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4 REASONS WHY EVERY ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS NEEDS A FLYWHEEL

Scaling Up
Oct 15
Written By Tom Barrett

What is a Flywheel?

The Flywheel is a concept Jim Collins developed in his research for the book
“Good to Great”.  One of my favorite examples of a Flywheel Jim Collins provides
in Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great is of Ware
Elementary School, a school on a military base. 

 

Source: Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great, Jim
Collins




 

These 6 activities provide the leadership and staff of this school with the key
activities the organization needs to excel at to achieve their vision &
mission.  Everything else is incidental.  Such clarity is needed regardless of
organization size, or if they are for profit, or nonprofit organizations.

 

The need to identify the drivers of long-term success through the Flywheel
contruct

In observing successful companies, we often incorrectly boil down their success
to just one thing – that one product, that one big contract, or that one
advertising campaign that led to what seems like overnight success.  But when we
look under the hood, we realize that for companies that achieve breakthrough
success, it was a series of key ongoing activities, executed with excellence and
consistently over time, that led to a ‘flywheel’ effect of strategic compound of
effort.  One turn of their flywheel helped build momentum for subsequent turns
that were faster, yet built on the momentum gained by the earlier, slower
turns. 

 

Why entrepreneurial businesses need to clarify their Flywheel

In my experience, most leaders of entrepreneurial businesses have not realized
the benefit of clarifying the value of a Flywheel for their business.  To the
pleasant surprise of every leadership team I have facilitated through the
process, their Flywheel becomes one of their most, if not the most, significant
articulation of their strategy.   The top 4 reasons to clarify your Flywheel
are:

 * #1: ‘Show, don’ tell’ your strategy to get everyone rowing in the same
   direction As consumers of written and visual entertainment, we often are more
   captivated by scenes that live out the technique of ‘show, don’t tell’ to
   advance a character or story.  In many ways our brains are more drawn to
   ‘show’ rather than tell.  ‘Show’ is quick, it’s tangible, yet contains a
   great deal of meaning.  Clarifying a visual Flywheel for your entrepreneurial
   business is the equivalent of ‘show, don’t tell your strategy’.  Visionary
   entrepreneurs often intuitively get the strategy of their business but have
   difficulty conveying what’s in their head to everyone else.  A great Flywheel
   first gets your leadership team on the same page about the true strategy of
   the business, and then can be used to get everyone else understanding and
   aligning around the strategy of the business.   

 * #2: Daily focus Entrepreneurs face a daily whirlwind of demands, tasks,
   fires, and opportunities.  It is often difficult to truly recognize what is
   most important without knowing the five to seven most important drivers of
   business momentum.   Having a Flywheel allows Visionaries (CEOs) and
   Second-in-Command (COOs) to focus the overall efforts of the business, while
   functional leaders can see how their function fits into the overall strategy
   of the business.  Therefore, the Flywheel can become a way to assess the use
   of time and other limited resources and helps leaders answer the question
   ‘will this investment of time or other resources help our Flywheel spin
   faster?’.  What do I need to stop doing, so as I can start doing an activity
   that will make our Flywheel spin faster?  

 * #3: Longer term focus to increase the value of your business To grow the
   value of your business generally some combination of growing the top line and
   bottom line will lead to 5X+ increase in the value of your business.  For
   leadership teams who have articulated their Flywheel, their Annual and
   Quarterly Planning results in Goals and Rocks that are aligned with the few
   most important annual and quarterly priorities that will increase the value
   of the business.  The Flywheel becomes a filter to say “yes” to what the few
   most important priorities, and to say “no” to the rest.  

 * #4: Align the business’ internal activities and market realities Flywheels
   have a combination of the internal activities your business must excel at,
   along with the activities you must get right in the marketplace.  Flywheels
   help teams see the connection between those behind the scenes and market
   facing activities, and how both are essential to grow your business
   profitably. 




A picture that paints a thousand words

Visual representations of Core Values are a frequent sight in offices.  But
imagine having a visual representation of your strategy that all your employees
can be reminded of daily, that helps them see how their decisions and actions
lead to the ultimate success of the business.  Your business would be better for
it! 

 

About the Author

Tom Barrett is a Nashville-based Certified Scaling Up Coach™ and Pinnacle
Business Guide and helps growth-oriented entrepreneurs get what they want from
their business.

 

scalingup
Tom Barrett

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