Do One Thing and Do It Well: Start by Doing One Thing Right
By Clark Roundy, Luxul Wireless VP of Marketing
There’s a maxim in the Unix programming philosophy that says programmers should “write programs that do one thing and do it well.” It’s a beautiful philosophy, and one that can be applied to almost anything in life. In business, if you can’t do that one primary function well, you certainly won’t survive to do another. It sounds simple, but the reality is that many companies struggle with this concept—oftentimes not even recognizing their primary function—and never seem to reach their potential. With that in mind, for some organizations, perhaps the initial goal should be to first clearly identify their primary function and learn do it right on an ongoing basis—then it becomes easier to focus on improvement to do that one thing better than anyone else.
Every time I see a manager or a company fail to do their primary function right, I wonder how they got to be where they are and how much better they could be with the right focus. Here are some real-world examples to illustrate the point:
According to the Wall Street Journal, the captain of a commuter plane that crashed near Buffalo, N.Y. in February had flunked numerous flight tests and was not adequately trained to respond to the stall prevention warning system. 50 people were killed in that accident. The one thing an airline needs to do right is get passengers safely from one place to another. I’m not saying that’s easy—but I’m pretty sure it includes having qualified and adequately trained pilots.
Some years ago I joined a technology startup. I soon learned that development on a particular project had stalled. Management couldn’t understand what was wrong and the VCs were getting restless. In digging a bit deeper, it turned out that marketing had specified a product for which engineering felt that the market window had collapsed and they were less than excited to be working on the project.
At another company, the opposite occurred. The engineers were designing and building what they wanted to sell—and not necessarily what customers wanted to buy. They thought the customers were all idiots. Where was marketing while all this was going on? Isn’t a company’s primary function to provide a product or service that customers want?
My advice for business owners, entrepreneurs, managers, and marketers: First, figure out the most important thing you should be doing. Then, never forget that doing that one thing—and doing it right on an ongoing basis—is priority one. Your success depends on it.
About Clark Roundy, Luxul Wireless VP of Marketing
Clark Roundy is VP of Marketing at Luxul Wireless. Throughout his 20 year career, Mr. Roundy has worked extensively with early stage and emerging companies to identify core competencies and implement key growth strategies. In his role at Luxul Wireless, Mr. Roundy is responsible for marketing strategy and oversees all outbound marketing programs as well as product and brand management.
Prior to joining Luxul Wireless, Mr. Roundy has held key executive positions at Linux Networx, Penguin Computing, Parvus Corporation, Alta Technology, and the Eyring Research Institute. Because of his diversity, his roles have included sales and marketing leadership, strategic planning, business and partner development, product management, and professional services program development. He also has an affinity and aptitude for international business, having managed and built sales, service, and supply chain organizations within Asia, Europe, and South America.
Mr. Roundy is well recognized as a key contributor to the development of the Linux cluster marketplace—a technology that has revolutionized the traditional supercomputing industry. He holds multiple patents related to Linux clustering. Mr. Roundy is a graduate of Brigham Young University.
The views presented in this blog are solely those of the blog post author and not necessarily those of Utah Business.
Tags: priorities, specialization