My friend Howard Mann draws his inspiration for business from a college football coach. After a run of disastrous form he stops using a football for training. Instead the athlete’s have to throw bricks. Screw up on the basics with a brink and you’re really going to feel it. That’s a radical intervention. By getting them to focus on the basics, he turned the performance around.
Howard takes this idea and applies it to business: forget the fancy stuff, get the basics right. He’s distilled this approach into a punchy, free book downloadable here. My favourite dictum is on page 38:
Pay fast, get paid faster… Repeat after me, “We are not a bank”
Howard’s out to take his message out on the speaking circuit – which could be good timing as downturns are a great time for cutting out the froth and getting the basics right.
