Feedback

The difference between things that grow and things that don't is feedback. Ecology maps nature as large circles with each member feeding the next until it returns to the starting point. Salesmen know customers, through word of mouth, create more customers. In any market, buyers create sellers, who attract more buyers, who create more sellers.

For years I studied business growth. With charts and graphs I tried to discover the Philosopher's Stone that would grow any business. Marketing, Finance, HR, Engineering, Continuous Improvement were all candidates. Yet none of these necessary disciplines were by themselves sufficient to create an engine capable of growing any client's business. What is at the center of growth?

I finally found it in the study of System Dynamics. If there is positive feedback, there is growth. If there is negative feedback, there is decline. Always.

Yesterday at Starbucks in Colleyville I meet with my C-Level Consulting associates. We were discussing the importance of getting together like this. They told me how much they enjoyed one of my past series of presentations on business consulting. One of them told me he was on the file server reviewing them just this past week. He found them a source of hope and inspiration.

That was feedback. Today I start this Blog.