The Fifth S - Sustain

The Fifth S – Sustain
There are three primary ingredients for achieving sustainable results. The first is keeping your ego and arrogance in check, the second is your relentless focus on adding value, and the third is becoming a continuous optimization master.

Stay grounded
Humility coupled with cautious confidence rather than arrogance is the best balance. I want to highlight that there is no room for arrogance in business, regardless of anyone’s cultural background, status, or upbringing. Celebrating your successes is entirely understandable. Take an hour or two or even a day or two, but get back to focusing on building a solid foundation for your business.

You’re in a service business regardless of status, gifts, wins, or privileges. Your service should deserve recognition from the majority at all levels, from doorman to board room. I’m saying majority because nobody is on this earth to make 100% of the population happy. Besides, this is not a popularity contest. Be mindful of your efforts as to how they’ll benefit what population.

Past successes are not proof of future successes, nor are past failures necessarily future ones. Every day is new, and you should be open to new possibilities. Life may change on a dime. The critical questions you need to ask yourself:

1. Will my decisions today serve my internal and external customers and constituents in the best manner tomorrow?
2. (Not IF, but WHAT) can we do better?

Keep your customer-centric focus.
During our first S - Strategy, you’ll remember the importance of keeping customer-focused (product) marketing at the center of your business. You need to continuously assess the strategy from the perspective of a competitive advantage in a fast-changing environment. The key questions here are:

1. Will my business, product, and process strategy keep becoming valuable over time?
2. What additional benefits can I bring through new or peripheral product and business offerings?

Become an Optimization Master
The last ingredient to sustain results is based on Electrical Engineering Control Systems. In a Control System, there is an algorithmic relationship between input and output where the magic happens. Well… it’s not that magical … it’s about controlling the variables called Control Elements. Some people in the business call it “pulling the right levers.” Your fundamental Control Elements (levers) can be summarized as Plan, Product, Process, and People.

You'll deliver results by making all the right decisions with sensible priorities on these four elements. However, this doesn’t mean it’ll be sustainable. However, what you do with the feedback loop in a control system will determine its sustainability because you’re optimizing the outcomes. This is where you continuously monitor, assess, and make decisions or corrections on the variables and their priorities. You utilize KPIs and other metrics as part of this feedback loop. In short, your continuously optimized plan, products, process, and people will help sustain outcomes.

In summary, your desire to serve with humility, add value continuously, and optimize the outcomes will ensure sustainable results.
 
Additional Reading
VUCA Tools for a VUCA World by Ann Deaton.

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