“The Blues Brothers” is a fun, iconic movie. One of the most memorable scenes from the movie is when John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd are sitting in the car about to complete their “mission from God”.
I think its funny because despite all of the issues they currently face, they firmly believe that simply committing to a mission, will get them to where they want to go. It’s funny because we can all relate to feeling this, whilst also realising that it’s kind of silly.
In the scene above they have 106 miles to travel, little fuel and some cigarettes “...it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.” So, little resources and they are ‘flying blind’.
Having embarked on your own business I am sure you have felt this way at some stage.
One thing you can do to improve your situation is to get some visibility of what you’re doing. Turn the ‘lights’ on and regularly run reports on how you’re doing and where you’re going.
The take away for me is that “the most important assets you have these days are the intangible ones, assets that financial reporting really doesn’t deal with very well”. Hence the need for Balanced Scorecard.
Here is a great explanation of something called the Balanced Scorecard from one of its creators….Professor Robert Kaplan of Harvard Business School - link
If you are not reporting on key strategic aspects of your business you are effectively 'flying blind’. Worse still, if you are not reporting regularly on basic things like profitability and cashflow you cannot see what you’re doing AT ALL. You are literally driving a car with no headlights, no internal lights and no dashboard visible … at night.
Financial reporting is not enough. It’s doesn’t tell you how your customers feel about you and doesn’t give you visibility of the internal workings of your business (e.g.: best salesperson, most profitable products, turnaround time for a job/task, how effective your marketing is etc).
Simply deciding you are on a mission sounds fun but its not enough. Switch the lights on so you can see what you’re doing and where you’re going.