Are building businesses like making movies?

I don't believe anyone genuinely starts out to build a bad company or make a bad movie. Stuff happens and the end result is what it is. Sometimes the participants are not really on board or the vision is not well thought out.

Visions change and the route to getting there is often not straight forward. We are confronted with bumps in the road and team members can be disillusioned and even destructive.

If the leader (business owner/movie director) is not communicating well, the team does not have proper direction. Good or bad decisions/actions/results usually start from the top and flow down.

Mistakes, redirection and new ideas are all part of the process. Some work some don't, but you still have to try. If you don't push the envelope you'll never know what could have made the project better.

We start with a vision, be it a business plan, an idea or a script, and begin the process of building something. A product, company, charity, event, movie, tv series, app it doesn't matter the overall thinking is the same.

Some ideas work beyond our expectations while others fizzle out quickly or die a slow death. We can be suprised and watch a simple video go viral or work day and night and no one notices.

I've had blog posts that took me very little effort and received thousands of views while others are written and rewritten, sweated over and nurtured then somehow go unnoticed.

So when I see a movie or tv show that just doesn't cut it or a business that starts off with alot of fanfare and then closes its' doors quickly I wonder how the team behind the effort gauges their success or failure.

Was it really failure or was it the timing, the leadership, the vision, the team or any number of factors? Two teams/leaders could each take the same starting point and end up with completely different results. Their past experiences, specific skills, and objectives will dramatically influence results.

Was it the team or the leader? Was the business concept a bad idea or was the movie just a bad script, poor direction and bad acting?

Typically there are many people, factors and unknowns involved in the success or failure of companies or movies. We need to ask ourselves these questions on a regular basis. Are we managing a bad business or running our business badly? Is our company doomed to failure or ready for a sequel? Can we turn things around?

Do people look at your company and rate it like a movie? Is it big theatre viewing or just watch it at home? Tell your friends to watch it or pass? See it a second time because it was so good or walk out in the middle? Should you win an Oscar and be released worldwide or quickly disappear into online viewing?

Sometimes we seem to be as familiar or more so with the workings of the entertainment business than small business. Perhaps, as business owners, we have something to learn from them.

Essentially making a movie is the same as building a company to make a product or deliver a service. You gather a team, feed them the vision, encourage everyone's participation or discourage them, assign team members various responsibilities and manage the process until the finished product is presented to the marketplace.

You have a winner or you don't. You tinker to produce better results or leave it alone. Sometimes the idea works other times it does not. You move on and keep trying.

A2E