The Office Jester… every office needs one for when knee-jerk reactions in business go wrong
Business is about taking the right decisions at the right time. While it may all boil down to a simple trade of ‘x’ exchanged for ‘y’, countless decisions need to be made before, during, and after such exchanges. If you take away the importance of these decisions from the concept of business, then you’ll be left with nothing but easiness i.e. sitting on your behind all day long, doing nothing of substance, but still chillin’.
This importance of making the right decision in business is precisely what should show you the risks involved with knee-jerk reactions in business. There’s no company in the world that has succeeded on the basis of knee-jerk reactions in business. The best companies have gone about their business in the most strategic way possible. They assess everything before making a decision.
Despite this fact, the newer entrepreneurs seem to think that they can react to situations whenever they arise as opposed to planning for them and strategically approaching their business operations. Nothing shows why this strategy is faulty than the following video.
Metaphoric Knee-Jerk Reactions in Business
This video is actually an advertisement from a Dutch insurance company known as Centraal Beheer. The premise of the video is a cement truck drive coming home early to see his wife hugging a strange man and then destroying said man’s swanky car with his cement truck. Unfortunately, the cement truck driver’s second glance reveals to him that his wife had won the car and the man was some TV show host.
The cement truck driver reacted too quickly to the new information of his wife hugging another man. Had he stood at the window a little longer, he would’ve realised that the new car was a prize for his wife and possibly not wasted tonnes of money having his brand new convertible fixed.
Business owners make the same mistake. In a bid to be as agile and as quick as possible, they fail to realise that waiting for the right moment is also an entrepreneurial skill. For instance, the truly successful investors wait for periods when the equity market is floundering. During the slow period, they are tempted numerous times to dissolve their positions but they don’t because they know when to hold still.
Effectively, it can be said that knee-jerk reactions in business are the equivalent of early dissolutions of equity positions.
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