Bill CanadyCEO & Founder, The 80/20 Institute · Be a Great CEO: Learn how to Fix it, Grow it, & Sell it.

STOP Business Theater: Focus on REAL, Quiet Results! #shorts

22 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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0:41

In this short video, Bill Canady draws a clear line between genuine operational improvement and what he calls "business theater." He describes real progress as quiet, countable outcomes such as a lower skew count, fewer orders while margin per order rises, a cancelled vendor contract, four fewer recurring meetings on a calendar, and the ability for three different staff members to give a customer the exact same answer without consulting each other. By contrast, he characterises theater as flashy, name‑driven initiatives—complexity‑reduction programs with logos, committees like Theda’s Rationalization Committee that meet monthly, and ever‑revised exit‑list metrics that never lose an account—without any tangible, measurable impact.

Chapters

What does it look like when it's working and when it's theater? Working is quiet and countable. Skew count is down, and you can say by how many. Order count is down and margin per order is up. A vendor contract got canceled. Someone's calendar has 4 fewer recurring meetings on it. And when a customer calls to complain, 3 different people give them the identical answer. That's key, identical answer, without checking with each other. Theater is complexity reduction initiative with a name and a logo, and it looks pretty. Theda's Rationalization Committee that meets monthly and produces a list of candidates. Theda is a Quad 4 exit list that's been revised upward 3 times and hasn't lost a single account yet.