Oranges and Apples

A farmer planted an orange tree and when it bore the fruit he invited people to come and pick the oranges and buy them. The people in the community came and said that the oranges were not what they wanted as the oranges were too sour. They said that they wanted apples because they would be sweeter than the oranges. So the farmer pulled all the oranges off the tree and secured apples to the branches of the tree to make it an apple tree and invited the community back. Everyone loved the apples and promised to be back next season for more sweet apples.

The problem was that the next season, the farmers tree produced oranges instead of apples.

This parable follows a core belief that I have about "Roots and Fruits". The root will determine the fruit not the other way round. We can easily mask the fruits but inevitably the same fruits will return. So many businesses and leaders in business miss this important truth and principle. A company may be able to pretend and show profitability for a period or season, but inevitably the companies results will continue.

What is core in the business and how it operates and generates decisions will be the evidence that is seen. If a business or business leader wishes for a change, like the farmer would have to plant a new tree for the different fruit, the business needs to look at changing the root issues. This will bring about long term and sustainable change.

Change the root and not the fruit!