(Quoted from Marshall Atkinson at atkinsontshirt.com. Full article here.)
Let’s pretend you had to choose between “Direction” and “Speed” as the one attribute for your business to obtain success.  Sure, it’s a ridiculous argument, as there are obviously more to making a company successfulthan one buzzword attribute…but that’s the fun of debate isn’t it?  Pick a crazy premise and argue.
Which do you think will win that battle?
Direction pertains to having your company moving in the right direction for success.  It’s all about alignment. You have your company built to serve a particular customer base.  The equipment and consumables you use perfectly performs the work.  Your staff has clear expectations about how to serve the customers and make those orders sing.  Like a seasoned captain, you make course corrections to keep the ship traveling towards success.
Speed is all about beating the clock.  If the order was due to ship Thursday, can it ship Wednesday instead?  Can you beat the competition to the finish line and win the race?  In a market with ever decreasing turn times, can you go from a five-to-seven business day turn to two-or-three?  To get that speed, what sacrifices must you make to obtain that goal?  Will you have to invest more money to get that speed?  Faster usually equals technology, different equipment, more automation, less people.  There’s an app for that.  Or at least there could be.
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