posted by Andrew Hartley - Business Consultant & Entrepreneur on May 20
The Directional Gyro - a.k.a. Heading Indicator - is used by a pilot to determine an aircraft’s heading. It actually uses a gyroscope, which allows it to maintain its position in space as the aircraft “rotates” around it. This allows the Heading Indicator to always show the correct heading to the pilot.
Why not use a compass? All aircraft are equipped with a standard magnetic compass as well; however, these compasses are nearly impossible to use while maneuvering. Want to experiment? Grap any free-floating compass (in an aircraft they are actually liquid filled - they used to be called “whiskey compasses”), then manuever it like an aircraft turns, leaning (or “banking”) it to the left as you turn it left (or leaning it to the right as you turn right). See how the compass doesn’t want to “lean” with its container? This causes false readings during turns or accelleration/deceleration. The Heading Indicator doesn’t suffer from these limitations.
So what does this have to do with business? Well, Mahesha hit it right on the nose in her comment to last week’s post. All business is planning - just like aviation. You plan your flight - you plan your business (or at least you SHOULD). To have a successful flight, you need to know ahead of time where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. It’s the same in business (and anything you do in life) - as Lawrence J. Peter said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” So the heading indicator helps a pilot who knows where she is going make sure she is still on course to reach her destination. Just as a business plan helps an entrepreneur get where he is going.
Let me clarify before I end this post - if a pilot does not look at the heading indicator, it doesn’t do him any good. On the same token, if an entrepreneur doesn’t go back and reference her business plan to make sure she is still on the right track with where she wants her business to go and what she wants her business to be, it won’t do her any good either.
Other ideas? What do you see as YOUR “Heading Indicator?” Tell us by leaving a comment!
Fair Winds,
Andrew
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