"The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself." – Anna James
Enthusiasm is wonderful. Having confidence in yourself is a necessity. Believing in your company is a basic requirement of success. No team ever won a championship with a negative attitude.
However, believing in yourself and your company doesn’t mean you must be blind to your business’s faults. Never assume you’re doing everything right and your shop doesn’t need to make improvements.
Knowing your company’s weaknesses can be your greatest strength. Yes, as owner and manager, you should be your company’s greatest supporter – but you should also be its most ardent critic.
To remain successful, a company must never become stagnant. It must continue to grow, stretch and improve. To accomplish this, you need to look at every aspect of your business with a judgmental eye – review every procedure, every system, every job – and find ways to do them better.
Your role is to set your company’s standard of excellence.
Never turn this function over to your competitor by letting his performance determine your shop’s level of quality.
Keeping an eye on the competition is good business sense. However, all too many businesses make besting the competition their only goal. When they achieve that goal, they sit back, self-satisfied with their accomplishment. Satisfied that is, until next month or next year when a new competitor comes along – a competitor who’s not only superior to the old rival, but also to them. The result is a feverish and costly game of catch up.
Striving to be better than your competitor is fine. But the ultimate endeavor is to continually strive to be better than yourself – better than you were the day before, then even better the day after that.
The quest for excellence is a never-ending job. It requires tireless effort and constant attention to detail. It’s a quest attempted by few businesses and achieved by even less.
But then, that’s why it’s called excellence.
Denise Lloyd
Publisher