This summer TachYons is 10 years old!

We will of course celebrate that, because we are proud of it. It’s also a time to think a little more existentially. Why do we still exist after 10 years and what will we do in the coming years?

We get inspiration from, among other things, ‘Infinite Game’, the book by Simon Sinek from 2018. We had been around for about four years then. My partner Jack said that I would find the book interesting because it largely fits our way of working and thinking.

Our Infinite Game is making B2B organizations measurably more successful. If you find it interesting to know how we fill in the 5 pillars of an Infinite Game, I will gladly explain it to you in this article (reading time 5 minutes).

Why TachYons isn’t in a Finite game

According to Sinek, TachYons is not in a Finite Game, because there is no beginning and no end, there are no fixed rules and there are no fixed opponents. In order to have a long-term right to exist, we should not focus on winning the game, not even on defeating an opponent. We must continuously improve. Improving What we do and How we do it, we even need to keep considering Why we do it. The ‘Infinite Game’ is also the successor to the book ‘Start with Why’.

Just Cause

Before we started TachYons, we had already decided that we wanted Strategy as the starting point for all the projects we work on. We see that entrepreneurs and managers are often forced by circumstances to work mainly on the short term. However, this is dangerous in the long run.

We want to understand what the long-term objectives of a client are, what the target groups are and how the client can be mutually successful with those customers in the long term. Of course, projects often have a short-term goal, but we want to understand why and how that fits into the long-term goal.

Connecting tactical projects to strategic goals can sometimes lead to difficult discussions, such is life. Uncomfortable discussions often lead to better choices. Without friction no shine.

We are honest about the level of success we expect and honest when we think the goal is not attainable. As a result, we also missed out on projects, but we did not lose a customer because of it.

Trusting Team

In the beginning we didn’t want any employees at all. The agreement was to be part of the clients’ teams. We wanted to help convert long-term objectives into executable plans and actually start those plans in their organization.

We still do that, but we now have colleagues and not just a flexible shell. By the way, that is an example of Existential Flexibility, but more on that later.

Whether we work with a customer, at a customer or for a customer, we are honest with each other. We don’t know everything, that’s why we work together and learn from each other. We make mistakes, we admit it and point out mistakes without blaming each other. That is sometimes painful and difficult of course. However, that makes it easier to admit it yourself if you have made a mistake or that you do not know how to approach a project.

Having Worthy Rivals

There is an almost infinite number of competitors in B2B marketing, business development and lead generation. Some of them do partly the same as us and they will regularly do better than us. Good for them!

We respect competitors, just as we respect organizations that do it all themselves (with their own people). We respect competitors, just as we respect organizations that do it all themselves (with their own people).

Nevertheless, we stick to our own starting points and will only adjust our basis based on our own experiences and insights. This is without a doubt the slowest development in our company.

Existential Flexibility

We are not blind to developments over which we have no influence. In the beginning, therefore, our focus was much more on the strategy. It was only after a few years that we shifted the focus to making that strategy operational. The prevailing management style and remuneration structures focused more and more on the short term. As a result, the focus on the long term often fell victim to the issue of the month. By focusing on making the strategy operational, we added more value and remained true to our starting point.

We have also decided to hire employees after all. We did this because we wanted to have a better grip on the quality of structural work on our client’s strategic goals. In this way, our customer can allow himself to be carried away by the issues of the day, while structurally working on growth for the coming quarters and years.

Tooling has taken on an increasingly important role, as has the collection and analysis of data. That is why we have adapted our working method and summarized it in S.T.I.G. Strategy, Tooling, Insight, Growth (or Behavioral Change).

We no longer do the same as 10 years ago and we no longer do it in the same way as 10 years ago. Yet we do achieve the same for our customers. We have been doing that for some customers for almost 10 years and hopefully we will do it for them for another 10 years.

Courage to Lead

We do not work with rules, but with objectives and best practices. Does anyone want to try another way. Please! This applies to both our own employees and customers.

Are we faced with a choice? Then we choose what is best for the customer, even if the customer actually asks for something else. Natuurlijk vertellen we dat wel en leggen we uit waarom. We choose what is best for the customer, even if it is not best for ourselves. I’m sure that’s one of the reasons some customers have been customers for 10 years.

We know that we don’t know everything. We know that we don’t know everything. We try, measure and analyze what we do. We change what can be improved and keep what is going well. We will keep researching, trying and improving as long as we are in this game. Without looking for an end.