To live without risk is to risk not living

In early 2017, I was asked to define a quote about life or business to pass on as a legacy. In discussing this with my son, who was 12 at the time, I realized that a large part of my business success can be summarised with the statement – “Give up control to gain control”. My son understood the implicit statement, but asked me to explain a bit more. I reached this conclusion in business many years ago, but here I will talk about the origin behind it.

Crisis and control

The business school education of the 1980’s was designed to teach a little about a lot of things. I was exposed to many aspects of business, but none in real depth. The MBA (at least when I did it) is designed to prepare people for corporate executive positions. It was not a training ground for entrepreneurs. However, when doing the MBA, one of the most influential papers I ever read was entitled “Evolution and revolution as organizations grow” by Larry E. Greiner.The basic premise was that in order for any business to grow, it must face a number of crises. It taught me that in any process of evolution or development there needs to be a revolution, and that embracing the crisis is essential to the successful process of change. This crisis as defined by Greiner is often one based on control, and therefore this too has evolved to be a core business principle.

Embracing change

I try and embrace change for what it is – a time to reflect on how much better, or perhaps differently, we can do things. I am the first to admit that I sometimes fall into the trap of what I call the “when we” mindset. As a South African immigrant to Australia, I am often amused by those who instead of adapting to the new country, continually refer to “when we were in South Africa, we did …..”. History is critical to shaping who we are in the future, but embracing and enjoying change is the challenge that allows us to grow.

“To live without risk is to risk not living.” – Pope Pius XII

I always knew I would be in business in some way. I remember in year 9 or 10 having to make the choice between doing accountancy or biology. At our school the “A class” kids did biology and the other kids were in the B class. I was always an individual and chose accountancy, not because I wanted to be an accountant, but rather to the contrary. I knew I did not want to study accountancy after school, but knew that I wanted to be in business, so a good grounding in accounting, such as year 12 accounting would provide a solid base of understanding. I also had decided that I did not want to study medicine and hence biology would be less useful.

Keep jumping

I haven’t always made such calculated and correct decisions. My late father always relayed the words of Henry Ford, who was asked how he came to be so successful. He answered “you jump at the good opportunities”. The interviewer continued with the question of how he identified these good opportunities. Mr Ford replied “you just keep jumping”. So, how does this all tie together into “giving up control to gain control”? In the small to medium business, and possibly entrepreneurial sector, it applies to owners and founders who have to trust those around them in order to gain control of the growing business. In the corporate sector it applies to managers not grasping too tightly onto their silo of influence, but rather embracing collaborative management for the greater organisational good.Over the next few weeks I will expand on these aspects.