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During my company's 15-year trajectory, we have never stopped rebuilding it. Reconstruction is not an option; it's the only way to move forward. That's how we adapt to market conditions, customer requirements and employee needs. A rebuilding mentality leads to pioneering practices and ultimately ensures that we do not just stay relevant, but ahead of the curve.
After years devoted to a reconstruction strategy, I summarized the five-rule approach:
1. Do not give in to the routine
Businesses are born every day. Every day, a person who has a new idea or a new sense of an old concept is starting a business that will somehow compete with yours. If you do not take the same initiative, you simply wait for them to catch up and eventually overtake your business. Whatever the position of your company, the innovator will appear with a lighter, more elegant or more effective approach of the same solutions that you have developed over time.
The challenge for any business is to make things go smoothly while staying focused on the future. Invoices to pay, human resource problems, customer requests, everything accumulates and very quickly, you work in the company instead of working for the company. It is essential that you stay restless.
2. Think about the projected future value of the company more than just liquidity
Money is the blood of a company. Without this, there is no business. But being able to generate money (and a lot of money) in the future is as essential to the business as the current state of cash flow.
The needs of the market are changing. It's not that markets change suddenly. It may be the perception of the stranger, but someone who is aware of the market fluctuations will see the changes and will be able to react on a daily basis. However, true adaptation means that sometimes the necessary responses require fundamental changes in business models, organizational structures, or products. And that means you will sometimes have to sacrifice your current cash flow to increase the long-term value of the business.
3. Always look at the landscape
"Sudden" changes in your business landscape should not surprise you. You must be aware of what is happening in your area of activity so you can detect early warnings. If you choose to focus only on the present, you will lose these signs and, by the time you realize that it is time to change, it will be too late.
Watching your landscape carefully will allow you to gain valuable insights and experience over time. At some point, your overall vision of the company, the market or the supply will change. It's a good thing. This means that your previous paradigm is now obsolete and that it is time to introduce a new framework of thought.
4. Engage for a real change
All of the above rules are only worth following if you are ready to review the cornerstones of your business. Adapting to change requires more than an aesthetic remodeling of your business. You need to rebuild the very foundations of your business to maximize long-term viability and potential.
In our case, we started as a small translation agency. In order to meet the challenge of outsourcing unknown freelancers, we have been transformed into a translation agency with more than 60 in-house translators. This model eventually became insufficient because of its lack of elasticity, high overhead costs and human resource management difficulties. We have transformed and targeted a totally different business model, based on third-party technology and project management professionals thirsting for growth and big names. In the end, even this model has ceased to be effective because of the sudden economic downturn that has highlighted all the inefficiencies of the model. We started investing in our technology, building our own global content management platform and developing our identity as a service and technology company.
If we had not rebuilt our business steadily and continuously all this time, we would have been bankrupt. Even if we were not in financial bankruptcy, we would have been in conceptual bankruptcy without any relevant ideas or proposals. And we could never have rebuilt the business as needed. The build is like a muscle – if you stop doing exercise, it will atrophy and will not be there for you when you need it. We remained relevant only by trusting our agitation and constantly rebuilding ourselves.
5. Make stress an ally
Speaking of muscle building, this is especially important for developing resistance to stress. Although reconstruction has obvious long-term benefits, short-term results can often be negative. You have to deal with troubles, uncertainties, adjustments and adaptations, all of which contribute to increasing the feeling of stress. There is less continuity and less chance of relying on existing vectors. Reconstruction also creates major inefficiencies in terms of costs.
Although I can not guarantee that this is true, I am willing to bet that a company that has been continually re-examined and repositioned will have faced enough ongoing stress to effectively resist its damaging effects positively react to the curved bullets who will not fail to come from a company that has remained relatively inactive, regardless of their success, profitability or recognition.
Reconstruction is a chance to perform a deep, even firmware, software update of a company. This is the opportunity to resynchronize the company with a more updated version of leadership, customer and trends. It's a chance to rediscover, redefine and redeploy. And just as in writing, if you believe that the first version is final, chances are you'll never be a great writer. Building a business is an ongoing process of discovery and polishing.
Gabriel Fairman is CEO of Bureau Works.
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