{"id":3084,"date":"2017-08-31T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=3084"},"modified":"2017-08-28T13:47:47","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T20:47:47","slug":"are-you-or-your-business-time-bankrupt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=3084","title":{"rendered":"Are you or your business \u201ctime bankrupt?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time bankruptcy results from the deliberate over-commitment of core resources.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[wdm_image_effects effect=”no_effect” animation=”zoomIn” shape=”no_shape” color=”#000″ social=”” title=”.” description=”.” id=”3085″ show=”hover” counter=”0″ size=”medium”\/]<\/p>\n

You\u2019d know the symptoms, if not the name.\u00a0 You\u2019re fighting to put out the fires from customer complaints, or incomplete work, or are suffering from an inability to focus upon new development or new customers before cleaning up the mess inside your organization.<\/p>\n

I created the term \u201ctime bankruptcy\u201d almost thirty years ago when the computer software business was young, and I was a software developer building a young company based upon quality first.\u00a0 Asked to speak at software industry events, I found my voice and immediate audience understanding as I described variants of these problems to my audience. The insight became clearer as I was hired again and again to pick up the pieces of failed programming efforts by other software companies in this then young industry.<\/p>\n

Here is one example:\u00a0 You take on a new customer, customize programs or services as needed, and install perhaps an 80% completed system, product or service. The customer pays for all or at least 90% of the bill, perhaps holding back a retainer awaiting completion.<\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here…]<\/em> <\/span>\u00a0Burning through the payment and needing more to cover fixed overhead, you do the same partial task for the next 80% customer, moving on to the third.\u00a0 About that time, the first would call asking for completion, firmly but politely.\u00a0 The fourth installation was interrupted as the first customer suggested that he would stop giving glowing recommendations for you, insisting upon a completion date, while the second customer interrupted with its first call for completion.\u00a0 By the fifth or sixth (who keeps count for these stories?)<\/em>, the first threatens suit, the second becomes demanding and the third makes that expected call for a completion date.\u00a0 So, you stop work on the newest product or installation to complete unfinished work.\u00a0 Revenues dry up while overhead continues to burn though your pockets.\u00a0 It\u2019s a classic case of time bankruptcy.\u00a0 You have deliberately overcommitted your prime or core resources (in this case personal time) leading to a loss of income and reputation that you cannot easily recover.<\/p>\n

The same story could be constructed for any company selecting a limited number of test customers for a new product. Select too many, and pay too little attention to each.\u00a0 Commit all your core resources to solving the resulting problem, and new work stops.\u00a0 Time bankruptcy. Not a pretty sight, and completely avoidable.<\/p>\n

Be aware of this trap.\u00a0 No-one but yourself can be blamed for allowing core resources to be overcommitted, even if by subordinates.\u00a0 That\u2019s because you now know the term and the impact of such an error in judgment, and understand that the simple but important remedy is to slow the commitment of those most critical resources to the front lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time bankruptcy results from the deliberate over-commitment of core resources. [wdm_image_effects effect=”no_effect” animation=”zoomIn” shape=”no_shape” color=”#000″ social=”” title=”.” description=”.” id=”3085″ show=”hover” counter=”0″ size=”medium”\/] You\u2019d know the symptoms, if not the name.\u00a0 You\u2019re fighting to put out the fires from customer complaints, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-protecting-the-business"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}