“Start before you're ready”

The concept of starting before you’re ready is one of the biggest contributors to the difference in success between a fast-moving entrepreneurial business and an aging large corporation. Older companies become obsessed with research, planning, modelling, and process design as they try to develop what they think is the perfect product for a new market or geography. I think of this as “chasing nirvana” and believe it wastes enormous amounts of money and time and that a more learning-on-the-job approach is actually a cleverer mentality for launching something new. Another drawback is that after the large time investment and expenditure, it is very difficult for employees to go back to senior management after only a few weeks or months to say they got it wrong and now need to make expensive changes and scrap loads of things they developed. This results in either their project limping on unsuccessfully or coming to a complete stop.

It is very difficult to understand all the dynamics and factors involved in launching a new venture when you are about to set out, and it’s very likely that you will have to alter nearly every element of your plan once it is up and running. This might mean changing your design, the market sector you have tried to attack, the best supplier, your pricing strategy, marketing message, or one of many other elements.

As we have launched new divisions and entered into new geographical markets, we have moved to a more trial-and-error approach, in which we know from the start that many things probably won’t work perfectly. This means we are also ready to change things quickly and keep modifying our ideas, which gives us the best overall chance of success. Hence, getting your project going faster and starting to engage with customers as soon as you can, even if you feel you are not quite ready, should be prioritized over too much preparation. Obviously, you need to make sure you have the business basics in place and the ability to invoice your products and collect money from your customers, but most sales and marketing elements should be left flexible and not overworked so that you can shape them once you start to understand the market.

 Many graduates leaving business school tend to be in this overplanning mode. (I call them “the spreadsheet kids”!) I see it as my job to add a bit more trial and error to their way of thinking so that I can help them become more entrepreneurial and faster at delivering new products and services for Radius.

This was a concept I had to learn very quickly right from the start, as we were very low on capital and absolutely desperate to start earning income quickly. Over the years, as we have expanded into new areas and geographies, it has become an embedded part of my thinking as a critical way to run all our projects and one I want many of my team members to understand and adopt.