Why I Do This Work: The Reason I Keep Writing About Companies in Crisis
Experience
Companies show signs of trouble long before they break.
Sales are being made, yet no cash remains. Meetings are increasing, yet nothing is decided. There are people in charge, yet even small decisions wait for management approval. The front lines are busy, yet the company as a whole is not moving forward. Bad news stops reaching the top, and only slightly polished information reaches the ears of management.
Even so, people inside the company say things like this:
"We're still fine." "It's just a temporary problem." "Things will change once sales grow a little more."
A crisis does not deepen because it was invisible.
It deepens because of the time spent failing to treat the visible symptoms as a single management issue.
The reason I keep writing about companies in crisis is that I have felt there are far too few words available to use before it is too late.
There are many success stories of companies doing well.
How to increase sales. How to hire talented people. How to expand an organization. How to succeed in fundraising.
Of course, those have value.
However, when a company begins to break, stories of successful companies feel distant.
Funds are dwindling. People are exhausted. Management is struggling with decisions. You don't know where to start.
What is needed at that time is not the phrase, "You just need to try harder."
It is the language to grasp what is happening now and to think about the next decision.
Personally, what I wanted most at the time was not encouragement. It was the material to make decisions, to organize what was happening, and to think about the next move.
That is why I write about companies in crisis.
I believed that if I could decide for myself, I could manage to do something about it.
I had been conscious of starting a business since I was a university student.
At my first company, I learned the practical aspects of business, and at my second, I learned the practical aspects of management.
I thought about the order of things in my own way and started my business after preparing.
Before starting the business, I didn't have any major anxieties.
If I started a company, I could choose my own work.
I could make my own decisions.
Even if a problem occurred, I could handle it if I took action.
I thought that starting a business meant becoming free.
Looking back now, that wasn't entirely wrong.
However, I was only seeing a part of management.
Being able to decide freely also means that
I am the only one who has to take responsibility for the results of those decisions.
I have the freedom to start something.
However, I do not have the freedom to stop payments.
Even if I am hesitant, the payment date arrives.
Even if I cannot generate sales, fixed costs go out.
If my judgment is delayed, the time left for the company shortens.
I understood this reality as knowledge.
However, the reality I saw as my own company's funds dwindled was completely different from knowledge.
As the money decreased, the freedom of judgment also decreased.
After founding the company, I received a loan.
When the funds came in, the first thing I felt was relief rather than the weight of responsibility.
With this, I can continue the company for the time being.
I just need to generate sales in the meantime.
That is what I thought.
However, I could not generate sales as I had hoped.
The number of times I checked the remaining funds increased.
I began to calculate payments for several months ahead in reverse.
Even if sales are made, it is meaningless if the company does not survive until the payment is received.
I understood this obvious fact for the first time at my own company.
As the money decreased, the freedom of judgment also decreased.
Choosing what brings in revenue now over what I truly want to do.
Running toward immediate payments rather than what is necessary in the long term.
Options that could have been compared when there was leeway become impossible to choose as funds dwindle.
The fear of a company running out of money is not just about the company coming to a halt.
It was about the options available to the company disappearing one by one.
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A company that sells when I move, stops when I stop.
When the first sale was made, I felt relief rather than joy.
I can keep the company going a little longer.
That is what I thought.
However, that revenue was only generated because I moved.
I find the customers.
I make the proposals.
I use my own knowledge to provide value.
If I move, sales are made.
But if I stop, the sales stop too.
Generating revenue and building a sustainable business were different things.
I thought I was moving the company forward.
In reality, I was building a company that would stop if I didn't keep moving.
It took time to understand this difference.
I had to redesign, not just reflect.
When people fail, they try to reflect.
I should have moved faster.
I should have judged more carefully.
I should have talked to those around me more.
Looking back is necessary.
However, saying "I'll be careful next time" cannot prevent the same problem.
What was needed was not to blame my past self.
Was the judgment wrong, or was the decision not executed?
Was there no information, or was available information ignored?
Was there no one in charge, or did the person in charge lack the necessary authority?
The fact that the same problem was allowed to recur is more serious than the fact that the problem occurred in the first place.
Turning a company around does not mean returning it to the state it was in before it broke.
Decide what to keep and what to stop.
Organize responsibilities and authority.
Change the methods of reporting and verification.
It means rebuilding operations and structures into a company that will not break in the same way again.
What I have gained from experience is not a way to avoid failure.
It was the necessity of not leaving the causes of failure ambiguous, but rather documenting them in a form that can be used next time.
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Management in a crisis begins with setting priorities
Companies in crisis have limited resources available.
There is no money.
There is no time.
People are exhausted.
Multiple problems are occurring simultaneously.
Even if there are ideal systems or correct strategies, a company will not change if there is no remaining capacity to execute them.
On what should limited funds, time, people, and credit be concentrated?
Management in a crisis begins with that choice.
There are many managers and leaders who are already working hard enough.
Simply increasing effort will only exhaust the resources remaining in the company.
What is needed is not to solve everything at once.
It is to identify the most serious problem right now and concentrate resources there.
What I have dealt with is the vacuum of management
My work is not just accounting, not just finance, and not just corporate planning.
It is also not something that fits neatly into just one of CFO, CSO, or COO.
I have been dealing with the problems that remain when you look at the company as a whole—the ones that no one else has picked up.
Problems that span departments and therefore have no assigned owner.
Problems that exist between management and the front lines but have not been put into words.
Problems that are visible in the numbers but have not translated into action.
Problems that are discussed in meetings but that no one has decided how to address.
I consider these to be 'management voids'.
The more you see of the company as a whole, the more ambiguous your own work becomes.
However, it is not that my work itself is ambiguous.
I have made the ambiguous problems left behind in the company my own work.
Finding management voids.
Picking up on anomalies that have not been articulated.
Identifying the issues that truly need to be addressed from within what appears to be a single problem.
Changing the company into a state where it can move forward.
That is the work I have been doing.
And it is the same thing I am writing about on note.
Why can't decisions be made in meetings?
Why does progress stall even when there is a person in charge?
Why does the company not move forward even when the front lines are busy?
Why could the visible symptoms not be treated as a crisis?
What I am writing is not management theory.
It is about the management voids that appear when a company begins to break down.
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I want to leave behind the words I wanted back then
When management is struggling, multiple problems can look like one big lump.
It feels as if sales, money, people, and trust have all gone bad at the same time.
It can even feel as if every decision you made was wrong.
That is why you want to increase your number of countermeasures.
Do more sales.
Work harder.
Start new initiatives.
However, the countermeasures you rush to add can sometimes further drain the funds and time remaining in the company.
If I could tell my past self anything, I would want to say: do not look at the problems in front of you as a single lump.
I am not writing this just to save my past self.
I simply think that leaving behind the words I wanted back then might serve as material for the decisions of someone currently in a similar situation.
That is one of the reasons I keep writing.
First, I want you to look at the gaps left behind in a company.
When a company is not moving forward, before you doubt people's abilities or motivation, I want you to pose three questions.
・What has been discussed many times but remains undecided?
・What problems remain ambiguous as to who should handle them?
・If left as is, what will be the first thing lost?
It might be sales.
It might be capital.
It might be people.
It might be the trust of customers.
What is important in crisis management is not coming up with a perfect solution after a problem has grown large.
It is about grasping the connections behind small anomalies while they are still in their early stages.
I do not want to write a textbook on successful management.
The reality of management is not pretty.
Decisions can be delayed.
You may be chased by money and make choices different from your original intentions.
You may even give up on continuing.
Even so, you can look back at what happened and turn it into words that can be used next time.
What I want to write is not a textbook on successful management.
It is about what to look at and how to think about the next move when a company begins to break down.
For a company in crisis, words to grasp what is happening right in front of you are more necessary than a clean, perfect answer.
I keep writing in order to leave those words behind.
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What I have written up to this point is the reason why I continue to write about companies in crisis.
Now, in what order does a company actually reach the point of no return?
In this article, I have summarized how sales, retention rates, funding, and a sense of unease on the front lines are connected, and how they lead a company to reach a point of no return.
"Too Late: How a Crisis Deepens"
In the next article, I will write about how I have come to think about management through these experiences.
What drives a company is not the enthusiasm of the management.
It is the criteria each individual uses to make decisions to move forward on their own.
Is there a "management void" in your company that no one is addressing?
Please let me know in the comments, to the extent that you feel comfortable.
If this article has prompted you to pause and look at the irregularities within your own company, I would be happy if you could press the 'Like' button.
In the next article, I will write about the criteria for making decisions to move a company forward. If you are interested in the continuation, please follow me and stay tuned.