💁🏻‍♂️ flat revenue

If you’re new here, welcome to Zoom Out — where I share my “AHA moments” from client Zoom calls that helped them uncover fresh ideas for growing their companies through technology initiatives.

Now onto this week’s issue…

If you ask any CEO if they know what their customers or field leaders think or want, 99% will say, “Of course”. It’s their job.

However, I know a handful of these CEOs who have built what I call a “hierarchy of beacons” — C-level people who relay information up the chain from VPs and Directors.

I’ve seen $500M companies where the C-suite only gets a sense of what’s happening on a quarterly basis, and solely through the reports those VPs and Directors produce. We at Techery had the chance to attend some of those meetings, and it was a mess. You can only learn so much about your company’s health through raw numbers and biased anecdotes. 

And you know what’s telling every time we see this pattern of company governance? Flat revenue, for years.

At a certain point, the CEO just accepts that the company isn’t growing and believes that as long as it’s not shrinking, it’s healthy. But it’s not.

One thing we as consultants know for sure is that every company needs to keep growing—there is no flat state. If you’re not growing, you’re actually shrinking; you just don’t see that shrinkage reflected in your reports yet.

One foundational reason for such a reactive approach is the lack of technology integration that allows for real-time monitoring, forecasting, and deep data analytics.

The IT departments of these half-a-billion-dollar companies are always shorthanded because they’re bogged down by legacy software solutions. They can’t look up for months to see the potential of a new project.

Basic modernization becomes a 3-year-long project for them.

But if they had the tools to regularly analyze and act on the rapidly changing environment in their customer patterns or field behavior, guess what — they would be growing.

This delay in receiving vital information, sourced from anecdotes and cherry-picked numbers, is poison slowly killing a good business.

That’s all for this week…but one more thing. If you’re enjoying this, can you do me a favor and forward it to a friend? Thanks.

-Alex

My nimble and super-efficient software consultancy → Techery

Let’s connect on Twitter/X: @pshenianykov

Or on LinkedIn: Alex Pshenianykov

🫠 THIS MADE ME SMILE