How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

2. Make the Bottom Line the Point
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone whose intentions seem
other than stated? Sometimes the situation reflects intentional deception. But it
can also occur when the person doesn’t know his own bottom line.
The same thing happens in companies. Sometimes, for example, an
idealistically stated mission and the real bottom line don’t jibe. Purpose and
profits compete. Earlier, I quoted George W. Merck, who stated, “We try never
to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits
follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear.” He
probably made that statement to remind those in his organization that profits
serve
purpose—they don’t compete with it.
If making a profit were the real bottom line, and helping people merely
provided the means for achieving it, then the company would suffer. Its attention
would be divided, and it would neither help people as well as it could nor make
as much profit as it desired.

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3. Create a Strategic Plan to Achieve the Bottom Line
Bottom-line thinking achieves results. Therefore, it naturally follows that any
plans that flow out of such thinking must tie directly to the bottom line—and
there can be only one, not two or three. Once the bottom line has been
determined, a strategy must be created to achieve it. In organizations, that often
means identifying the core elements or functions that must operate properly to
achieve the bottom line. This is the leader’s responsibility.
The important thing is that when the bottom line of each activity is achieved,
then THE bottom line is achieved. If the sum of the smaller goals doesn’t add up
to the real bottom line, then either your strategy is flawed or you’ve not
identified your real bottom line.

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