Theories of Success

There is a lot to think about in business from tiny fiddly details to sweeping strategy, so it is easy to lose focus.  But what should we be focusing on?  That can be a hard question to answer.  Different business gurus will draw your attention in all sorts of different directions.  There are as many recipes for success as there are consultants.

At Co- we use a powerful concept called a Theory of Success to determine what we should focus on.  The Theory of Success is the business owner’s assertion as to what will have their business flourish.  A bit like a recipe, the business owner selects the elements to add to the pot that will add up to success.

It is best explained with an example, so I will share with you Co-’s Theory of Success.  Our theory is that:

If we are:

• On top of the work (responding to queries, sending timely reminders, meeting deadlines)

• Making a difference to our clients businesses (giving good advice, coaching and support)

• Enjoying ourselves (getting fulfilment from our work and enjoying our lives)

• Proudly telling the world about our service (being visible and not being afraid to celebrate the fantastic service we provide)

then our business will flourish.

As you can see the theory is highly subjective.  It is an opinion.  However although it is a subjective opinion, it does something very important.  It tells us where to focus our attention:

On the deadlines, on the emails, on the quality of our advice, on our own wellbeing and our marketing.  Hopefully you will agree it creates at the very least a plausible understanding of what will cause the business to succeed.

As a theory it now needs to be tested and monitored.  The theory will immediately suggest some things we might measure, monitor and manage:

• the number of times we are late with filings

• or make a mistake

• how clients rate our advice

• our own enjoyment

• the reach of our marketing

If we are having success with these things and our business is not flourishing it is time to return to the drawing board.  Our theory is that the metrics that drive our revenue and our profits will fall out of these four elements.  We are drawing a direct line between these drivers and results like, the number of clients, revenue, churn, staff turnover.

It’s important to get our focus right because if we focus on the wrong things we could end up damaging our business.  We have all heard stories where business owners focus solely on efficiencies and destroy customer satisfaction.  The example we like best is that of a business company that decided its success depended on their buses running on time.  They started to manage their drivers performance on the basis of whether they returned to base on time.  What they eventually discovered was that when their drivers fell behind they stopped picking up passengers to try and catch up.

We may need to develop our theory over time.  For many years Co-’s Theory of Success did not include ‘Proudly telling the world about our service’.  We scratched our head as to why we were not growing as fast as other accounting firms.  Now we have added this piece and we’re starting to see results.

One important part of the Theory of Success is that it is individual to our business.  It’s important because what works for one business may be disastrous for another.  

The Christmas period is an excellent time to reflect and as we think about 2026 perhaps it is time to answer the following question:

What will have my business succeed?