Management by Kraft Dinner

February is often an odd month in my office. Many firms don’t want to do much at all as tax season heats up, while others are struggling with a last-minute panic and need something desperately.

Either way, I welcome February. As the snow builds up and the work slows down for a few weeks, it gives me a chance to ski, and I often take some time out in the month to reflect and do some strategic planning for my own business.

As I started doing some strategic thinking this year, a story from Christmas occurred to me that I thought you might like me to share with you.

It was around 22nd of December, and I was lining up at the grocery store with a cart full of groceries and seasonal goodies, when I noticed the people in front of me in the line. They were all young, about twenty years old, and the four of them moved their cart up to unload it on to the conveyor belt to transport it towards the cashier.

As they unloaded I couldn’t help but notice the contents of their cart. Dried noodles, packet after packet after packet, followed by soup packets and cans, one after the other again.

Then, of course, it was a pile of Kraft Dinner boxes, by the dozen. That gave it away for me. ‘Students!’ I thought to myself, obviously stocking up on Daddy’s credit card before going back to University.

But boy was I wrong.

As I passed my cornflakes, milk and some seasonal treats onto the cashier’s conveyor belt, I saw these four young men going through their wallets and pockets to come up with the $103.26 they had spent. They realized that they had two dollars spare, so one of them went and grabbed more soup to top up their spending.

With three cents change they all smiled at each other and I watched them as they pushed their cart – they got the one with the squeaky wheel that never goes in the same direction as the other three – and they emptied the contents of their cart into the food bank box behind the cashiers.

These guys had obviously spent their own cash and had been as careful to make sure that they bought the right stuff, and spent their entire budget, to make sure that those needier than themselves got to eat something this Christmas. It may not have been turkey and bread sauce, but damn it, these kids had heart.

I am not ashamed to tell you that it brought a lump to my throat.

Then I started thinking that this was a great example of the type of planning, budgeting and execution that we all need in our own businesses, but more often than not we are simply too busy to stop what we’re doing right now, that seems to be so important, to give some time and effort to the bigger picture.

Where is your practice right now? Where was it last year? Has it grown? Has it gone in a different direction? Where do you want your firm to be this time next year, in five years time, in ten?

These are often the issues we never talk about, even with ourselves. But we should.

When tax season is over and you have the 30th June filing deadlines behind you, please, take some time to plan where you want to take your firm in the future, and do the equivalent of what those kids at the grocery store did.

They got their team together, decided what they wanted to achieve, put a budget together, pooled their resources, set a deadline and worked together to gather the supplies.

They achieved their goal and then they went to the bar together to celebrate!

What a great example from four young men. Surely we, as a profession can do at least as well as them?