Someone asked me what I learned in three years at one of the major companies in the consumer goods industry. I started thinking about it and realized I did not have a quick answer. So I decided to write a short summary here to kick off my Learner’s blog.
These learnings are relevant both to what I saw in consumer market as well as in the corporate world and business practices overall. They may seem trivial. The most important point here is that this is what works and hundreds of other things that are not written here can thus be discarded (until the next time at least).
First Learning: Always think about the end-goal and what you want to achieve.
Figure out the means to do it only after you are sure of your goal. This is very different from perfectionism. You do not have to spend years on thinking about your plans before making a single step forward. Some steps will need to be taken anyway, some mistakes are inevitable and that is not what matters. You also do not need to come up with a goal that is unique, or impressive, or groundbreaking, etc. Start your thinking with what it is you want to get done. Be specific too. And then start taking the steps and always remember why you are doing this and what the next steps would be.
Second Learning: There is no single perfect product or service in any category, they are always just Means To An End or a tool that Gets The Job Done.
Hence, trying to categorize anything as “best”/”worst”, “expensive”/”cheap”, etc. is wrong. These categories are irrelevant. What is relevant is your ultimate goal (see the first learning). Your tools, the products and services that you use, should get you there. And yes, this is a reference to the concept of Job-To-Be-Done. It is one of the most powerful tools for analyzing any process from the utilitarian point of view. Learning about it was one of the biggest intellectual revelations for me since I heard about the Hegelian dialectics and its application in Marxist economic theory.
By the way, I do think Marx would be one of the most relevant subjects to study for business managers. Almost any business presentation and any business meeting should start with his quote about the need to change the world rather than understand it. Remember how difficult it is to explain what is an “actionable insight”? Just quote Marx and it becomes much easier to understand.
Third Learning: Long-term goal is always more important than any potential short-time gain or loss.
It does not matter if you can win in the market and become number one only to fall down next year because you are broke. Short-term plans and tactical decisions are the means (see the second learning) to your end-goal (see the first learning). As long as it is a part of your plan, not expanding in a certain market or losing your share there is fine. Stick to your goal and continue. Reality can and will get in your way which means you need to adjust your plans. It does not mean you need to change your goal and if you set your goal in a right way, you will not have to change it. That is how we get back the importance of setting up a right goal and how to make sure you nailed it: it will stay the same for the next 5-10 years while the tactical steps will reflect all the everyday challenges you face.
Is it a coincidence there are Three Learnings while there is also a reference to Marx and Hegelian dialectics? No. Three is the magic number: Thesis-anthises-synthesis. Doesn’t mean everything will be written in three in this blog though. Next time we will follow with more learnings about something else as this is first and foremost a Learner’s blog. For sure it helps me to organize my thoughts and if anyone else finds it resonating with their experience, please do write a comment here or connect with me via email or social media.
Now playing: Glenn Jones – The Giant Who Ate Himself
Photos of temple walls of Kyoto and Nara are my own and you will see more of them here. Marx photo is from Wikipedia.
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