What’s the Big O in the of Creation a Successful Organization? What’s the Big O that’s either moving us and our organization forward or actually inhibiting our growth? The Big O is the Opportunity and /or the Opportunity cost associated with the decisions we make or don’t make.
For every opportunity, we take advantage of comes some form of return and a cost for those we delay or pass on. Opportunities present themselves every day, however, only when we are truly ready to receive it, apply it and take action on it will it deliver the rewards we are looking for.
Last week we mentioned the common denominator in the world’s most successful people like Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison of which they all knew what to say no too.
As we become more conscious of taking advantage of opportunities, we first must be clear on exactly what opportunities to act on and what ones to pass on. We can’t get caught chasing shiny objects. Only when we are clear on our vital functions and what’s most important in moving our organization forward will we be able to make the right choices.
Opportunity cost is simply about addressing these choices. Examples could be the opportunity cost of making a large investment in buying and folding a competitor’s company into our organization to capture a larger market share or passing on that decision that ends up with us consistently battling them for that market share. We also have to weigh in the extra expenses and team we’re taking on as well as integrating them into our organizations culture.
Understanding how awesome it would be if we actually knew the outcomes of these decisions in advance, unfortunately, we just simply don’t have that privilege. In these cases, a choice between the two options still must be made.
In both business and life, we consistently must be weighing our options and potential outcomes in these decisions. Let’s explore a few examples. What’s the Opportunity cost of letting our ego get in the way of our decision-making process or procrastinating or belaboring a decision for too long? What’s the Opportunity cost of staying inside our comfort zone and not reaching for what’s possible? What’s the Opportunity cost of not having an accountability partner or a coach to help us identify our blind spots or having someone to ask us the tough questions that no one else is willing to ask? What’s simply the Opportunity cost of not taking action on something when we know it’s the right thing to do? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves.
In business, it all comes down to the bottom line. Let’s get clear on our intention, identify what opportunities serve that intention, give them our immediate attention, confer with our mastermind group, take action, don’t procrastinate, test and measure the ROI on that action and we should all be well on our way of taking advantage of the big O.