Andrea Jones describes a CEO planning to optimize back-office operations by end of 2025 before lifting sales growth restrictions. The company gets Q1 to prove it works; if not, they get another quarter before a different decision. Nine out of ten companies fail to make such changes.
Yesterday, I talked to a CEO who wants to optimize his back office operations by the end of 2025. He'd been putting a damper on sales for the last 4 or 5 years while he tried to structure the back office, but now he's going to lift the damper and he expects a lot of growth, so the back office has to be organized by the end of the year. He thought the team needed some help, but they convinced him they could really do it themselves. I asked them if they've been trying to do it themselves for the last 4 or 5 years, what's going to be different this time? And he said, well, he's going to give them the first quarter. And if they make it happen, great. And if they don't, he'll give them a next quarter. And at that point, if they can't do anything, then he'll make a different decision. So, what would be the consequence then of not having the backend operations be optimized by the end of 2025? And that's when he said something very telling. He said, we're a 15-year-old business. And we've always run like this. So honestly, nothing would really happen. Nothing would change. 9 out of 10 companies won't make the change. Maybe you're the one that will. From all of us at AJC, here's to change for the better in 2025.
