I recently read a fantastic blog by my friend Peter Diamandis, best selling author of Abundance, Bold and numerous other great books, within which he describes the three-step process Sir Richard Branson follows in developing and running his businesses.
Peter describes those steps as: 1.) “Being passionate and committed to fun. 2.) Experimentation. 3.) Risk mitigation.” These steps have served Branson well, as he has developed 500 different businesses to date.
The first of these revolved around having Passion for the business being developed and keeping the process fun. Do you utilize Passion & Fun in your business? Passion is what helps you to get up in the morning and hit the ground running. As Peter Diamandis explains so accurately, “Fun matters because Branson employs it as a strategy for thinking at scale – both as a fuel (i.e., a way of harnessing his passion) and as a first principle, assuming that if something is fun for him – like an airline that makes you say ‘Wow!’ – then it’ll also be fun for everyone else.”
How about Experimentation? Do you experiment with your business and then adjust course, as needed, or do you only implement changes because others in your industry are doing something? Given the large number of variables you are constantly facing, try some experimentation and then adjust course, as necessary. I think you’ll be more excited (passionate) about your level of progress.
Finally, on Risk Mitigation. You can be bold in your level of risk taking, but also be equally bold in your risk mitigation. In all agricultural markets, you can use options to offset your level of price risk. More specifically, if you are running a dairy, you can use programs like the Dairy Revenue Protection (DRP) or the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) to put a floor under your prices and maintain a positive margin. I highly recommend that you check out these programs. They are worthy of consideration every year.
I hope you find Richard Branson’s three-step process helpful in your business. If I can assist you with this process, please contact me. It’s a process that I use with my Clients on a regular basis. If you want to check out Peter Diamandis’ writing further, please visit www.abundance360.com.
Please allow me to leave you with this: Are you being passionate about your business?
Let’s take your business to the Next Level!