The North Bay Business Journal, a publication of the New York Times, is a weekly business newspaper which covers the North Bay area of San Francisco – from the Golden Gate bridge north, including the Wine Country of Sonoma and Napa counties.
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Article published – March 30, 2009
BUILDING A BUSINESS: If Newton ran a business, he would urge motion
DYNAMICS OF MOMENTUM APPLY TO FIRMS AS WELL AS PHYSICS; ‘SPILL A LOT OF WATER’
“An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
~ Newton’s First Law of Motion
Most of us are familiar with the legend of Newton’s apple, which fell on his head and triggered his musings about the Universal Law of Gravitation. An unlikely but apocryphal story.
Fewer of us are physics students, and I’m pretty sure that learned professors would not whisper “physics” in the same sentence as “understanding” if they were considering my scientific proclivities. Nonetheless, I have come to learn that Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion have powerful siblings in the business world.
Newton’s First Law of Motion focuses on the physics of movement, but the dynamics of “momentum” apply equally to people and organizations. These dynamics also embrace such descriptors as inertia, mass, speed and velocity, which are equally valid terms when applied to middle-market businesses, and which we’ll consider in future columns.
Newton reasoned the more mass an object has, the more inertia it possesses, and that a more “massive object” has a greater tendency to resist changes in the state of motion.
When we hear the word “inertia” applied to the state of our business, it’s not a compliment, is it? Rather, it’s an unflattering observation about a state of rest that resists a change in its current state of motion, i.e., our business has run out of fuel and has no energy to propel it forward. It’s common sense that the more entrenched we are in our ways, the more immobile our organization is and the harder it is to move it forward. What’s missing is that “unbalanced force” to arouse our people, to shake things up and stimulate movement and momentum.
Newton concluded that objects tend to keep on doing what they’re doing and if resting, continue to remain at rest. If we stand still – if we don’t revitalize our company as well as our executive team and employees and lead by creating an unbalanced force – we won’t achieve the necessary momentum to keep up as the business world races past.
In my experience, momentum is an inescapable force, both for good as well as harm. When I’ve seen bad deals with a lot of momentum – say when an overzealous buyer pays too much for a company – the deal usually gets done, but it’s one that he ultimately regrets. Contrarily, those great deals with no momentum? They almost never get done.
You’ve probably experienced this in many ways in your business life. An important customer negotiation that drags out interminably almost never has a favorable outcome. A recruiting process that drags rarely captures the top candidate. You’ve probably found that phone tag played out over an extended period rarely bears the promise that was originally envisioned.
One frequently cited example of Newton’s first law is what happens when you carry a baking dish with water around an oval track. Consider that the water spills whenever the state of motion of the container is changed, quite similar to our experiences in working with our teams:
• When the container is at rest, the water spills when you attempt to move it.
• When the container is in motion, the water spills when you attempt to stop it.
• When the container is moving in one direction, it spills when you attempt to change the direction.
In the crushing economic environment we face, we should be prepared to “spill the water” whenever change is required … and it is required now more than ever. Get things moving with projects that are stalled. Stop activities that are accomplishing nothing. Change the direction of ventures that are not working. We need to stimulate motion … action … momentum … and move forward at an accelerated pace to face these new challenges.
I believe in the notion that chance favors those in motion. Momentum is an invaluable force that can fuel your business success, but it requires leadership that stimulates action. Ready, fire, aim. Get rid of the deadwood, remove the immovable objects and create the momentum that can help propel you to victory.
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Lary Kirchenbauer is the president of Exkalibur Advisors Inc., providing practical business strategies for family and other privately owned businesses in the middle market. He works closely with senior executives and their businesses to accelerate their growth and improve personal and professional performance and hosts a CEO Round Table for middle market companies in the North Bay. Please visit www.exkalibur.com for additional information.
Welcome to Exkalibur. I’m Lary Kirchenbauer, President of Exkalibur Advisors, Inc. Please take advantage of our resources to help you build your business ... and let me know what more we can do to serve you.
Read my latest column from the NY Times affiliate, the North Bay Business Journal.
In my former position as a tax partner at KPMG, LLP, I worked closely with Lary on the tax aspects of the plethora of business issues that arise in the life cycle of a start up company. It was unusual to see a senior finance person demonstrate a seasoned business acumen in identifying issues and opportunities, grasping the technical issues, resolving obstacles and implementing change.
Jeffrey Bergmann, V.P. Worldwide Tax, VeriSign, Inc.
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