I wrote this last year for Shawn Murphy’s Wake Up & Shake It Up series. The article is now part of an e-book from Achieved Strategies.

Here’s what it takes to create a business of value:

Think big; act small.

This is the best business strategy that I know. Sound easy? I’m sure it does. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Thinking big means aiming high. It means making a decision about what you believe in and what you will relentlessly pursue. Big thinkers understand that they must constantly innovate, not just because they think they can change the world (which they often do), but also because if they don’t the world will change them.

But thinking big is only part of the equation – the key to the solution is to act small. The alternative (acting big) is a recipe for disaster, and every year companies of all sizes make this mistake and ultimately fail (big).

The difference between big and small:

• Acting big means trying to be all things to all people; acting small means you stand for something and dominate a niche.
• Acting big means ignoring customers; acting small means that you are always close to the customer, regardless of your level in the organization.
• Acting big means that senior executives generate ideas without input from anyone else; companies that act small execute grassroots ideas from employees.
• Acting big means that you advertise as much as possible; acting small means finding alternative ways to connect like-minded customers to one another.
• Acting big means making decisions based upon ego and perception; acting small means you make decisions solely based upon what is best for the performance of the company.

Companies that think big and act small are hungry and have an insatiable desire to perform. It’s incredibly difficult to maintain this state of mind, which might explain why it’s so uncommon.

Then again, great leadership isn’t very common either. The same goes for great success.

It’s not a coincidence.

No one cares about a blog if someone isn’t blogging. I haven’t done that in quite a while, which has turned this site into an inanimate object (for now).

It’s no different with anything else. Do you care about fish? Paint? Bicycles?

I’m fairly certain that my friend Mike doesn’t care about fish, but he loves fishing. Just like others have a passion for painting or bicycling.

My challenge – and yours – is to clean up grammar. To change what we do from a noun to a verb.

Do that, and people will care.

Belief in the mission matters. Do you believe in yours?

Yet somewhere along the line, companies started to favor rhetoric and excuses instead of results and accountability.

How do you know when a company lacks character? Simple. When discussing poor results, leadership:

• Makes excuses
• Rationalizes limited progress
• Formulates arguments to minimize accountability

Not so with companies of character. They tell the truth. They take responsibility for shortfalls and failures. And they refuse to play the victim just so they can feel good about themselves.

Character is a choice. And one alternative is more likely to lead to success than the other.

Choose wisely.

Shawn (@shawmu on Twitter) just launched the Wake Up and Shake It Up blog series. Need a push to think bigger than you have before? Here it is.

The first post, Big versus Small, went live this morning. I think you know the author – check it out.

“Yes, I’d like to ship that for you, but you can’t use that box.”

“That’s a good idea. I’d like to say yes, but this isn’t the time to try something different.”

Somewhere along the line, people were conditioned to say no. What would happen if everyone in the company had to look for a reason to say yes?

A company’s story can’t be about convenience, low-cost, premium-value, and great selection.

A politician can’t talk about lowering taxes, increasing services, attacking bureaucracy, and reducing the deficit.

A Little League coach can’t preach health and fitness to his team and then sneak a cigarette while the kids are running laps.

I realize that it’s hard to take a stand, to tell people what they don’t want to hear. But it does no good to change your story to suit your audience. Sooner or later people will figure out that you don’t stand for anything at all, which means you’ll be gone tomorrow.

Time.

Sound too simple? I’d probably agree – if not for the fact that using time well is incredibly difficult.

Perhaps this story will help you to change your perspective on time. Imagine that your bank credits you with $86,400 every morning. You don’t have to pay this money back, but there’s a catch – every night, the bank deletes any balance remaining in the account. So if you fail to use any portion of the money during the day, you lose it forever. In this scenario, would you be certain to withdraw every cent? Sure you would.

Every day, we receive a similar credit – 86,400 seconds of time. As with the imaginary bank, failure to use any portion of the daily deposit is your loss. So the question is this: how much value do you place on the time you have remaining today?

Every second of time is valuable. If that seems like an overstatement, you should talk with a person who just avoided a car accident. It’s quite possible that the difference between life and death came down to a single second (or less).

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is unknown.
Today is a gift.

Don’t waste it.

“That will never work.”

“It’s never been done before.”

“Don’t bother – we already tried that once.”

“Nice idea, but can you prove that it will work?”

“We can’t sell that to senior management.”

We aren’t taught to question things that are familiar to us. Which reminds me of an experiment that can be done with five monkeys.

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.  Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.  Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.  As soon as he touches the stairs, spray the other four monkeys with cold water.  After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

Soon enough, any monkey that tries to climb the stairs will be stopped by the others.

Now, turn off the cold water.  Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.  The newcomer will see the banana and try to climb the stairs. To his surprise, all of the other monkeys attack him.  After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original monkeys and replace it with a new one.  The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.  And the previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Continue the process – replace the third monkey with a new one, then the fourth, then fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. But most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs – or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Regardless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been done around here.

Companies all over the world repeat this experiment every day with their own people. What about yours? Or do you promote a culture that is eternally curious about why they do what they do?

There is another kind of follow-up that seems hard, but really isn’t. And since it takes place in moments other than when a sale is on the line, it’s much more powerful.

I’m not talking about generic thank you emails or satisfaction surveys. They’re boring, and do nothing to create customer loyalty or referrals. What I mean is someone from the company connects with the customer in meaningful way.

Let’s use an easy example: high-end restaurants. People aren’t dining out as much these days, and those that do are typically buying cheaper wine and ordering fewer courses. To lure customers in, many restaurants now offer value menus or run promotions. Fine. But the only time they follow-up with a customer is when confirming a reservation.

What if they decided to follow-up with patrons in a simple but unconventional* way? Someone from the restaurant could call to ask how dinner was the night before. Or the wait staff could send handwritten thank you cards to their customers. And if those doing the follow-up are empowered to resolve problems, than you’re much closer to establishing an emotional connection with your customers than you were before.

This small act is inexpensive, and chances are it will do more to generate repeat business and referrals than advertising ever will.

*This is unconventional for a restaurant, which is why it might work. The point here is that you need to figure out what is unconventional for your business and act on that.