embraced what we came to call “The Stockdale Paradox.” You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” – Jim Collins

“Productive change begins when you confront the brutal facts.” Many owner-operators (us included) may think they need more sales and customers because their cash flow isn’t great. They believe sales and marketing can be their silver bullet. If you have cash flow issues, marketing and advertising will accelerate your downfall. 

You must come to terms with where exactly you are. You need to confront the brutal facts. Do you have the means to execute a marketing system requiring investment? Do you even know what that number looks like? How big is your market? How much of the market do you have?

Stop and get a sense of where exactly you are. Have hope, but do not turn a blind eye to other parts and functions of your business.

We might have scared people away here, but for us, finances are vital. They support your marketing and innovation efforts. However, we don’t want to partner or collaborate with people who are ignoring reality.

So what is holding you back? You. Owners tend to ignore the facts that will help us get to where we want to go, either because of laziness, discomfort, or fear.

How can you confront the brutal facts?

A great exercise is simply writing down the facts, not opinions or subjective statements. Bring them into the light. Where are things at? Can you prove these are indeed facts? Start there.

Another great idea is to create a division or a separate team that delivers you brutal data points every day. As the leader here, your job is not to react or cause a stir. Present the information to your team. If you get the right people on the bus, that means they are self-motivated. They need the information to make decisions. Don’t be the bottleneck in your organization.

Hiring a consultant firm to evaluate your business is a great way to confront the brutal facts. Not only do firms see the same problems you have daily and thousands of times, but the good ones can also separate the meat from the chaff. In other words, confront the brutal facts with you.

Book an assessment with McWilliam & Powell today and get started.