eBusiness Weekly
Lucky Dube, (God rests his beautiful soul,) sang a song I know will resonate with the majority of us. The song “It’s not Easy” echoes mistakes that are experienced by many families, which more often than not, lead to regret and untold suffering.
There are people whom you have had relationships with and in hindsight you ask yourself, “What was I thinking?” There are decisions that you made — when you think of them now, you just chuckle in embarrassment.
The business fraternity is also fraught with mistakes that we have made. Failed partnerships, irresponsible spending, wrong investments and timing and other grave errors that have damaged our reputations.
Sadly, the 21st century has witnessed some rather high prolific executive suicides because of mistakes made. Mark Madoff certainly paid for his father’s mistakes, Bernie Madoff, who engineered one of the world’s most prolific Ponzi Schemes.
Though he was not involved, one of the victims sued the Trust which he was a member. His method of strangulation, a dog leash.
Perhaps that is the reason we are averse to mistakes is our education systems that fight against any form of mistakes. Spelling, mathematical mistakes are all treated with derision by our teachers. Many billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg almost “gush” at how mistakes are a necessary evil for business growth.
According to Zuckerberg, “don’t even bother avoiding mistakes because you are going to make tonnes of mistakes and the important thing is to learn quickly from the mistakes you make and not give up.”
Human potential thought leader, Bryant McGill, believes that “A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.
What do mistakes teach business people?
Humility is always a great lesson that people who have committed mistakes gain. It is always important to admit your mistakes and then take a step back to review what really went wrong.
In addition, making mistakes also teaches us that “No man is an island after all”. Getting advice and more importantly a mentor is an important to learn from those who have walked the road before you. Eleanor Roosevelt had this to say about mistakes: “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all by yourself.”
Steps to learning from your business mistakes
Russ Alan Prince, writing for Forbes Magazine, suggests different ways of learning from business mistakes. The seven steps are as follows: Sometimes our aspirations are too high and they might need to be lowered until the necessary resources are found.
Secondly, Prince notes that, detailing current results is also very important and determine the degrees of failure. The third step is to highlight the differences between what you expected and what has happened.
Perhaps one of the most important steps is to compile all the mistakes as you know them.
It is important to take a pragmatic view of everything and not apportion any blame to anyone. After doing this it is imperative to specify the lessons you need to learn. According to Prince “you are likely to see both core singular errors in judgment as well as broader based patterns of miscalculations”. Lastly, Prince argues that the final step is always to learn the bigger lesson. He concludes by saying that “Across multiple unsuccessful ventures will you recognise the decisive mistakes you are making and learn the bigger picture.
What are the common business mistakes that small businesses are prone to?
Lack of planning
According to Fundera.com failing to plan is one of the biggest mistakes that businesses fail to recognise. Various internet resources are available to aid in business planning. Some of these resources are free.
Failing to conduct market research
Conducting market research is an inevitable part of business growth. There are various researches that one can conduct in order to understand one’s consumers.
For example, some businesses realise when it is too late that they should have understood their competition a little bit better. Again these researches do not need to cost an “arm and a leg” as there are various free resources that one can find on the internet.
Failing to employ appropriate human resources
As businesses grow, it is always important to resource those entities with the requisite skills. For example, the majority of SMEs do not have designated human resources policies. Though SMEs globally contribute to a significant employment figures they need to be more serious in resourcing their operations with the requisite skills. According to Meghana Ayyagari, a leading, SME researcher working with the World Bank, SMEs who employ between five and 100 employees account for 48 percent of total permanent jobs globally.
What are the costly mistakes companies have made?
Some mistakes have cost companies “big time”. Let us look at a few examples. According to INC.com, Excite was the no 2 search engine and would have bought Google for US$1 million, when Larry Page offered to sell his company. Instead, they turned down the offer for a company which now has less than 2 percent of search engine market share, Ask.com.
Blockbuster turned down offers from Netflix. However, the tables have turned and Netflix is a leader in online streaming videos. My favourite “mistaker” has to be Kodak. Simply put Kodak failed to innovate and “move with the times”.
As expected, Apple has committed some major business crimes but always seem to bounce back. At one point their screens exhibited a yellow tint, a design flaw that did not cause any major “raucous.” It was the Apple music App though that caused one observer to remark that “You must be a devotee of Apple if you use their music app.” The App also had the uncanny habit of deleting music files on phones. When rolling out the IPhone X, the face ID its signature feature did not work. This was on stage. I can just imagine Samsung design executives “sniggering.” In 1995, Apples First Generation of PowerBook Laptops were seen to be “horrible even to Apple standards”.
Some of the laptops actually burst into flames. The Apple maps were yet another Apple app which was to be the “apple of the eye” Unfortunately it made the Eiffel tower look flat. According to one writer” It was so bad that the company corrected its bug ridden maps app over 2,5 million times.
In recent years we saw a wave of car manufacturers admitting their mistakes and recalling the vehicles. According to Investopedia, the most recalled vehicles from 2013 to 2017 was the Mercedes Benz C. Class, followed by the GMC Sierra, the BMW 3 series, the Dodge Durango and the Nissan Pathfinder. Notably, these car manufacturers are still at the “top of their game.” But these car manufacturers remain on top of their game because they quickly learn from their mistakes.
I will sign off with some quotes from two equally powerful ladies. “Mistakes are part of the dues one has to pay for a full life” (Sophia Loren). Oscar Wilde also has this to say about mistakes, “Experience is the name we simply give our mistakes” Oscar Wilde” In business mistakes will always happen, EMBRACE LEARN AND MOVE ON.
Joseline Sithole is the founder of SODECO an SME consulting firm. For comments call 0773 634 062.
