I was reviewing some of my posts over the last year and thought it would be a good idea to add to this story (the original is included below for ease of reference).

The Fable – Part 2

The CEO reflects on the past year….

The journey to master entrepreneur has no fixed destination. It is a quest for personal growth and development and there are many paths and many places you can end up. There is still a lot to learn and as you learn more, you realize there is even more to learn. Only you can decide when you've arrived.

Matters got more complex as the world headed into a recession and governments collectively spent trillions of dollars to buy their way out of the financial mess. But that is out of the control of most CEOs and you can only focus on your part of the world, the part you have any influence over. Survive and then try to thrive in a changing world.

There comes a point in time when you realize you will not be a master of everything needed. You need to find others who can share your journey.

Such was the case recently for this CEO. He promoted some staff members internally and thereby freed up time and energy for focusing "on the business". He took on the role of business development. Not in the sense of a synonym for sales but in the sense of building businesses within the business… products/services, delivery processes, sales and marketing, everything to run the business and the business within the business.

Since that time he also realized that a great business needs to either find or develop great people to lead the business and run its critical functions. Some functions work ok with new hires and minimal experience, but our industry is not quite like that. Since it is getting very hard to find good or exceptional talent, essentially, a business function is needed to develop people in alignment with your long-term strategy.

IT consulting revenue is often cyclical and relies on a constant stream of sales. So the CEO has been working on launching products and related services that are sold on a recurring subscription model. These product and services also will tie into the consulting work and vice versa.

The first of these initiatives is due for release this summer.

There is still much to do and the story continues…