Detonate

CHAPTER 13Minimally Viable Thoughts

Throughout the course of writing this book, we've ended up with the mental equivalent of a bunch of crumpled up pieces of paper in the waste bin. But rather than take out the trash to neaten up our work space now that the immediate job is done, we'd like to smooth out a few of those papers and put them out there for comment. We welcome all your thoughts, especially those that take the ideas to a new level and, even more importantly, introduce new ideas to the mix as the business world continues to change. We've created several places where we hope to make the material from the book open to building and evolving. On various social media, we'll use the hashtag #DETONATEthebook, and if demand merits, we'll launch a more permanent way to continue the conversation.

So let's start with three interconnected, not‐quite‐ready‐for‐prime‐time thoughts.

MAYBE LONG‐TERM SURVIVAL ISN'T ALL THAT IMPORTANT

Nearly every client that we've spent any significant time with has been pursuing a strategy to grow meaningfully. Most companies act like not growing is dying. Whether driving more topline sales by entering new regions or categories, or taking cost out in times of sectoral decline, there has to be an upward trend in some line for a business to consider itself a success – indeed, many of the cartoons in this book are based on that fundamental notion.

A lot of the time, growth is good: If managed for profitability, it can be a source of cash for reinvestment ...