The Global Language Monitor as of January 1, 2014 estimates the number of words in the English language at 1,025,109.

Is it possible to select 2 words (out of the million or so) that can be viewed universally by all business leaders as the most crucial words?  If someone asks you to pick the 2 most essential words, how would you even begin to identify them?

Let’s start brainstorming a few potential important words in business: Growth, Profits, People, Customers, Innovation, Differentiation, Strategy, Core Purpose, Competitive Advantage, Quality, Values, Market Share, Solutions, Excellence, Culture, Execution, Cash, Collaboration, Alignment, Vision, Leadership, Momentum, Service, Experience, Discipline, Resilience, Customer Delight, Gross Margin, Valuation,…

We can go on for a while adding a lot more important words and I am sure each of you can come up with many more. Our challenge though is to narrow it down and pick just two that are most crucial, important, fundamental, vital, critical and essential words in business.

Most Important Word #1 of 2: Results

Business success is about getting results. It is unfortunate that most businesses fall well below accomplishing their full potential due to a lack of focus or inability to get results. Business success involves creating a compelling strategy, focusing on a handful of priorities, identifying key metrics to measure and report on, and establishing an effective communication rhythm. It is about executing on the priorities and achieving them on a consistent basis. Priorities should cover more than just financials to also include priorities around organizational development, customers and operational excellence. Business success must measured by getting Results in each and every aspects of running the business and this is why Results is one of the two most important words in business.

If “results” is one of two most important words in business, what is the second one?  Please stay tuned for my next post to find out.