What does success mean to you?

We all want to be successful. The trick is knowing how to define what success means.

Is a business successful if it has strong growth and high sales? Or is it successful when it is a nice place to work and fulfils its core purpose?

If you are a business owner, should business success come at the price of personal happiness?

These issues are highly subjective and too often we only understand them after the event. If we run full tilt at what we think success should be, we may discover we have gone down the wrong path.

Visualising success is a vital step in planning. Once the whole team knows what success looks like, it helps them to:

• Contest issues and make decisions on an objective basis
• Identify opportunities that will benefit the business 
• More confidently analyse what is waste

Complete this sentence. "My business will be a success when we . . ." Will this inspire and excite your customers, your staff and your stake-holders?

Andrew Wylie, Director of Pandemonium Creative, strategic thinkers in marketing, sales and creative.

Is your industry going to be replaced by an app?

Often the greatest threat for a successful business is complacency. When orders are coming in and customers seem satisfied, then it is tempting to focus on scale and throughput. This means that the greatest threats may take you by surprise. Is your industry going to be replaced by an app?

A great cause, a huge achievement!

In a special blog this week I want to congratulate Arax and her team of amateur swimmers who took on the 24 Hour Mega Swim for MS and raised over $10,000 in sponsorships. Impressively, most of this was personal donations from individuals who were inspired by the teams passion and commitment to take on that physical challenge.