What a thrill it is when that day finally comes. That is the company founder’s joy. Also the company founder’s deception. Also (potentially) the company’s destruction.

Joy
Well duh! Now you can finally do what you know needs to be done without someone with their own agenda getting in the way. I think we can all relate to this one.

Deception
Of course you have a boss. In fact you have lots of them. The customers are your bosses. When Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) quit working for the phone company and went out on his own (Dilbert was quite a success by then) he called it “boss diversification”. But this isn’t just a word trick. That’s why it’s a deception. These bosses don’t even tell you when they’ve fired you. And they rarely give you a warning. So they don’t make it as easy for you to know how to please them. Yet pleasing them an absolute requirement for success. Usually the only signal you have is that they’ve decided to buy (or not) and by the time you get that signal it’s often too late.

So your customer base should be considered a diverse, silent boss.

How could it be different?
If you treated them like you want employees to treat you what would you do? You’d make more effort to decipher their behavior. You’d probably test things more and pay attention to how they react to what you do. This is hard with a boss as diversified and silent as your customer base.  Testing is tedious. Changing just one thing at a time so you can test feels limiting (just like having a boss). Recording the results can be inconclusive or ambiguous.

But it must be done. The difference between success and failure is due to how good you are at pleasing your boss.

Destruction
Thinking you have no boss can be your downfall. Why? Think about this, when you have a boss, they usually control what you do, how you do it, and how much money you have to spend on accomplishing your goals. That’s why we all went to work for ourselves isn’t it? (See JOY above).

Yes, but to get permission or budget approval your boss made you jump through hoops. In the best of times, that means you had to clarify your thinking, do a cost benefit analysis and show how your ideas would serve the good of the company. Don’t you appreciate it when your employees do that for you?

Without the boss requiring that – you can just take off on a whim, use nothing more than your gut to justify changes in direction or huge spending outlays. I don’t mean to disrespect your gut. I’m sure it’s wonderful. But clear thinking and careful analysis has it’s place too. Without a boss, it’s too easy to ignore these activities and not hold yourself to account.

This has caused the death of many, many companies.

How Could it be Different?
Put in place a structure for the kind of analysis your company needs before every major (and many minor) decisions. Use a board of director if you can – an advisory board at least and [warning shameless plug alert] a coach.

The good news is that you can still decide to go with your gut; approval won’t be based on corporate politics (unless you allow it); and you still have the final say. But finding a way to require some rigor will ultimately help the company grow to please the real bosses – your customers.

Takeaways:

• Your Customers are your Boss. In fact it’s the market that gives your company permission to survive.
• Pleasing your new bosses may require testing and other tedious work that isn’t fun. Do it anyway.
• Dump the politics and the pettiness of your former bosses, but find a way to keep the rigor and analysis that success requires.

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