Death by 1000 Cuts

"Death by 1000 Cuts" explores one of the most common problems executives encounter, too many problems and opportunities.

Your operations do not have just one problem preventing effectiveness, but rather hundreds. The typical executive response is to run to each problem, putting out that fire, and then running to the next without a master plan.

The end result is the executive does not improve the organization, but rather lessens the pressure he can apply to important major areas.

Working your way out of a "death by a 1000 cuts" situation requires you to take steps that change the organization, not just patch the particular issue.

Here are the actions you have to take.


     1. Ignore some problems, they are not worth your time or do not really exist.


     2. Fix some. Patch and go.


     3. Fix some. Patch the problem, but then come back and put in place a permanent solution.
           Basically you ask why the problem occurred and remove the root cause.


     4. Pick an area, which when it is running right will yield outstanding results, and pick a single measure of performance. Define your own problem which is that measure is not world class. Remove the bottlenecks and barriers preventing that level of performance.


     5. Once that area is driven to peak performance, repeat step 4 for another major area.

"Interesting" you might think, "but what does this have to do with my internet strategies?"


          EVERYTHING

Hype and noise give you many problems and opportunities to dissipate your resources, but the area which will produce outstanding results for your internet operations is focusing on end user satisfaction.

By picking that area to focus on, you supply your self and your organization a single pressure point upon which to focus, one that will yield outstanding results.

Once you have end user satisfaction maxed then and only then should you move to the next area of domain promotion.

Working in multiple areas such as social media, ad words, pay per clicks, blogging, without getting your core maxing user satisfaction right, spreads your force over too much, and nothing significant happens except a waste of resources.

Get your core right, and only then move to the next major area that will produce outstanding results, domain promotion.