Tomicide Solutions, Decemmber 2016
What Do You See Looking In 2016's Rear-View Mirror?
By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan
"Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction
Whatever happens in my dreams
And I know it can't be worse than this
So I prefer to sleep."
Epica: Mother Of Light "A New Age Dawns" Part II
Do you know that when Arnold Schwarzenegger won his first Mr. Universe title, based on his body mass index (BMI), he was clinically obese?
Not chubby, not even overweight, but downright obese!
Athletes all over the world know that BMI is a bogus index and it has nothing to do with reality. Yet, the medical profession seems to be obsessed with it, and medical zealots prescribe all sorts of idiotic medicines to otherwise healthy people in order to reduce their BMIs.
So, with his obese body, Arnold went on winning three more Mr. Universe titles and seven Mr. Olympia titles.
I reckon if the judges had known that Arnold was obese, they wouldn't have given him all those titles.
Luckily only the doctors knew that, but since only a very few doctors are worth taking health advice from, their general opinion should be disregarded.
So, just as the Epica songs says, reality sometimes is really stranger than fiction. After all, if the doctors said Arnold was obese, the he must have been.
Sadly, the IT industry has its own BMI problem. One of them is gross revenue.
The other is headcount.
This is what you can hear business owners brag to their friend and peers.
"We doubled our gross revenue from last year, so we grew 100%"
"We quadrupled our headcount from last year, so we grew 300%."
It seems, thanks to the decades-long academic influence, companies believe that success is all about growing gross revenue (often at the expense of net profit) and headcount (often at the expense of productivity).
It seems to me they confuse growth with enlargement.
Is it surprising then that many IT companies make good gross revenue on the surface and have "impressive" headcount, but when we break down their results to profit per employee, their result is as dismal as a waffle?
At the beginning of every new year, we all look back on the previous year and try to summarise how things worked out, what we accomplished, where we came up short, what we managed to make fly and what we flopped.
To help with this review, I've compiled a fairly detailed evaluation form to help you to take a detailed snapshot of your business and plan the future accordingly.
Hopefully you find it a tad more useful than a condom machine in the Vatican.
Enjoy.
In the meantime, don't sell harder. Market smarter and your business will be better off for it.
Attribution: "This article was written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan who helps privately held information technology companies to develop high leverage client acquisition systems and business development teams in order to sell their products and services to premium clients at premium fees and prices. Visit Tom's website at http://www.varjan.com.
