By Jack Cumming

A Shark Tank presentation reminded me recently of how many children are eager to start businesses. Aside from the particular presentation for something called “Hopscotch,” we all know of tales of children and teenagers operating lemonade stands on hot days; running newspaper delivery routes; building a babysitting clientele; selling magazines, Girl Scout cookies, or whatever door-to-door.

Childhood Profundities

Suddenly, I realized how quickly we forget that the innocence of children unleashes the creative spark that incentivizes better lives for people. The overheated chap who buys a glass of lemonade to slake his thirst pays a fair price for immediate relief. The youngster who sells the glass learns the first lesson of business: “You don’t have a business without a customer.”

The second rule, incidentally, is like the first: “If you don’t get quickly to revenues greater than expenses, you should shut down.” Third rule: “Profitable growth is both sweet and fun. Moreover, rapid growth is the happy place.”

Thinking of my own childhood, I suddenly flashed back to all I learned from a venture I launched when I was in third grade. We were in the midst of World War II, and the neighbors would gossip about who helped the war effort and victory gardens. I had received a hectograph printing unit for Christmas, and I came up with the idea of a very local neighborhood newspaper to focus on local klatsch.

The Beef of the Town

The result was The Beef of the Town, and it sold for a nickel a week. I soon had 20 subscribers. A dollar a week was big money for a kid in 1944. The news was all local. The neighbor’s pet dog had swallowed a rubber bone. We drove the neighbor with her dog to the vet, and the dog barfed all over the car. That was news, and I learned both writing and business from the experience.

Why do grown-ups make business so much more difficult? An executive reports to the board: “We’re working on automating customer acquisition. We’re aiming to have a solution in place sometime in the next 15 months. The first stage will be our specifications.” And on and on. It sounds plausible. But why not just get it done like a kid who grabs a chair and a folding bridge table and sets them up on the curbside with a pitcher of lemonade?

Excuses for Inaction

We can start with the budget excuse. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard, “That’s a great idea, but there’s no money in the budget. Perhaps we can submit a request in next year’s budget process.” Why doesn’t the budget serve the business? Shouldn’t the business opportunity come first? When did frozen annual budgets become a cultural straitjacket on leadership, performance, and growth?

Worse than static yearlong budgets in a time of rapid progress is the stagnation of hierarchy. Some call it the “disapproval hierarchy” since those who need to approve ideas have no incentive to say, “Go for it!” Intermediaries, of whom the worst are regional vice presidents, can lower their job risk by dallying, asking for more information, or simply disapproving. Not only does the hierarchy not add value, but it slows the pace needed for business success.

It’s not uncommon to overintellectualize business. It’s just not that complicated. Give people something that people want. It shouldn’t have to be sold. The purpose of marketing and sales should be no more than to make people aware of the opportunity to buy and to help them get past the decision hurdle. If leads, sales, and occupancy are always at the top of the table, perhaps the offering needs to be tweaked to be something that people welcome.

Integrity and Its Antonym

Then there are those who rationalize losses as acceptable as long as there is cash to meet immediate needs. Those losses, though, are telling you that the cash you’re spending now is committed to a promise to be fulfilled down the road. Failing to act as honorable stewards for the funds to meet those promises borders on immoral corruption and self-dealing.

There’s much that we can learn from the innocence of children. Opportunity is always there, waiting to be seized. Business leadership is about finding those opportunities and constantly improving the offering and the results. What it’s not about is following the precepts of an academic business textbook.

Let’s shake up our business to meet the opportunities and challenges of today with prudence and vision and with a bias toward action. Grab a table and a pitcher of lemonade and hit the street.

The key is to take the shackles off the manager on the scene who is in direct touch with the folks who pay for the offering, so the local manager can adapt to meet the customer with what the customer wants. Then, all the guy at the top has to do is let other managers learn what works from those who are most successful. It’s not rocket science. It doesn’t take a top-heavy central office. It’s just common sense.