2517 Losing Sight of the Goal: A Lesson from My Shisha Business

We often miss our goals when outcomes deviate from expectations. In those moments, it's tempting to reach for quick fixes—like patching a deep wound with a band-aid. But these stopgap measures rarely work. They fail because they don’t address the root causes, and more often than not, they lack a foundation in fact-based analysis.

Take my own experience with our shisha business. We’ve been hovering at the break-even point, so I asked our store manager, Kenji, for ideas on how to pivot toward stable profitability. Kenji, aware that our current status doesn’t inspire confidence among stakeholders, proposed a couple of ideas.

One was to partner with local companies and offer shisha sessions as part of their employee benefits—essentially a B2B approach to build a stable income base. The other was to provide consulting services for café operators.

Honestly, both suggestions made me uncomfortable. While creative, they felt misaligned with our original goal: to grow a high-quality shisha and café business. Especially the consulting idea—it’s simply too early. We’re still refining our own operations; it’s premature to advise others. He had a few other proposals as well, but none were grounded in the core objective we set for this fiscal year.

I shared my concerns with Kenji and reminded him of the balanced scorecard we created last month. I didn’t have to say much—Kenji is a sharp and capable team member. He immediately realized his proposals had strayed from the KPIs and strategic direction we had agreed upon. This is precisely why setting clear KPIs and aligning them with our mission, vision, and values (MVV) is so important. They serve as our compass.

I also encouraged him to revisit the business books I had previously recommended. He agreed, even saying he would purchase and read them. That small act reflects the kind of shared learning culture we’re trying to build.

This episode illustrates how easy it is to drift from your original purpose—to fall into what I call “the cliff.” We forget our golden rules, lose our direction, and end up reacting instead of acting. But having a well-defined MVV, clear goals, and measurable KPIs keeps us anchored.

I’m now reflecting on how to truly turn our business around, not through detours, but by returning to the fundamentals we committed to at the beginning of this fiscal year.