February 2024 - Bay of Plenty Business News

6 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS February 2024
NEW YEAR, NEW ME
Like most people, my year
traditionally begins with a
proclamation.
“This year is going to be
different.”
“I am going to be different.”
“I’m going to do things differently
and I’m going to think
differently.”
I don’t call these statements
‘New Year’s resolutions’; In my
experience New Year’s resolutions
typically involve announcement
of unrealistic expectations
resulting in inevitable failure.
As many crash-dieters will
tell you, by 1 February you end
up knee-high in salt and vinegar
chips and beer having starved
yourself into miserable submission
over the preceding four
weeks – not the best way to start
a new year.
The concept of a New Year’s
resolution also begs the question,
“If I’m going to change what I
do from 1 January, why didn’t I
change sooner? Why did I wait
until 1 January to make my ‘road
to Damascus’ proclamation? …
… and why, oh why, did I
proclaim it publicly to all and
sundry?”
At least if you keep your New
Year’s resolution to yourself, you
only need to justify your inevitable
failure to yourself.
By announcing your resolutions
to other people you may as
well have your business cards
reprinted to read, Bob Brown,
Loser and change your online
profile space to say, click here to
see a failure.
In the realm of New Year’s resolutions,
there are the obvious
fails everyone seems to be able to
do well. My track record in this
space is exemplary. Consider my
2024 scorecard to date:
• Do more exercise (failed 3 January
2024, entire day spent on
couch)
• Drink less alcohol (failed 1
January 2024 and the succeeding
6 days)
• Eat healthier food (failed 6
January 2024, chocolate)
• Buy fewer takeaways (failed
5,7,9 January 2024: miscellaneous
cravings)
• Work harder (fail: not
attempted)
• Eliminate spending on stupid
things (succeeded 8 January
2024: credit card declined)
Contrast and compare strategy
number two: commit to do
nothing differently from last
year – it’s hard to fail with this
strategy.
I admit, this may seem rather
negative. Although ‘the power of
positive thinking’ is usually the
motivator – e.g. be positive … you
will join the gym and go every
day for the entire year – think
about it … seriously there’s a fail
looming!
Instead, I recommend ‘the
power of no thinking’: don’t do
anything rash (and definitely
don’t commit to new regimes at
11:59pm on 31 December), then
sit back and celebrate the failure
you just averted. The adrenalin
rush of a near-miss can be
exhilarating.
In the same way experts recommend
not going to the supermarket
to shop on an empty
stomach, I also recommend not
making New Year’s resolutions
on a generally ‘feel-good’ day like
New Year’s Eve. Instead leave it
for 24 hours and see how you feel
about that gym workout at 3pm
on New Year’s Day … see what I
mean?
I believe the same rules apply
to business strategies, or realignment
programmes as I like to
call them when I want to sound
knowledgeable by using BS
(Business Syntax). We shouldn’t
be picking an arbitrary date at
which we decide we are going to
treat our customers better; We
shouldn’t turn a new leaf on the
first day of the financial year and
start being responsible employers
on 1 April – I mean that date
is problematic from a credibility
perspective at the best of times –
surely we should have been aiming
to treat customers well and
be caring employers all along …
shouldn’t we?
Nothing wrong with assessing
our performance, deciding
where we can improve and then
implementing changes, but there
> At risk of sounding too-Harvard, continuous
improvement is an actual business theory, a
process of making small incremental changes that
add up to significant results based on deliberate
observation of current processes. Kaizen, the
continuous improvement method, originated in
Japan.
should not be an allocated time
of year at which we do it – it
should be a constant, continuous
process.
At risk of sounding too-Harvard,
continuous improvement
is an actual business theory, a
process of making small incremental
changes that add up to
significant results based on deliberate
observation of current processes.
Kaizen, the continuous
improvement method, originated
in Japan.
HAVE YOU EVER
NOTICED?
BY ALAN NEBEN
The reason many of us however
end up making big changes
to the way we run our businesses
after we come back from our
Christmas holidays is that the
holiday period is the only time
we get to think about the process
without being interrupted with
day-to-day problems and challenges.
Some of my best business
improvement ideas have come to
me whilst floating in the pool at
Denarau with a Fiji Bitter in my
hand.
In conclusion ladies and gentlemen,
may I suggest to you all
that if you want more business
success and greater efficiency,
take more holidays, turn off your
phone more often, and make
business improvement more continuous
and less annual. That’s
My Business Advice (MBA).
Alan Neben is a Mount Maunganui
local and experienced New Zealand
publisher. His columns provide a
light-hearted perspective on social
changes effecting New Zealanders.
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