Failure is a learning experience, but some companies don't live long
enough to benefit from the lessons. Unfortunately, there's no way to
stave off defeat indefinitely. Once a business is growing and testing
its limits, there will invariably be failure coming out of it to help
the enterprise redirect its growth. When a company experiences failure,
however, bouncing back should be its primary concern.
Unfortunately, there isn't any roadmap to help companies bounce back
from some types of failure. Instead, they're left trying to figure out
the most effective way to reorient themselves while still learning from
the lessons the project imparted to them. Below, 16 members of Forbes Business Council look at the best way for a business to bounce back from what may seem like a devastating defeat.
Failure is a learning opportunity. Be completely honest and reflective.
Assess what caused the failure. Was it operations, reliance on a
significant customer, a vendor or technology? Once you assess it, then
discuss how you may learn from that and improve upon it so as not to let
that failure define you. Failure is often fortunate—more growth comes
from learning from our failures.
- Marty McCarthy, CPA, CCIFP,
McCarthy & Company, PCAim to reset the paradigm. Uninterrupted success can be dangerous to a
business, creating a sense of invincibility and lack of innovation.
Thomas Edison thrived on failure. The key is to look at failure as part
of the journey, not something to fear or bounce back from. The most
important key is the initial mindset. Needed clarity, planning and a
course forward are then possible.
- Ryan Weissmueller, Fintrepid SolutionsMany times, business leaders are influenced by new and exciting ideas
that take them away from their core expertise. This causes them to
venture into new pathways with the prospect of business expansion. If an
initiative fails, it's time to advance the core, not advance new
pathways. Establishing the single thing that the team are experts in,
helps this focus on the "expert zone” of the business.
- Catherine Mattiske, TPC - The Performance CompanyFailure is only failure if you don't learn from it. You actually learn
more from failure than you do from success. Sometimes failure is simply
due to not timing the idea correctly, so implement the idea at a later
date or with a different market. Evaluate the mistake, figure out if it
was an execution issue and get different people involved. The key is to
determine the cause of failure.
- Joselin Mane, LITBeL Consulting, LLCDo not look for someone or something to cast blame on. Blaming one of
your team members for the failure can kill future innovation in your
company. Do your best to learn from the failure as a team. Even the most
well-prepared, well-thought-out and executed ideas can simply fail in
the marketplace.
- Jordan Smith, Jet DentalThe best way to bounce back from failure is to not look back. Take the
time to understand what worked well and what did not, fine-tune your
approach moving forward and hit the ground running again—not making the
same mistake twice. In addition, ask for help. No one person or company
can do everything alone. Tap into your network and let people know how
they can best help you.
- Scott Samson, SamsonPRBe willing to try, fail and try again and again. Failure is fertilizer,
and fertilizer is what you need to grow to your full potential. You will
have regrets, and that’s not only okay, it’s expected. Regrets are a
component of failure and failure gives us the fuel and the life lessons
to successfully complete the mission. If you don’t have any regrets, you
aren’t trying hard enough.
- Jason Van Camp, Mission Six ZeroRemind yourself who you are and why you are doing what you do. Regroup,
research and educate yourself more on your industry. Examine and reflect
on what went wrong, and make changes. Most importantly, believe in
yourself and don't give up.
- Mitra Ahouraian, Ahouraian LawYou can do this by embracing a “win or learn” mindset. Allow your team
to use failure as a learning experience and take time to reflect on the
failure and the learning opportunity therein. We believe in failing
forward. Not every idea is going to be great, but we learn from our
failures to improve upon our ideas.
- Ryan Simonetti, ConveneYou are unable to run a business doing the same things for years. In
order to grow, you should constantly verify new ideas. The more ideas
you verify, the better for the business. Just make sure that you start
simple with clear expectations in terms of result and time frame. If
expectations are not met, drop it and start with a new one. If results
are positive, add more resources to keep it growing.
- Sergej Derzap, AmastyYou tried something and it didn’t work out. Now it’s all about the
recovery. Sit in the failure just long enough to learn from it and then
move on to the next idea, channeling your resources elsewhere. Promote a
“fail-forward” mentality by encouraging your team to continue feeling
comfortable taking risks. This way, mistakes lead to growth rather than
permanent defeat.
- Chuck Hengel, Marketing ArchitectsGet close to the data and communicate change. Every organization
experiences failure, but people want to follow leaders and organizations
that are constantly learning. The more an organization understands,
both at a macro and micro level, the better they can respond and bounce
back. Leverage meaningful data across key perspectives to make quick,
strategic changes—and then communicate!
- Sabrina Shafer, Transformation ContinuumIt is very important to find ideas that solve a common problem and then
figure out how to commercialize and scale that solution. To bounce back
after experiencing failure, you must spend time with the market you are
targeting, get to the root of that market and find out from the source.
Sometimes this means offering your product or service for free in
exchange for feedback and reviews.
- Kadeen Mairs, Dolla Financial ServicesYou have to maintain focus on your ultimate goal. You must put the
failure in context as to how it relates to your ultimate goal. This will
give you perspective. You will see at the end that it’s not necessarily
a failure but a mere setback. Learn the cause of your setback and keep
moving toward your goal.
- Brian Diaz, Pacifico Group, IncFailure is part of the journey. Each failure should be looked at as a
stepping stone to success. Be cognizant of blind spots. Things don't
always pan out the right way. We all have tunnel vision given our
experiences. With each failure, we gain more experience which should
build a learning curve to pave the way for success. Companies should
analyze metrics and build trends to avoid tunnel vision.
- Manish Chachada, Cyble, IncFailure is inevitable in business and life. The key is how to respond,
react and learn from the experience. The company should look inward,
determine what failed in the process or what internal circumstances may
have allowed an outside influence to damage their business. Our team and
stakeholders help us find creative solutions that we have not
considered.
- Anthony Luna, Coastline Equity