Mistakes can cost. Mistakes can embarrass. Mistakes can end companies. Not making mistakes can end companies. Not making mistakes produce opportunity costs. Not making mistakes leads to inertia. So being embarrassed about a mistake seems to be a trivial thing in the end. We see clients frozen with the fear that a mistake will be made. Inaction, or more likely massive action of no consequence or impact, pervades many smaller companies where mistakes are more visible and fewer people are available to minimize the probability of “letting something slip through”.
Reducing the likelihood of a mistake in business usually comes down to two strategies: one, find those “perfectionists” that love to edit content, legalize on the ramifications of an action or those that just plain like to find fault (there’re out there for sure). Secondly, expose work to as many people as possible (where the consequences are minimal) and use the power of numbers to provide feedback. The later is becoming more relevant by the day it seems.
The explosion in social media and new marketing techniques is bringing more critical review to businesses products, branding and management actions. More people have more avenues to communicate directly; accompanied by an openness that renders complete visibility to all the thoughts and opinions of the market. Is this a good thing or a bad? Depends on how you deal with the consequences.
PlazaBridge Group got called out on a typo on our website recently. Embarrassing? Yes, but I would rather hear from our readers and interested associates than not hear anything and have a “mistake” go unnoticed. We are firm believers in corrective action as a course to success. Our business is founded on embracing challenges and learning corrective action; nowhere is it more necessary than in struggling companies needing accelerated revenue strategies.
A quick reminder about the reality of small companies: the luxury of having hundreds of people to review every detail and action familiar to big company managers is non-existent in small companies. Making the transition from large company to small company is primarily one of learning to succeed without the hoard of assistants and learning to succeed while still making mistakes and errors. They are inevitable.
