Get Pono Integrity for your Business Model
When people ask me how I like my work I answer, "I love it; I'm one of the luckiest people on the planet. It is the greatest thing that people pay me for who I am and what I do in sharing the MWA mission, where essentially, I pay my bills and finance my life with joy."
My Pono contentment explains a lot of why I can say that now, for while I have always figured out a way to enjoy the work I did, up until I had my own business I didn't have the complete freedom to create my business model as the most Pono way (i.e. the most right way) to achieve a Business Plan.
One of the business concepts I teach managers is the difference I see between a business PLAN and a business MODEL. We use Language of Intention: Thereafter, our vocabulary gets more specific, and we choose the right word when talking about them.
Consider the different stakeholders a company can have: Owners, trustees or stockholders, board members, angel investors, partners, employees, customers, vendors, contractors, and the community, and then consider what they are most interested in because of their relationship to that company.
- The Business PLAN usually ends up to be more about strategy and numbers, and is written for banks, owners, and board members - think Pro Forma and all the research and trend analysis that leads to the business plan of what a company will be about. In Say Leadership Coaching, we leave business planning to our clients and their particular industry expertise, though we strongly encourage giving staff the financial literacy they need to read the Business Plan and understand it.
- The Business MODEL is what your employees, your customers, and the community is usually much more interested in - the vision/ mission/ values part of how you make that Business Plan happen. The business model is about execution and delivery, and the choices you make along the way. There is still a lot of strategy and decision-making involved, and there is much more emotion: Your business model makes room for individual work passions, or it ends their possibility. Company morale, spirit, and reputation will make it or break it on the wisdom of the Business Model.
The Managing with Aloha work philosophy is a business model proven to work exceptionally well for every business plan I have encountered, because it can influence the business plan as well. As I wrote in my book five years ago, while at the Hualalai Resort I felt I had gotten as close as I could ever get to working for another employer where business plan and business model matched up. However the day did come where the business plan and business model no longer were completely aligned within my viewpoint, and understanding it was no longer to be (and that I would not be able to bring certain decisions into my circle of influence), I moved on. Pono had started to slip away for me.
However, having had that sweet taste of Pono integrity in business, I wanted to get it back, and my own company was born. At SLC, we refer to Ho'ohana, one's passion for worthwhile work as the North Star of the business model, and so I started with mine at the time:
~ page 32 ~ I love to teach, and in particular I love coaching managers. I love the science of business and the democracy of free enterprise, where ultimately the customer rules. I love reading, I love the written word and I love the study of how language can influence relationships between people. I love the new global possibilities of networking. I love the notion that we can choose our own destiny and create it. I get passionate about all these things, and by indulging my passions I gave life to Managing with Aloha.
In my own value system, ignorance is not bliss in business. I have a passion for learning about all of it. Once I do, the business plan and the business model have to match up - the business model has to be realistic, and it can't wring the blood, sweat and tears out of people because it is incomplete, unachievable, or just plan insensitive to the human element. I believe that business models create movers and shakers who can make better results happen; they can make better lives happen.
I love teaching managers how to construct great business models. It is in those workshops that I see the light of hope turn on for them, and that light is a Pono beacon of possibility getting born.
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