Stand Out

At Breakpoint we have been on the front edge of building successful entrepreneurial mid market companies globally for over twenty-five years. As a leader in our field we know that companies that have entrepreneurial roots and experience accelerated growth will, at some point, hit a scale where the game changes. Then experienced leaders are needed to build and execute an effective strategy to realize short-term gains and position the organization for long term value creation. 

When we talk about strategy and growth at its core is change. Change creates opportunity. All change rests on people’s willingness to understand and embrace change. Our ability to understand change relies on leadership’s ability to create the conditions for success. In my experience, that comes down to how leaders think, how they behave, how they encourage others to behave in ways that shifts thinking to “what is possible”. As an organization leader, change demands that you give focus to innovative ideas, engage people to drive the pace of change in support of those innovative ideas, and to increase commitment by creating meaningful purpose to the organization goals. 

It takes courage to change. Uncertainty plagues many leaders and left unchecked is at the heart of organization failure. The case for change is about the willingness to be bold in your thinking and your actions. What the future holds is not the past. The risk of doing nothing is far greater than the risk of failing. You need to ask the big first question, “why change is important”. You need to be clear about the outcome. You need to trust your instincts, experience, and intuition. You need to weave a story that will change the way people think about the future. About their future. You need to commit to change. You need the commitment of people to change. Be actively building. Experimenting, keeping what works, discarding what doesn’t. Invite people with different experience, different views into the discussion of what is possible and the journey of change. Everything new will be uncomfortable but necessary. I have never heard a successful leader say, "we should have gone slower". You can't predict the future but you can create it.

“In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” — Warren Buffett

It’s not just about making a great business with people. It’s about making a business great for people.