CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

Back in the days when we were in school (be it high school, secondary school or maybe even the
first year at the university) we were thought that all living things (including man) had certain
characteristics that distinguishes them from the couch, piece of paper or even the internet. These
characteristics are the typical features or qualities that stand you out from the non-living things.
So also a successful business has the same!! A successful business has characteristics (just like
living things) that stands it out from a business that is dead, about to die or is just surviving.
The characteristics of a successful business is the same as that attributed to living things except
for one part – whereas living things grow old and die, a successful business grows and does not
die. It continues to live on and gets better, expands as it gets older.

The characteristics of a successful business are 8 distinct features that are abbreviated as – MR
NIGER S. Below are the 8 characteristics of a successful business:

1. M – movement
2. R – respiration
3. N – nutrition
4. I – irritability
5. G – growth
6. E – excretion
7. R – reproduction
8. S – succession

All successful businesses must have the features or qualities listed above and in abundance too.
Just like man a business is born and when this happens it must exhibit the qualities of
succession.

• Movement – All successful businesses must be flexible enough and should be able to
move (not necessarily it location) but most definitely from one stage or phase of its
business life to another. Just like the plants move towards light and food, successful
businesses must determine its source of energy and strength, growth and nutrition and
move towards it.
• Respiration - successful businesses must be able to respire i.e. breathe. It must be full of
a particular feeling or quality that will stand it out from the competition at all times.
Your clients or customers) as well as employees and partners must be charmed by the
quality of your business and services, loyal because they have that feeling of been a part
of your dream and not just an outsider looking in. Also a successful business should be
able to let life pass in and out of it, ensuring that at every point in time it is not choked or
devoid of the very source of why it is existing.
• Nutrition – Food is very important to life and so successful business businesses must
feed regularly to ensure growth and survival. For a successful business its main source
of food include investment, its people, raw materials for bringing out the products for
which a lack of all or any of it at any time will mean that the business will die from
starvation. There must be constant flow of investment (finance) to ensure that the
business has is able to get the right people and raw materials.
• Irritability – there are so many factors that can affect how we do business or how we
grow in the business we do. They can either be external factors (government policies,
competition, customer needs, among others) or internal (management, employees, goals
and vision). These factors can affect businesses in different ways and successful
businesses must be able to respond to them and develop ways to work with them,
around them or through them. These characteristic also determines how we are able to
adapt or react to the changes that can come up at any time within and from outside our
businesses.
• Growth – well for all of life it is impossible to stay in one stage forever, therefore all
successful businesses must grow. They must move from the idea stage to the startup
stage then to the existing and growing business, after this they should be able to count
growth in years and branches as well as staff strength and investment. The successful
business is able to grow in a lot of ways and we must determine what this is for our
businesses.
• Excretion – waste is a part of life and passing out waste is important. The successful
business must be able to determine what the wastes are and get rid of them so that they
don’t become toxic to it and in other words be the death of it. After feeding all nutrients
that are not digested or useful must be removed from the system to give room for
growth and expansion. This could be staff that is not pulling his weight, products that
are not making any profit, investors that are destroying the vision of the business
whatever the waste is please ensure that it is removed from the system.
• Reproduction – “be fruitful, multiply and fill the whole earth” this is a command for
man and is the same for a successful business. All successful businesses must be able to
reproduce young ones of its kind and to expand. The ability to reproduce includes
developing new products, starting a new branch, staring a franchise, or starting a new
company entirely while the other is still growing. This is essential or else the business
would get to a stage and die off.
• Succession – like man every business needs an heir. The linage of the business must
continue for all eternity otherwise no matter how much the business has grown if there
is no plan for succession then the business will die with the owner or creator. If the
father dies without an heir or naming an heir then the name of that family will either die
 with him or their will be a power struggle among those who feel it’s their right to be the
heir apparent and this might result is the same thing – death of the business.

These characteristics will ensure that your business is there for generations to come and still
going strong. So therefore check your business today to see if you are lacking in any of these
and make amends as is appropriate.