#36 – Our strategy to reach our mission

Summary

What’s the difference between a vision and a strategy? Imagine you are building a house. The vision is how the house will look when it’s finished. It’s probably a very exciting image! The strategy is the blueprint. How to reach the vision. We believe Great’s vision is very exciting, but how will we get there?

Transcript

[00:00:01] All right, welcome to do become becoming great podcast, a podcast where me and Erik Bergman, the founder of Great, discuss how to become great people and how to build a great organization, great.com that would give away 100 percent of its profits to charity.

[00:00:27] Eric, what’s going on?

[00:00:29] Life is good and that is good. I’m tingling in my toes, some jumping around. I was tired like 30 minutes ago. Then I started talking to you about this.

[00:00:38] And now I feel a year old to just aid a boatload of candy.

[00:00:43] Mm hmm. Sounds good. Now, today’s episode, we’re going to talk about strategy because in the last episode, we talked about great vision for moving forward. And if you haven’t checked that out, I would suggest that you start with episode number 32 vision. And today, we’re going to talk about strategy to complete this mission. So what is the difference between a vision and a strategy?

[00:01:09] Ok, so the vision we described in the previous episode was very. It was a grand vision, so you can imagine that that vision is like this big castle that you can see in a Disney movie and all these really fancy castle. Now, imagine that you ordered that castle from IKEA. And you’re supposed to put it back together and you have this long catalogue with instructions. You know, you need to do this and you need to be two people building it together. So it’s fun. And so if the castle. That’s the vision. That’s where you want to go to. Then the strategy is the IKEA catalog with the instructions of how to actually get there. So without the IKEA catalog, it’s like, well, there is no way we’re gonna be able to build this thing. But with that, it’s suddenly quite simple as long as you follow the instructions.

[00:02:02] Man, I wasn’t prepared for this metaphore, I have some bad associations with that.

[00:02:10] The trick is to get someone in that knows what they’re doing and that is kind of what we did this weekend. We had a workshop with Joakim, our new head of product. It’s just time. Yes. Yeah. So would you explain what he did in this workshop?

[00:02:25] Ok.

[00:02:25] So we started with building this vision, creating this vision. OK. We want to create this castle. And then we didn’t know really. OK. What’s the strategy of getting there? How do we determine what tasks to do to get there? And in a great workshop with us, I really enjoyed. Which was, well, if you imagine a across in front of you. Then at the top of this scale, the wide-scale or whatever it’s called. Here is the biggest impact tasks. The things that we can do that will have the most probability of helping us to get to our goals. And further down on this, we will have the least impact tasks. And then from left to right on this cross, we have the things that takes the most time and then the hardest to do on the right side and on the left side, we have the easiest tasks to do. So things that takes the least amount of time. And then we started asking ourselves, OK, what tasks can we come up with to do and what tasks are we doing? So, for example, one task was running this podcast and then we asked ourselves, OK, how much impact does this have when it comes to reaching our goals and how much time does it take? And this ended up somewhere in the middle of this scale, took quite a lot of time and they didn’t have that much of an impact. Now, we kind of took all the tasks around, whatever that could be. And we tried to figure out, is this something that takes a lot of time compared to how much impact it can have? And from there, we started building.

[00:04:07] Right. So we first did a brainstorming exercise where we came up of everything that we could be doing that we’re not currently doing. And then we also listed all the things that we are currently doing. And then we graded them on impact and how difficult for us to kind of get an idea of how to prioritize tasks.

[00:04:28] Yeah. So we came up with all kinds of tasks, things we want to do and things we didn’t want to do. Basically wanting to get to a place to find out which of these tasks are the most efficient ones and the easiest lots to do. And then those are the tasks to pursue. Those are the tasks that should go into the strategy.

[00:04:49] Mm hmm. So I think it’s interesting to discuss what kind of tasks we decided to do because of this workshops, but to understand why we did that. I think we need to discuss.

[00:05:04] So what is the goal with our strategy? Because we use this to set some goals along the way to the mission.

[00:05:11] Yeah. And we talked about the goals that we upset.

[00:05:15] It’s an interesting thing that differentiates a strategy from the vision as well. Could be the timeframe. So our vision is very, very long term and a strategy could be divided up in shorter terms. So the first important part of our strategy became we want to reach the milestone of being break-even, meaning that we’re having as much revenues as we have costs in any given month by August next year.

[00:05:45] And at the moment, twenty. Yeah, 2020. And at the moment we have costs of about twenty five thirty thousand euros each month and we have sero revenues sit nada. Not a single dime. So to get to a point where it’s breakeven is is quite far and before I’ve been thinking mainly in a very long term perspective but this became like a strategy shift, like ok if we should actually start growing up and turning this into a real business, then break-even should be something we’re aiming for for first set that became the short term goal. We want to be break even by this point. And we said that to get there, we’re probably gonna need to have revenues of five fifty thousand euros each month because our costs are probably gonna go up by that with some more people and some other things happening.

[00:06:41] So you mentioned in the previous episode about the vision that one of the things we want to do with Great is to minimize the risks that we are taking. So how much of this break even point would you say is because we want to minimize risk before we scale up?

[00:06:54] And how much would you say would be for free to feel good about you? I guess you don’t want to put in unlimited money in this project or what is the main reason we want to reach a break even point would say.

[00:07:08] The risk is definitely one thing. I mean, that’s one thing to put more money into. This is another. I think the main one is to actually start feeling that we’re on the right direction. So we’re not just wincing around. It’s imagined that we’re going to climb up this pyramid of GSA and you need to take the first real step up this this. Well, climbing these steps up. And before we actually start having revenues and start reaching some milestones, it’s like where we might be going around the pyramid, a lot more might be thinking a lot of things. But at the end of the day, our vision needs us to take us to the top.

[00:07:48] Mm hmm. So we need some proof of concept to evaluate targets to feel like it’s actually start happening.

[00:07:56] And I think I need that. And I believe that everyone in the team needs that as well to feel like, OK, this is a real thing. This is something that’s gonna happen. We’re actually on the way up to the top. We’re not just walking around.

[00:08:11] Right. So we have something on financial goal to reach revenue of about 60000 euros a month before 2009, August 2020. What other goals do we set?

[00:08:22] So we also set a goal that we want 50000 people looking at the things that we’re doing by August next year. So basically, people listening to this podcast are following us on Instagram or reading, being regularly in newspapers where we get that kind of exposure. So the reason with this podcast is basically there is a lot of reasons. One of the reasons that we want people to be aware of this project we want to use is to recruit. We want to use this to spread knowledge. We want to use this for many things. So it actually starts scaling this podcast up and having people listening to it and all the other things that we’re doing.

[00:09:05] Right. So.

[00:09:10] Why is what is the main reason we want to have people watch this material? Is it to make money them or is it to inspire?

[00:09:21] If I could only issues one of those two, I would choose make money. So we want to inspire. We want to have an impact on many things that we’re doing, but our soul, our main mission with great as an organization is to generate profits and give it away. So if I could only use this podcast for one thing. Now, obviously we want to use it for plenty of things, but then it would be for the one way or another benefit the business idea and making money from it.

[00:09:51] Right. So saying the goal to reach the revenues is more important than the goal of reaching the viewers.

[00:10:02] The kind of tied together, but the viewers are supposed to help the revenues rather than the other way around. Mm hmm. So if I had to choose one of them, I would choose revenue goals. I think that’s by far the hardest one as well. But the long term thing is a station tie in together and make an equal impact together.

[00:10:25] Mm hmm. And on a two year horizon, what kind of goes to a certain son?

[00:10:31] A two year horizon? We want to reach the point where we have donated a total of one million euros to the environment. So right now we’re focusing on environmental causes. So that means that we need to make profits of a total of 1 million euros before August 2021, which is a tough goal to beat. That means we’re gonna reach we need to reach revenues of, I don’t know, maybe two hundred thousand euros by then, which is, well, a lot more than the zero we have today. And very challenging goals to reach you.

[00:11:02] But that’s way more than that since we’ll make less in the beginning.

[00:11:07] Yeah. Yeah, it’s gonna be really, really hard. That’s for sure. But we’re shooting for the stars here and worst case scenario, we don’t reach it, but hopefully we reach the sky.

[00:11:18] So right now we’re making zero a month in a year. We want to reach 50000 a month. And in two years we’re going to have reached 1 million total in profit that we can do, right? Yeah. How realistic would you say those goals are?

[00:11:36] So before the strategy worked out, when I started looking at where we were, I felt. I felt like, yeah, we’re gonna figure this out. And then we set these goals and like started looking at what are we do is like, fuck. We’re not going in the right direction here. We’re missing out on a lot of things that we need to do to make money. For example, we focused a lot on learning things that could be beneficial in maybe five year perspective, but not in a one year perspective. We focused on that. We did a lot of things with this podcast, for example, are not going to drive revenues. That’s gonna be tricky to deal with. I think the most the most interesting thing for me was that Wake-Up Call was like, hey, Eric, you need to look here because we need these kind of things in the strategy to hit those one year terms.

[00:12:21] So let’s go back to one while we decide to do differently. But for now, what is it? Two year ago. When it comes to.

[00:12:31] Our way of influencing people watching us, so why in two years time we want a million people watching the things that we’re doing on a monthly basis. And that could mean listen to this podcast and the things we’re doing here. But nothing else around. But it could also be us being guests in various TV shows or newspaper articles or anywhere. Basically, we want to have a million pair of eyes looking at things that we’re doing on a monthly basis. And T-Bag, go back to your question. How realistic are these things? Well, I think they’re doable, but they’re really hard. It’s got to be a big challenge. It’s it’s basically saying how realistic is it that now the Greek football team would mean being a win, the European Football Cup, which they have done. And it was unlikely, but it’s completely doable. We need some luck. We need to have the hard work, but it’s completely doable.

[00:13:34] Right. To me, the workshop felt OK. So in two years time, we’re going to have made one million euros. Don’t either way we’re gonna have one million viewers a month. And to meet those kind of like.

[00:13:49] Let’s say I decide that I’m going to climb Mt. Everest.

[00:13:54] That means that I have to make a lot of lifestyle changes, right?

[00:13:59] I need to start training way more. I need to do probably a lot of things and I need to I need to change my life, basically. And that was kind of how I felt after this workshop. In a good way. It was the wake up call. Like you said, I can’t keep living my life this way if I’m gonna reach Mt. Everest. So what did you realize from the workshop? Great. Needs to do differently that we’re not doing today.

[00:14:23] So the biggest change was thinking more about the short term than the long term. And breaking it down, too. OK. How do we start? Market what we’re doing today. So focusing on getting the product up and running in a far better way than it is right now, which haven’t been a top priority of my time. So get a lot more involved with the product development and making sure that that’s up and running sooner rather than later.

[00:14:52] And if you want to know what the product lists are recommended to check out episode called Great in 30 minutes.

[00:14:57] Yeah, it’s number 32. I know. Twenty three. Look from thirty to twenty three. Same numbers. And secondly, folks along on the search part of that is how do you get ranking high up in Google. And a big part of that is how do you get links pointing towards us and publicity in general, which was something that I barely focused at all on. Up until this point and it’s one of my biggest passions, I really like that part of this. And it became a wake up call looking at the strategies like, OK, Eric, to reach this goal.

[00:15:30] But the break even goal within a year, we need this month this much links and publicity basically.

[00:15:38] And we’re nowhere near that. So we need to get a big part of our focus on getting links and publicity. And that became a up call for me saying, OK, let’s focus on doing these kinds of things with a podcast. Let’s focus on getting these kinds of interviews done. Let’s focus on getting these kinds of news newspapers actually being interested in what we’re doing and talking to these kinds of blogs. So we start this. Star is wheels spinning in the sense that if that’s not focused on, then this is never gonna happen.

[00:16:11] Right.

[00:16:13] It’s getting time to wrap this part of the conversation up. Is there something you want to add on what you took with you from our latest strategy update and workshop?

[00:16:24] Well, just the importance of shaking in and sitting down once in a while with where do we want to go? And are we actually living in a way that that’s going to happen and that could translate into, OK. I want to be in great shape in one year’s time. OK. Do I actually put any time and effort into that?

[00:16:47] And if not, yeah, that’s I’m not gonna get in great shape in one year’s time if I’m not doing that or in five years time, I want to have my own business. Okay. Am I doing anything to get there? No. And to me, this was a similar wake up call like, OK. In one year’s time, I want us to break even. And was like, OK, how much are actually focusing on making profits and driving revenue?

[00:17:12] It’s like, well, why would you think the consequences cause something? This is something someone can learn from either having a personal goal or if you’re running your own business, what would you think the consequences would have been of not having destructive strategy workshop and just keep doing what we did?

[00:17:32] So think six months from now, maybe we would have come to the same conclusion like, oh, crap, we missed this. We need to rethink things and we will probably have a similar road trip or anything like that then and we would think we would have been aware of that. That’s not going to happen and we would probably changed it then.

[00:17:54] But I think that would also mean that we would need me to have somewhat of a short term thinking. So without the short term thinking, I think it will take a long time before we got the ball rolling and started moving towards the long term goals. I think we would have lost time, but we would have been aware of it. I think a very common thing if we take training and getting in shape or starting your own business, for example, is that you never get to the point where where you start reflecting on this and that you actually missed out on six months or a year or whatever. Unless you sit down and do this. So there is in our radiostation, there would be a point where I would say, should I put in way too much money in this and haven’t focused on getting it back in life. There is not a single situation. Well, could be why I got way too far now. Oh god, I really hate my job. But then you would need to get to that point when basically hitting rock rock bottom before you start thinking about the changes.

[00:18:52] Mm hmm.

[00:18:56] And that doesn’t seem like the most smooth way to go about doing so. Shit. Yeah. I think this highlights the importance of strategy. Yeah. And is there some final thought before we wrap this up?

[00:19:09] Well, I don’t go there. All right. If you have any further questions about the strategy or any suggestions for topics put upon cost or improvements, please send us an e-mail to podcast, upgrade and column. We’ll see. Thank you. Bye bye.