“If you think you can do better, why don’t you just do it yourself?” That’s what my superior told me years ago. So I did.
When I offered strategic technology consultancy services as a subcontractor, my superior once told me: “Why are you always so critical of the people and the businesses we assign you to?” What I think he should have added, for drama purposes, is: “You’re acting like you own the damn place!” Either way, my reply was: “That’s because I imagine I own the place.”
Only years later, I learned that this is one of Warren Buffett’s go-to pieces of advice: “think like an owner.”
If you want to help a business, really imagine what it’s like being the owner. Create an empathic understanding of what the owner might go through daily and take that as a starting point for optimization possibilities.