The Question That Haunts Every Director

There is a question that haunts many company directors, and it usually strikes when things are at their busiest. With everything going on around you, it is incredibly difficult to know where you actually are in your business.

I get asked this more than almost any other question. Directors tell me they feel like they are flying a plane through a thick fog; they are moving fast, but they have no idea if they are about to hit a mountain. They have plenty of “busyness” but very little clarity.

In my 45 years of helping businesses, I have learned that you don’t need a hundred-page report to find the sunlight. You just need three numbers. These are the three figures every UK company director should know cold, right now, without looking anything up. If you don’t know them, you aren’t leading; you are just guessing.

Knowing your numbers is the difference between being a chicken, panicked by every shadow, and being a fox who knows exactly where the next opportunity lies.