Do You Keep Score?
August 2nd, 2007 | Michael Q. Pink
When you play golf, do you keep score? When your favorite football team lines up against another opponent, do you care if they keep score or are you content just to see the boys having a good time? I think not.
Then why is it inappropriate to keep score in business? Why do so many believers feel that keeping financial scorecards is somehow wrong? Do we track how many acts of good sportsmanship we see on the field of play in a football game? Of course, we admire good sportsmanship and should always exhibit that, but it is not the goal. Winning is.
Until you know it is okay to win in business and you make plans to do so AND you track the right scorecards, you won’t win in business. Financial scorecards are NOT the only important scorecards in business, but they are imperative nonetheless. Don’t back away from those. Know your revenues. Know your margins. Strive for profit. The other things like great service and ethical behavior are no less important and should be a top priority because they, in fact, are the very kinds of things that actually generate profit - over the long term. How can one be a good steward over finances without tracking them and improving their performance?
More next time.
Digg This Share This
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:03 am
You are on target. There is a reason Proverbs exhorts us to “keep watch over our flocks and herds, for riches do not endure forever”. And as I learned the hard way, keep watch of the “under shepherds” of those flocks and herds as well.
As we say in West Texas, “Trust your neighbour, but build a good fence”.
No one seems to fault a farmer for knowing how many acres he plants and knowing what kind of crop he expects to harvest. They don’t even seem to mind if he counts the cotton bales he produces. Aren’t we all farming something? Preparing, planting, watering, nurturing, and with a rightful expectation of a harvest and the rightful hope of an abundant harvest, even though we don’t always see one. ( re; droughts, hailstorms, floods, etc.) but we trust “the Lord of the Harvest”.
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:54 am
Dear friend
Unfortunately, I have not got a website up and running because I was looking for some free space and some advice on how to build a website and put it on line.
This would be just while I got going on my venture.
Does it matter that I am a resident of the United Kingdom??
God bless Keith
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
I think financial numbers are necessary to be good stewards of our (really God’s) businesses. However, because of our human nature, the numbers often overtake the other, more important aspects of faithful stewardship. If we define the game of business as “winning” in the same way that the secular world does, we usually end up playing by the world’s rules and not God’s. It is analogous to a high school football coach getting too hung up on winning and not putting the priority on the character development of young adults. If he teaches them life long lessons that will impact society for years to come, he will have accomplished much more than a conference championship. Of course, the coach needs to win on the scoreboard enought to keep his job (his influence platform). However, I believe that being a good coach (just like being a good business executive) is good stewardship. Winning in business, as in sports, is not the best measure of success, especially if success is defined as faithfulness to our Lord. By the way, we have been blessed with expnential growth in our business this year (this is not a “loser’s perspective). Nonetheless, I believe we need to adopt this mindset in “good times” and in times of adversity.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:49 am
You are so right. God wants us to do everything with excellence and that includes business. After all, by recording their success in the Bible, God kept the score of many including Joseph and Solomon.
Jon Hanna
Christian Blue Pages Business Directory
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:18 am
Brothers and Sisters,
Please provide your feedback to my struggle. How does one show humility and kindness in the business world, living amongst the wolves, the compulsive, unwise peers and customers. I am a Barnabas by nature, but struggle when I meet hardlined, pushy go getters that are after # 1.
I take the serve first approach to success, but I am not seeing fruit.
I press on. Good selling all!!
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:24 am
Len: Can you share with us how you are handling it now?
August 2nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm
through prayer, growing in confidence to handle conflict, sometimes patience with certain people, serving others needs, confronting if needed.
This being said salespeople in general will use you to do their work in my opinion.
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:33 am
Sports is a bad analogy for business as it relates to Christianity.
Sports scores don’t mean a hill of beans. The financial “scores” or numbers do matter for the health of the business. Also, business is not about winning in a sports sense because there either winners and losers in a particular game. In business, all can be winners - financially successful - it’s not an either or.
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
about numbers I am yet thinking… however, a step in right direction might be in Acts 9. Dorcas brought back to life by the Spirit at Peters hand was known for both good deeds and the quality of her work.
The widows lament included evidence of Dorcas alms deeds and her workmanship,
“(v39…and all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.”
back to a different take on numbers, I will offer a suggestion that todays coats and garments are financial statements, at least for those in business. I recently read “Financial Intelligence” (Berman/Knight, HBS Press) and intend to use it in the future in my Operations courses to tie together the operations (OM) to the balance sheet. Financially speaking now, isn’t each organization different… yet each executive and manager ought to know… as someone here wrote, “the condition of your flocks and herds.” and for business that means having a thorough-going understanding of the numbers and plans derived thereby making best use of what the numbers are telling us.