Succeed in Business Without Undue Stress:
Lessons From a Sailor
Whether you’ve been
in business for 40 years, or you are a startup waiting for the perfect time
to enter the marketplace, you want to know how to succeed in the fast-paced
world of capturing market share. Let’s see how your business can benefit
from the lessons learned in the daily life of a salty sailor.
Sailors are known for their exciting tales of far-off worlds and adventure
beyond a landlubber’s imagination. The trusted captain and crew have a few
pointers to share for a successful voyage.
Know your vessel. Is she seaworthy? Is she built and maintained by people
who take pride in their work? What are her quirks? Not all vessels are the
same by any means. Know what makes her unique and tend to those details.
What is the greatest strength of your enterprise? What is your core
competency, or what is the distinguishing feature of your product? Having a
well-defined product or service and a good understanding of how it compares
to similar items in the marketplace is crucial.
Choose a good crew. Your crew will make or break the voyage, and as the
captain, all the responsibility is resting on you. Is the “crew” of your
“vessel” the best in the business, or did you hire your brother’s high
school best friend out of some misplaced sense of obligation? You have to
constantly assess the skill and knowledge of your crew. Do you have the
right people stationed at the right post? Just as you wouldn’t put a
deckhand in charge of navigation, you must insist on having all of your
staff working in the areas of their expertise.
Know where you're going. As a sailor, you must always be aware of your
latitude and longitude. You have to know where you are in order to chart a
course to where you want to go. The tools available today are changing
rapidly and technology is great, but do not lose sight of the basics:
quality, consistency, value, and customer service. Knowing where you are in
these key areas and how you stack up to the competition will allow you to get
where you want to go, be it increased market share, growth, innovation, or
profitability.
Sharpen your senses. The wind will change direction and velocity and make
your life terrible if you aren’t in tune with Mother Nature. The same goes
for rain, thunderstorms, and squalls. Know what conditions are in the
forecast, but always keep watch to discern subtle changes and patterns.
Business journals and analysts are out there making predictions and it can
be hard to figure out who has the best information. Sharpen your senses and
your gut will guide you in the direction of success. Look at the forecast,
but know that your gut is rarely wrong.
Know how to adjust your sails. When the wind changes direction or a storm
system builds, sailors understand that they’ll make no progress fighting
the forces of nature. They know that by simply adjusting their sails, they
can harness those forces, adjust their course, and continue on. They may
even adjust their destination to make the most of the situation. Similarly,
a leader of any enterprise must know how to adjust his plans to accommodate
changes in the market. Market forces can be infinitely stronger than your
iron will and can crush your business if you fight. If you accept the
change and adjust your course, you may find yourself in a different place
from where you intended to go, and it may be far better than you expected.
Whether you are a captain on the high seas or a captain of industry, you
old salts have a lot in common. Next time you are in a pub near the marina,
strike up a conversation with the weather-worn sailor in the corner. You
just might learn something.
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