Who test drives a business?

I have just come through some heavy duty weeks of development to launch our new product and so finally I have a little time to take stock and breathe in and out. So, I have had a few days to review the past few weeks and months and analyse the goings on in the company I work for and others in general. The result of my pondering was a blog article I wrote entitled “Businesses are like engine components – that argue with each other” giving the analogy of a businesses similarity to the workings of an engine.

I like analogies, in fact if I can fit a situation to an analogy then I find it is easier to explain to those around me and it helps me to look at problems in different ways. The engine analogy isn’t a new one, but it got me thinking…

When a car manufacturer develops a new car, they employ tests and test drivers to break their machinery. Yes, there are some lucky people who get to drive to destruction cars on a regular basis by running them into the ground. Why? It’s obvious, because in destroying a car you can understand the absolute limits and perfect them further so that they are safer and more reliable.

Now, I don’t advocate that MD’s should purposely drive their businesses into the ground to learn from their mistakes, however, behind every successful businessman there have been failures. The mark of the successful business is learning from failures and improving. As my MD is often quoting to me as the definition of madness is the “expectation of different results from doing the same thing”.