In his interview on Bloomberg last Sunday, Tony Seba was talking about the future of energy and how countries are looking today to leverage on the free energy provided by the sun to transform it into renewable energy, and thus shifting from the traditional use of energy produced from oil, petroleum and gas. Furthermore, Tony talked about a mega project built in Morocco over 150,000 sq.ft that will supply energy for more than 2 million person which is half of the Lebanese population. While, on the other side, we are still struggling to get a blueprint of excavating our sea gas, to use some of the resources which we had, when others have already found a replacement.

Tony Seba, is a keynote speaker in the United States and board of advisor for several countries in regards of Solar Energy. From his name, I assumed he’s of a Lebanese origin or at least Middle Eastern and this brought my attention back again on the matter of ‘Thinking BIG’. Was it his environment that aided to his achievements and this way of thinking, or was it his original mindset and big thinking that drove him to this environment and successful outcome – The Chicken or the Egg?

Unfortunately, searching for some good news within our daily newspaper became among the discipline of most of our nation. It even molded people’s perception and mindset that any proactive action won’t lead to any good outcome meanwhile, so it is better to wait and see. But I always believe in the opposite, I trust that

The Chicken or the Egg

Tony was able to aid countries, to go further, excel, and think that big, only when he – like many others – was set in a different environment. What’s so special about that environment? Is it the market and opportunities it offers, the education, or mindset and perception one acquires when integrating oneself in the system that helps to think big and go that far in one’s successes?

Few other questions crossed my mind: Can our government start thinking big before solving the daily problems of its citizens, or before solving their internal political struggles? And can we, as entrepreneurs  think big, if we are still struggling with our daily tasks, stress, problems, and financial challenges?

THINKING BIG

I can assure you that, you won’t find a single country that was able to get all its detailed problems solved before it started to think big; but you will find a lot of countries who had many struggles and went through catastrophic wars but were able to resurrect and succeed rapidly by only thinking big; or even countries who had little role on the business map, and now are considered big players just because of their mindset and clear vision: Singapore and Dubai are good successful examples of those countries.

But in fact, companies who were able to make a LEAP, had one thing in common, they were more like hedgehogs – simple shabby creatures that know “one big thing” and stick to it. The compared companies were more like foxes – crafty, tricky creatures that know many things yet lack consistency.

It is of no coincidence, that the same concept applies in the sales content as well. Based on several international studies conducted, it was proven that companies which grew exponentially and stay ahead of the competition think and execute differently:

1. They address the issue of scalability as their #1 priority: Not focusing on how to get deals and increasing sales revenue, but rather on how to build a system and a body that easily scales up.

2. They perceive their sales organization as a successful anatomy rather than a group of good salespeople: Best in class companies know very well that irrespective of what hiring plans and actions are taken, sales teams will remain in best case divided into 20% top sales performers, 70% middle, and 10% bottom performers. Thus they seek a solution that caters for the entire sales organization, rather than focusing only on hiring top performers.

3. They put their customers first in all their strategies, messaging, and plans.

4. They adopt technology, but they think differently about it: Technology is an accelerator of the momentum rather than a creator.

5. They integrate Science into Selling.