Thinking Long Term Can be Short Sighted*
Jon Steinberg
CEO of Future Plc. Founder of Cheddar, former President/COO of BuzzFeed, former President News and Advertising at Altice USA
I'm constantly asked where I see our business in 3 to 5 years. What's amazing is how rare it is that people ask me about how we work as a team to operate better, refine our processes and social ads offerings, and service our clients better on a daily basis.
Similarly, I'm frequently interviewing candidates who are interested in "strategy" and "big decision making."
The real work gets done day in day out operating a little bit better. By focusing unrelentingly each day at getting a little better you are driving down the road to exponential growth and big revenue ramps.
The way to get to the top of the mountain is not by obsessing about the top of the mountain, but rather by training your body, becoming a great hiker and hiking team, and putting one leg in front of you - building strong base camps, eating healthy meals, and making sure your gear is in good shape.
If you are at a pre revenue startup, the question is now "how do we do $1 million?" but rather, "how do we do our first $50K in a way that is scalable, earns a renewal, and is high quality?"
The time for big thinking is evenings, walks in the park, and when you get stranded in an airport with your teammates. It often comes in the middle of a week of executing, when you step out of the shower with a better way to price, service, or reconfigure the technology. You dash an email, investigate, or call a huddle.
I'm not completely adverse to planning and long term goals. We certainly employ them and discuss them frequently. I simply feel that there tends to be an overemphasis on long term thinking and an underemphasis on focused execution, and the fact that focused execution is what is ultimately taking you up the mountain.
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[* Thanks to Dan Roth for the title when I expressed this concept to him.]
Image source: worldteamsports/Flickr
Why say overemphasis on long term thinking is short sighted? Why not "ill advised"? Granted, it's not as cute to say it's wrong as it is to say it's own opposite of itself, but accurate might be better than clever.
Vice President, Human Resources and Strategy Planning
11yI liken it to planning a trip, printing the map (I am old school) loading the car and forgetting to put gas in the tank. You are not going to get to 3 or 5 years if you aren't improving the business today.
Transforming Teams with Simplicity
11yLet me applaud Thinking Long Term Can be Short Sighted* as a brilliant technical demonstration of communication and collaboration of knowledge; especially for small business owners! Jon Stenberg and Dan Roth have crafted all the methodology a small business owner needs to make them killer competitive quick. The trick is to think like a “pre revenue startup “every day. Include Everyone! Switch first/next and you have the daily small business personal question “how do we do our NEXT $50K in a way that is scalable, earns a renewal, and is high quality?” Jons triad of scale, repeat, Q is an effective engine model for successful small businesses. I’ve personally seen it work even when the question gets delegated as next $5K, $500, etc! It could be argued that 5fiverr has business on it.
Lead Program Manager: UWF Banner Document Management
11yI often tend to be seeing things and thinking about them in the now when it comes to work and academic endeavors. I enjoy this viewpoint
Director at Sayers
11yVery interesting way of looking at things. At a university level we continually get told to look long term, but going through the graduate recruitment process I feel like thinking short term has enabled me to look at potential opportunities in a new light and opened up posibilities that might not have been available if I was thinking with only a 5-10 year plan in mind.