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CHAPTER TWO
4 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS
Let’s pretend for a while that you’re not Chief Bottle Washer of SME trying to meet the payroll for your six employees, deciding which supplier you have to pay now (and which can suffer), managing yourself the R&D, production, marketing, finance, admin, IT and human resources departments, vacuuming the dog hairs from the visitor’s sofa and un-jamming the printer for an overdue report. Let’s pretend you’re heading Major Company, and you can DELEGATE. You can actually come to an office where the printers work, the reports are someone else’s problem, the bills are paid, the heads of department are doing their thing, the factory is humming, no one is striking, the chauffeur is walking the dog… What does the new CEO of Major Company do first thing in the morning in his corner office? Yes, he (or she, but for the sake of simplicity I will use “he” in this book) sits down behind a big desk, turns on his computer and checks Major Company’s share price. THEN, what does he do? The crossword? Turn to the horoscope page? Make golf appointments? No, he does what you are supposed to be doing—he thinks about shopping for model train parts on eBay. No, no, I meant that he thinks about business development and what to DO about it. What is business development exactly? It’s not just taking care of business; your minions are doing this for you. It’s not just finding new clients and ensuring their loyalty. Your market-