Seen.
Core.
We saw a business change direction.
They had always focused on operational excellence, but decided instead to focus on their customer.
By deeply understanding who that customer was, and exactly their needs, they were able to reap fast rewards. The operational excellence followed an inevitable consequence.
We found this insightful. We thought having clarity about who your customer is, and who it is not, was a good way to make sure you focus on what really makes the difference for your business.
Read.
Blimey.
A company we know hired an advisor to give an opinion on the relevance of a piece of legislation.
It told them they couldn't do what they were planning.
However, they decided to read the legislation themselves. They immediately spotted exemptions that could apply to them, by making simple changes in their approach.
It reminded us that no-one knows your business as well as you do, and no one will bring the imagination you will bring. Sometimes you just have to read the manual yourself.
Learned.
Governer.
A founder we know this week experienced a succession of personal tragedies.
They wrote to their team and shared this openly. They were honest that they didn't feel able to work for a while, and whilst they wanted to be strong and carry on, they had to admit to being human and needing to step away for a while.
It can be tempting when leading a business to try and be superhuman. We've seen some founders that are. And doubtless having the strength to continue even when things are hard is a key attribute for a founder.
However, we all have a limit. Sometimes sharing that you've hit it can be the best kind of leadership and sends a message to your team that it's okay be human.
Building businesses for the long term means acknowledging that we're not superhuman and that looking after ourselves is okay.
And finally.
We're 21 blogs and 18 podcasts in. Feels like we've come of age.
We've loved making #founderhacks this year. It's helped keep us all sane during some insane times, and we've had lovely feedback that people have liked listening too.
So we've decided to carry on. But we'd like to go further.
We'd love to invite any founders that have been reading and listening to be a #founderhacks guest.
We curate and record #foundhacks in just one hour per week, so if you'd like to appear you'll need to join us for:
A 30 minute editorial session where you bring something you've seen, something you've read and something you've learned, and help us select the content for the episode.
A 30 minute recording session. If you need some tech help we can provide that too, so allow another 30 minutes for that.
Alongside this, if you're up for it, we were also thinking it would be nice to hear guests' stories. This would mean a second 30 minute recording session to be interviewed about your founder journey for a special edition of #founderhacks.
If this sounds like it would be your cup of tea, drop us a line at hello@atomex.co.uk.
Don’t forget to check out the accompanying podcast version of #founderhacks for a tantalising live experience of team atomex!
