Consortium: Business Success Done Right in the Twenty-First Century

In late 2019, the idea had begun to create a new business model that would revolutionize how business was conducted with a scheduled release in the spring of 2021. Then in March 2020, COVID-19 changed everything.

The world shut-down and the lock-downs began triggering business reacted to the crisis by:

1. Close the doors of each location until the pandemic subsided.
2. Send mission critical people home with computers to keep the basic business running.
3. Analyzing what locations were low or not profitable and closing them permanently.
4. Pay salaries for the first 30-days and see what happens while cutting-off hourly staff and let them file for unemployment until hired again.
5. Leadership discusses what state and federal aid they can get right away and when to apply.

Does this all sound familiar?  Yes, it does.

As business owners and corporate leaders, we invest in massive amounts of time, energy and resources (usually money) to build a company of our dreams with the types of people running it that are our twins in every way. Although not quite twins, we find people who can perform at high levels of excellence and help us build our dream business. We know there are many reasons this scenario never comes to fruition and that list is quite long.

At some point, the emergency subsides and you begin to rebuild what you lost both in revenues and assets/labor. Temp companies are called to provide quick labor and lower expense than hiring.

Wall Street or some government agency declares the crisis over and business heads back to “normal” or to previous levels of revenues and the headaches of finding talent lost to other companies begins.

Slowly and over time, you are able to replace lost labor, goods and services and the company is again profitable until the next emergency happens.

We can all agree this business model that has been long outdated is ready for something new. Let’s take a look at what that could look like and how easy it works.

First, let’s take a look at human nature and what drives it. Think for a moment, when was the last time you achieved something you were proud of? How did you feel at the time of the achievement? Did anyone you look up to acknowledge that achievement? How did ‘that’ feel?

When we achieve something, we are elated, self-confident, and motivated to do it again – right? Right! I love being an achiever!

Here’s what I have learned over the years as a company leader in various levels of corporations. 

1. Achievers don’t burn-out!
2. Achievers don’t get sick!
3. Achievers don’t complain, but rather are a motivator for others who become achievers!
4. Achievers don’t leave the company!
5. Employee related expense is reduced!

Achievers don’t burn-out!

Think of a time when you hated your job and/or the people around you and what that did to both your emotional and physical abilities. For me, the result was me leaving the company and the stability it provided me and my family. Other times, I ended up getting fired by someone I upset in some manner.

Achievers don’t get sick!

Science has proven that when a person is happy and engaged in positive, reinforcing work, they are healthier, get plenty of sleep, eat healthier, and contribute to the world around them. Achievers are happy and health related costs go down.

Achievers don’t complain, but rather are a motivator for others who become achievers!

Achievers tend to be proactive in what’s going on around them and, therefore, are far more likely to submit suggestions to make their area more efficient saving the company huge amounts of expense making both the company and their people happier resulting in higher production with existing assets driving the cost of good down as well.

Achievers don’t leave the company!

Achievers can’t wait to get to work each day and many works on efficiencies at home when the family is asleep. These people know that they are valued and are helping the company succeed. These people are dreaming of promotions and new opportunities within the company and in no manner want to leave.

Employee related expense is reduced!

Low or no sick days taken will lower healthcare premiums, loss of production due to the absence of an employee as well as employee related insurance costs are also reduced as a result of non-injury related lost time.

How do we create achievers and what does that have to do with a new model?

Consortium is a new model based on setting vision for the future that is not goals or timeline oriented and is driven by employees engaged in achieving milestones or stops along the way to get to that vision. As you have seen here, achievement will drive higher revenues, lower costs, will not be susceptible to interruptions like COVID-19 because there is no goal or timeline missed, but rather an adjustment of production and creating new revenue streams while a pandemic or other occurrence happens that would otherwise create the scenarios stated in the beginning of this article.

In my forthcoming book Consortium Business Success Done Right in the Twenty-First Century, I’ll take you through how a vision can drive success in the 21st century.

Written by Terry Earthwind Nichols.