The economic engine is the part where the core value add takes place. It’s the activity in the company that “pays the bills”. It’s the part of the business that creates the thing your customers come to you to get.

The organization is the collection of people and procedures and infrastructures that surround the economic engine. The organization supports the economic engine, and is also supported by it.

I think it’s very important for a CEO to be clear about what the economic engine is, and to deliberately create a lean organization that exists to maximize the output of the economic engine, while consuming as little of that output as possible to support itself. The organization is essential, the engine cannot run without it. The economic engine needs sales to deliver on, it needs accounting to monitor it, it needs all those organizational functions. But those functions should exist because, and only to the extent that, the economic engine needs them, not the other way around.

One reason I think this idea holds true is that the economic engine is inherently customer focused. It’s the part that delivers what the customer wants. When the organization is arranged to efficiently support the economic engine, the organization is arranged to do things that ultimately matter to the customer. This lean, customer-focused combination sets the stage for profitability and growth.

It’s easy to say that we should all act like startups and be willing to change everything, but it’s hard to do. It takes enormous courage and energy to upset the apple cart on purpose. Why should we be willing to do that?

There are plenty of fear- and survival-based reasons to be willing to change, but I think the big breakthrough comes when we can envision a better future. Great leaders don’t begrudgingly modify the status quo, they get excited about what’s possible around the corner, at the next level, and beyond current limitations.

Leaders wonder what’s possible, imagine a specific future, and bring it clearly into view for others. It’s easy to let go of what we’re used to when something better is clearly in view.

I spent a week at Silver Birch Ranch family camp this summer. Soon after arriving I observed examples of the extreme and uncommon level of service the staff and volunteers at this place always give to the campers. After a hot and tiring day of saddling and leading horses for trail rides, a volunteer was genuinely joyful about squeezing in one more pony ride for my little girl. We asked for some firewood, and the volunteer not only personally delivered it, but also built the fire and lit it for us! I saw dozens of examples of this extreme joyful service attitude, and not one example of reluctant or passionless accommodation.

This level of service is a rare thing, and I was sure it didn’t happen by accident. I wanted to find out what created this culture of service.

Late one night after all the camp activities were closed for the day, I came across a group of high-school age volunteers on their free time. I shared my impression of their incredible service. I thought they’d say “Thanks, we work really hard to make it this way.” They didn’t. They said things like “It’s more fun being a volunteer than a camper.”, “We love working here.” and “We want you guys to have the best week possible.” They didn’t feel they were doing something difficult or unusual. This culture of service was in them at a deep level.

I was intrigued, but no closer to finding out what made the culture that way, so I asked “Are there volunteers who don’t fit in with this we-love-to-serve-you philosophy?” They said, yes, there are a few people that don’t get it, but they don’t last. The camp leadership will send people home who aren’t here to serve. In other conversations these were called “bad apples”. They didn’t think the extreme servants were unusual, they thought people interested in average-level service were bad apples. The culture had changed their perception of what’s normal.

As I pressed them to think about what created this culture, they repeated “This is what we want to do.” but added “They drill it into us too. They talk about it at every meeting.”

As the week continued I saw changes they had made since last year. Changes to take the level of service even higher. For example, at one meal this year the volunteers waited tables for the campers instead of serving us at the usual cafeteria line. As far as I could tell it was for no particular reason except to raise the level of service.

Later in the week I talked to the program director for that week’s camp. I asked him about the culture of service there, and he added two more causes to my list. “We lead by example. The leadership really lives it. When a new volunteer comes in here, they can see this is the way we all do things here.” And another reason, “We praise people who do this well. When I talk about service at our meeting tomorrow I’ll use your compliments as a success story.” I was starting to get the picture of how this culture came to be. But there was one more cause I didn’t see right away.

During the final breakfast of camp before we hit the road for home, I sat across from the president, the leader at the top of the organization. I didn’t see him eating. Based on what I’d learned about their culture, I’m pretty sure he was thinking about his first speech about service to a new group of volunteers starting that day. I didn’t want to interrupt his speech prep time, so I didn’t ask for his analysis. I just took a minute to compliment him on their success in building this culture of service. He didn’t say “Thanks. We’ve really achieved our goal with that .” He said “Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. We always have to keep working on it.”

Looking at them from my “normal” culture, they had achieved a level of service so great, it would be a bit fanatical to try to raise the bar higher. To him, with their culture of service written in every molecule of his DNA, there was no time to rest, their were more places to improve, more people to induct, more opportunities to live it and repeat it and protect it.

I think now I understand how a company culture is built.

This is something that intrigues me about business. It’s possible to write fiction and make it come true.

About six weeks ago I sat down in front of my computer and put numbers into a spreadsheet to create a forward-looking plan for the sales, expenses, and earnings of my projector rental business. In my spreadsheet I made adjustments to pricing, purchasing plans, etc to create better results on paper. As I was playing with those numbers, I felt like I was creating fiction – just dreaming things up. My spreadsheet predicted a substantial improvement in profitability. The math looked good, but it still felt abstract and detached from reality to me.

Then I took the actions required to bring reality in line with the spreadsheet. I adjusted pricing, ramped up purchasing, and hired an additional staff member. I even went so far as telling my wife the specific financial results I was expecting from the month of May, but still I doubted. The predictions of the spreadsheet seemed too good to be true.

I had to laugh when I got May’s financial statements, because the numbers came in almost exactly as planned. My inner pessimist was proven wrong, and basic arithmetic held up. The fiction I wrote came true through deliberate action. What would have happened if I had put bigger, bolder numbers into that spreadsheet?

Consistently following an intentional plan will get you where you want to go almost every time. It takes courage to do that when it still feels like fiction. Trust me, it works.

A couple of months ago I asked a marketing consultant to work with me as a marketing coach. As we have discussed and debated the basics of marketing strategy at my companies, floating words like these have often sprung up in my mind’s eye.

Where is the starting point, and in what order would we arrange them? Should we determine who buys from us now, and target them as our “they”, or should we decide for strategic reasons to target someone else? Are we doing market research so we can find out what they want us to be, and then say we are that? (What if we aren’t?) Should we tell the simple truth about what we are, and let whoever wants that be our “they”? Should we change what we are, so we can change what we say? These questions shape the core of a marketing (and company) strategy.

Here are my conclusions so far:

1. Probably the most important decision that marketers have to make, and the one with the widest range of valid answers, is the “who” question. Who they are, the potential customers. Look at the various potential targets out there, and understand what they want. Compare what they want to what you are good at, or could be good at. The targets who most want what you can best provide are probably the right “they” for you.
2. What they want comes next. You don’t get to choose what they want, you just get to find out. (If what they want is not something you are willing to give to them, you have the wrong they.)
3. What we are comes next. If it’s not already a perfect match, what we are must now be conformed to what they want as much as is ethically and practically possible. I see a lot of companies skipping or skimping on this one.
4. What we say we are comes next, and must match what we really are. They don’t have the attention span to listen to the whole truth though, so what we say we are will be a subset of the truth. Since we already matched what we are to what they want, we will now be truthfully saying that we are what they want, which is convenient.
5. What they think we are comes next. Early on this is influenced by what we say we are, and what others say we are. Long term it will trend toward what we really are, because actions (and experiences) speak louder than words. Since we already lined everything up, they won’t be surprised or need to change their mind later.

If what you say you are doesn’t match what you are, you aren’t telling the truth, and they will find out, sooner rather than later.

If what you are doesn’t match what they want, they will ignore you and find someone else (in 10 seconds on Google).

If what you are doesn’t match what anyone wants, you have a personal cause, or a personal hobby, but not a business.

If what they think you are doesn’t match what you are, they are getting the wrong signals, either from you or from others.

If they think you are what you say you are, and you say you are what you are, and you are what they want, your marketing is aligned with who they are.