When Failure Is a Business Opportunity
Entrepreneurs enjoy stories about individuals who snatch success out of the jaws of failure. We love stories about people like Sir James Dyson who endured 15 years and 5,126 failed prototypes before he created his best-selling vacuum cleaner (and amassed a net worth of $4.5billion). We enjoy hearing about people such as Theodor Seuss Geisel, who—before his wild success as a children’s author—had his first book rejected by 27 different publishers. He went on to sell more than 600 million copies of his various books titles. But this isn’t your typical “Failure isn’t Final” blog post. Instead, it’s about big ideas, vision, and seeing opportunities by looking at something differently. It’s about big ideas. And it’s about seeing failure as a business opportunity.
Failure As A Service
There is a growing discipline of software engineering known as “Chaos engineering” that deliberately makes a company’s systems and applications fail. The idea behind the forced failure is to ultimately protect corporate systems from real-world attacks and problems. The company—named Gremlin—is the brainchild of former Amazon and Netflix engineers (who know something about software issues). According to Geekwire.com Gremlin has now raised $23.75 million in funding for its concept of “failure-as-a-service.”
Seeing Failure as a Business Opportunity
The founders of Gremlin brought a new perspective to their business idea. They touted failure as a tool—a good thing. It was something that would actually protect companies from disaster. That set them apart from other software providers. On top of that, it was a really BIG idea. How large is the market of businesses that are concerned about system failure? It’s huge!
Good Ideas Are A Dime a Dozen
It’s not enough to have a good idea these days. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Lots of businesses have good, solid, sensible ideas. These days it takes something special to stand out from the crowd. That’s one area where a strong executive business coach can be invaluable. He or she can help you look at things from a different perspective. It’s hard for business leaders to be totally objective about their ideas. A business coach can be a little more “agnostic” when it comes to evaluating ideas.
Vision Isn’t Enough
While a business coach can help you refine your vision and goals, simply having a Big Hairy Audacious Goal isn’t enough. You need to develop a strategy to implement your plan and you need to monitor your execution to ensure you’re on track to meet your goals. That means constantly evaluating your strategies and plans to meet the changing needs of the market.
Transformation Never Stops
If you really want to scale up your company and take it to new heights you have to continually reinvent yourself. You have to refine your big idea and make sure it’s still what the market needs. To do that, you’ll need to continually work on your strategy to take advantage of shifts in the market. In addition, you’ll have to constantly hire the right people—and develop them—to ensure that you can deliver what you promise. And you have to manage your cash so that you have the resources to finance the kind of business growth you want. Transformation is not a one-and-done kind of thing. But a great business coach can offer you the tools, experience, knowledge, and relationships you need to achieve your goals.
Need help growing your business? With over 35 years of experience and thousands of companies assisted, Chuck Kocher and The Transformation Company can help you scale your business into a truly exceptional business capable of high growth strategies. Businesses are always changing, don’t let yours be left behind. Stand out with our business and executive leadership programs – designed to challenge and improve your business. Your business will thank you for it. Contact me today for a free consultation! 719-339-9505