Maintaining Nature’s Balance
It’s August, and it’s vacation time. It’s also the hottest time of year. Maybe this is why the indoor playgrounds scene is blooming. Wherever you go, you see new fancy playgrounds with cool equipment, numerous activities for children, and don’t forget a quiet corner for parents to relax with a cup of coffee.
So today, after almost two weeks of going with our two-year-old son to the zoo, to the pool, to picnics, and God knows what else, we decided to find a shelter from the burning heat in one of those fancy and well air-conditioned playgrounds.
Now, I have a confession: I hate overcrowded places. There are some places, especially in this time of the year, that seem to be competing for the Guinness world record in squeezing people into a closed space. So you can imagine how relieved I was when the playground was half-empty when we arrived. I didn’t really think this would last long, so I decided to enjoy it while it lasted.
But then, about ten minutes after we arrived, I had a revelation. The owner of the establishment closed the doors and kindly explained to the people who kept coming that he would not be able to let them in. I looked around me. The place was still half-empty, yet people were not allowed in. It was a strange scene, but to the people already inside this was a great relief. My fear that my quality time was limited was now gone.
I was still curious, though. So I approached the owner and asked him why he wasn’t letting people in. As I expected, he told me that he didn’t want the place to be overcrowded. I then asked him how the people who couldn’t get in reacted to this new concept. To my surprise, he said they completely understood his desire to maintain a reasonable capacity and to provide quality time for the children who were already playing inside. They even promised him they would come back tomorrow in an earlier hour.
When you think of it, it makes perfect sense. This is exactly how things are in nature. Nature maintains a fine balance between species’ desire to reproduce, and the availability of resources to enable this growth of population. When food, water, or shelter is running low, population growth slows down to enable the survival of the existing animals. When the resource is available again, population will grow again. In most cases, this balance is achieved naturally.
There’s a lot we can learn from nature when it comes to running a business or a project. When asked, most business owners will say they want more customers, more contracts, and more projects. Many marketing people will agree that “more features” is a desired goal for the majority of their products.
A business is in fact a small-scale ecosystem. In order to survive it must maintain a fine balance between the number of customers, features, and projects at any given time and the availability of resources.
Having more customers sounds like a good business move. In reality, however, it might break the fine balance in your ecosystem. Existing customers will not get the quality of service they expect. New customers will also be frustrated by your business performance. The result might be devastating. And the same applies to implementing more features than your team can currently handle.
I know this is not easy to do, and in some sense it’s counterintuitive, but there is a good chance that if you reject some new customers on the account that you will not be able to provide them with the quality of service they expect, you and your business will be appreciated for it. Not only will your existing customers appreciate the fact that you want to serve them in the best possible manner, your “rejected customers” will appreciate your honesty and professionalism. They might even decide to wait until you can do business with them again. But even if they don’t, your good reputation will provide you other business opportunities in the future.
More is not always merrier. Maintaining a reasonable balance in your ecosystem is important both to your customers and to your business. I know I will definitely return to the playground I visited today. I will do my best to arrive there early, but if by any chance I find myself outside locked doors, I will appreciate the business for maintaining its quality standard. And I will come back.
Fewer customers sometimes means happier customers. And happier customers are always good for business.
