​​​​George Marcou

Whatever your business and your hopes for it, you must manage the business in a way that is designed to achieve your purpose.

This often means taking a look at the business and being objective.

 

What is the goal for the business and have you chosen the right model to achieve it?

Is the business being purposely managed towards these goals?

 

Have you recognised any areas of your business that resist your efforts to mould them to suit your goals?

Many businesses face difficulties when a business model or structure is applied that does not suit the nature of the business.

 

You could do a lot worse than looking at nature for your inspiration for your business structure, as the way that a business grows naturally is often not very different from the way most things grow naturally.

 

Which leads me to my question, if your business can be represented by a tree, what kind of tree does it need to be?

 

 

Bonsai.

Lots of detailed and meticulous work goes into a bonsai that is designed to snip away any potential growth as soon as it appears.  This keeps the business small, manageable and can be taken with you anywhere you go and is a conversation piece.

 

A bonsai business may make a lot of money as a niche boutique, or may struggle to cover its costs as a lifestyle business.

 

It normally only takes one person to manage a Bonsai business and is more of a hobby than a money generator.  This is either by design, or a source of frustration.

 

The beauty of a bonsai is that it is a fully formed version of a large business that can flourish and grow if encouraged in the right way.

 

Are you happy to be a bonsai business or do you have dreams of growing something bigger?

 

 

 

Olive

Olive trees can grow to massive sizes and produce large crops of olive on their own, given enough time.

Olive trees have huge life-spans that seem to be limited by human interference more so than their natural lifecycles.  Individual olive trees have been found to have lived for up to 2,000 years.  These trees, produce valuable crops of olive fruit and consequently olive oil and can sustain generations of owners with a product of mass and enduring appeal.

 

Once they are established, the roots of an olive tree run very deep to find water and they can take care of themselves with very little nurturing.  The investment of time and care is heavily weighted at the beginning of the Olive tree’s life in order to nurture it to the point that it starts to become self-sustaining.

A business that runs on the olive tree model will need to ensure that it is structured for the long-term.  Care needs to be taken to ensure that the business is established well and has sturdy base to grow from.  This then needs to be managed unselfishly and encouraged to grow and flourish, knowing that the crop size will increase year after year with the continued and sustainable growth of the tree.  The manager of an olive tree business must understand that they are simply custodians of a living organism that will outlast them and the generations that follow.

This is a tree that you don’t chop down for the wood!

 

How do you know if your business fits the OLIVE Tree model?

 

 

 

Apple

A single apple tree will bear enough fruit to provide seasonal apples for you and your loved ones.  A single tree however cannot produce a commercial crop on it’s own and without being part of an apple orchard, cannot pay your bills. 

 

Apple trees are therefore needed in number and quality in order to be a viable source of sustenance and income.

To deliver big results, with an apple tree business, you must be very purposeful and determined.

Dedication, hard work and scalability are needed.  You also need to decide how to use your crop for the greatest gain.  Apple juice, cider, apple sauce, apple pies are all possible extensions of the business and use the raw material in a way that increases it’s value.

Effectively, you take a business that would tick along organically and deliver average results naturally and you apply industrial processes and scales to it.

 

An apple tree business can be one that requires many branches (if you pardon the pun) in order to deliver a return on a scale that enables it to make big money.

 

Think multiple branches, a range of products, franchises and channels for the business to bear enough fruit to start to fulfil it’s larger potential.

 

 

 

Conifer

(Fir Tree, Spruce.  Commonly used for Christmas trees)

Grown just to be chopped down and sold when it matures.

 

Many businesses are started with a view to selling them on when they mature.  There are many successful entrepreneurs that start businesses in order to sell them on for large profits which then finance the next venture or next cycle.

 

The discipline and focus required to achieve this is considerable.  When it’s time to let go of the entity that you have carefully grown from scratch, then you cannot be sentimental.

 

Is you business being grown specifically for this purpose?  Have you chosen a fast-growing business model?  Are you as ruthlessly efficient as this model demands?

 

 

 

 

 

Oak

Oak trees grow to be massive and live for a very long time.  They are iconic as a symbol of longevity and strength.

 

While oaks have been documented to live up to 1,500 years and are prized and revered, they do not themselves deliver a crop in the same way a fruit tree does.

They exist to provide shelter, prized raw materials and to provide acorns to grow more oaks.

 

So why would you adopt this model for your business?

 

Oaks do not make money until they are cut down, but are valued as a high quality material raw.  This is not the best reason to grow oaks, as they take too long to mature for them to be used as a quick crop. 

 

An oak is the perfect symbol for a parent company or holding company and their vast canopy of branches and leaves provides the shelter and strength to allow businesses to grow and develop before they are able to make their own way in the world.

 

Any business based on the characteristics of the oak, is most likely a parent or holding company designed to outlast the assets, companies and brands that it owns.

 

Worth thinking about as you structure your business empire.

 

 

 

Can you find 5 examples of each of these types of businesses?