The BusinessFitness Blog
Thoughts on topics to help you make more of your business…
What Technology Reveals About a Business
"It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." — Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, 1925 A founder I worked with some years ago had just finished rolling out a...
What Growing Businesses Miss Without Independent Perspective
"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." – Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001) What “Useful” Actually Means Every founder with a board of...
What Slows a Business Down Is Rarely What Founders Think
"As useless laws weaken necessary laws, those that can be evaded weaken legislation." – Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, 1748 Most founders who resist adding structure will tell you the same thing: they...
When Authority Is Assumed: The Shape of Authority in a Growing Business
"The most common source of mistakes in management decisions is the emphasis on finding the right answer rather than the right question." – Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management, 1954 The Meeting That...
Business Governance Isn’t What You Think It Is
“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” – Montesquieu, De l’Esprit des Lois, 1748 Say the word “governance” to a founder running a...
The Founder Transition That Waits Too Long: Where Doing and Leading Can No Longer Coexist
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." – Seneca, Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales), Letter 104, c. AD 65 There is a situation...
When the Way You Lead Becomes the Ceiling
"Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do." – James Harvey Robinson, The Mind in the Making, 1921 There is a moment that many founders will recognise,...
The Team Is Not the Problem: Patterns Behind Team Underperformance
"The real problem is not what people do, but what they feel they must do." — Václav Havel, Letters to Olga (1988) The Year-End Review Most leaders have sat in some version of this meeting. The quarter has...
When the Business Outgrows the Founder: A Leadership Transition
"A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways." – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513 Spend any time inside a...
When Execution Slows, Leadership Patterns Come Into View
"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him." – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513, published posthumously 1532) The Brief Hesitation After a...
Accountability Without Bureaucracy
"A good deal of the corporate planning I have observed is like a ritual rain dance; it has no effect on the weather that follows, but those who engage in it think it does." – Russell Ackoff, A Concept of Corporate...
Operating Rhythm: The Discipline That Isn’t About Effort
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” – William James, letter to Carl Stumpf, 1 January 1886. After the meeting, the week takes over The meeting ends well. The discussion...