You’ve probably heard us sing the praises of a fantastic book called ‘Good to Great.’ It’s a fast-paced management book in which the author, Jim Collins, explores concepts which enable organisations to take the leap from good to great.
Today, we’re going to look into a theory explained within ‘Good to Great’ which talks about bullets and cannonballs.
Bullets vs cannonballs – which to fire and when?
Imagine you’re about to spend some money on marketing. We often liken this to the process of firing bullets or cannonballs. Cannonballs may be an effective means of hitting your target, but they take time to load, they’re difficult to aim and costly to use repeatedly. On the other hand, bullets are easier to aim and are a fraction of the price.
Captains of boats who engage in battle tend to fire multiple bullets to assess speed and distance before loading up their cannonballs. The cannonballs are saved until there’s a greater likelihood of successfully hitting a target. Plus, if you were to shoot first with cannonballs, you’ll soon deplete your stock and fail. This idea holds true in business. Rather than using all of your resources on one new idea, test in small increments and make adjustments until you have the right strategy for success.
Put simply, if we wish to find out where our target market is and where we can find new customers, we’ve got to fire some bullets and test some areas. For example, how many people are likely to respond to a direct mail? We have to think small and test things out on a small percentage of people to actually discover a target market.
Effective ammunition – firing bullets before cannonballs
The principle of firing bullets before cannonballs enables you to gain an understanding as to where an approach or marketing strategy would work, the amendments which should be made before a launch or even whether the idea or strategy should be shelved because of poor ‘hits’. Bullets before cannonballs is a tried and tested approach to getting it right. Whether that’s business direction, a marketing strategy, personnel changes or any business leadership principle, we’d recommend you read any of the strategic management books by Jim Collins. ‘Good to Great’ discusses this in depth and includes many relevant case studies where bullets vs cannonballs and other interesting strategies are put to the test.
If you’d like to learn more about these principles and how they can transform your business, we’d love to help you. Feel free to get in touch.
