“Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.” ~ Henry Ford
While it is not always the most comfortable place to be, working in a small business during the lean years can teach you a lot about how to function efficiently and effectively. The lean periods don’t just relate to downturns in the economic cycle, in fact, they can also come in the early stages of a new business, at the onset of a large project or while careening through a period of rapid growth.
It’s best to plan ahead and have a cushion, but occasionally you are caught up in a perfect storm of factors for which you are less prepared than you would like to be. The decisions you make and the swiftness with which you enact them have a significant impact on the future of your company. In many cases, the choices you are forced to make are do or die. As I said, such times are not comfortable, but they are chock full of learning opportunities.
One of the best questions to ask during these constrictive phases is: “does this relate to our core business?” Knowing your core business is vitally important, especially during the lean years as it is easy to spend time, energy and money on peripheral concerns that don’t advance the company’s core business operations. This is true for projects, systems, departments and in the most dire of circumstances, personnel. Just as your body shuts down all but the most basic functions in an attempt to save the body during hypothermia and other critical situations, a wise manager must work swiftly to adjust to the emergency.
As with gardening, pruning should be done periodically to keep the corporation tight, tidy and under control. Projects, departments and systems can grow like bamboo and in my experience it is best to prune lightly and regularly, than heavily less often. How you prune depends on the configuration of circumstance you face, but it always relates in some way to making things simpler.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
Gregory Hake 
It’s true in cultivating a garden that you have to keep it simple and focused, and monitor it regularly. If you let just any old thing take root pretty soon that will diffuse, derail, and eventually choke out your original directive. I appreciate your post this morning. It applies to all areas of life. Have a great day!
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Thank you for the timely post. Very helpful!
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True advice. Thanks!
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You relate your comment to small business, but I would say that it relates to a large business as well. You see many large businesses that can’t get out of their own way, and whose departments work against each other. I think that a little appropriate pruning along the way would do a lot to reduce these issues.
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great points, thanks.
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It is easy to see why many businesses will fail during the stress times you mentioned; rapid growth, downturn, new projects etc. There’s usually growing pains involved and it takes committed people to navigate the rapids. But even in the so called easier times complacency can produce future lean times. All of a sudden a department does the same output but with 3 more people. I agree with pruning regularly, it keeps everyone focused on what the businesses core strength is.
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