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Highly Admired Business Leaders Should Prioritize Over Optimizing Everything
Many highly admired business leaders believe in optimizing everything, but this approach is wrong because time is a limited resource. Even working long hours, CEOs and managers exhaust their time and run out of time to make everything perfect. Instead of optimizing everything, a better approach is to pick just a few things to optimize. The principle of “satisficing” or choosing to make things good enough, captures this idea, as Nobel laureate Herbert Simon has stated that many systems are too complex to identify the optimum solution.
In a forthcoming business strategy book in the form of a novel called, “Lost at CEO,” author Carl Cox stresses the importance of prioritizing activities that will make the largest impact in the available time. The book illustrates how a CEO’s demand to grow sales can translate to working longer hours, causing burnout among managers. Instead, managers should identify and focus on the essential tasks and leave the rest as good enough.
Customer demands and expectations help make the right decision. If customers expect a certain level of quality in a company’s product, then hitting that level makes more sense than optimizing for quality. However, if sales are going to businesses offering the lowest prices, then optimizing cost makes sense.
While some people may find the “good enough” philosophy uncomfortable, it is a reality that people should address and learn to accept. Everyone has different inclinations, and individuals should align their personalities with roles that match their innate tendencies better.
Ultimately, people must remember that they do not have time to optimize everything, but they do have time to prioritize what they optimize.
