Introduction
Every business looks reasonably healthy when nothing is being tested.
Employees appear committed.
Managers seem capable.
Customers appear loyal.
Suppliers seem dependable.
Business partners appear aligned.
Systems appear adequate.
And the organisation can give the impression that everything is functioning well enough.
Then something changes.
Growth accelerates.
Margins tighten.
A major customer leaves.
A new CEO arrives.
A strategic plan introduces tougher priorities.
Accountability increases.
The organisation restructures.
Performance expectations rise.
Technology changes.
A downturn arrives.
Or someone finally starts asking harder questions.
And suddenly, problems that seemed invisible begin appearing everywhere.
People who looked capable begin struggling.
Employees who claimed commitment resist change.
Weak systems start breaking.
Poor performers become defensive.
Managers blame one another.
Hidden conflicts surface.
Unprofitable customers become obvious.
Bad processes can no longer cope.
And individuals who seemed entirely comfortable while expectations were low begin showing precisely what they are made of.
That is what I mean by:
Shake the tree – and the bad fruit will fall.
For Business Improvement Perth, this is much more than a colourful expression.
It describes an important leadership and organisational principle:
Pressure, change, higher standards and accountability often do not create organisational weaknesses. They expose weaknesses that were already there.
That distinction matters enormously.
If a business owner interprets every problem that emerges during change as evidence that the change itself was wrong, improvement becomes almost impossible.
Sometimes the fact that problems begin appearing is evidence that the organisation is finally confronting realities it previously tolerated.
The poor performer did not necessarily become poor because performance standards increased.
The weak manager did not necessarily become weak because accountability became clearer.
The unprofitable customer did not suddenly become unprofitable because customer profitability was measured.
The broken process did not suddenly become broken because someone documented it.
The problem existed before.
You simply shook the tree.
Throughout almost four decades of big corporate, being a start-up entrepreneur, and advising businesses across Australia and internationally, I have seen this repeatedly across strategy, investment management, business transformation, acquisitions, governance and SME advisory. Leading substantial organisational transformation meant challenging existing assumptions, restructuring parts of the organisation, strengthening leadership and increasing accountability across a business of over 300 employees. The organisation ultimately achieved substantial improvements in market share, assets under management, revenue and profitability, but progress required confronting weaknesses that comfortable business-as-usual arrangements could easily have concealed.
For SME owners and leaders, the message is simple:
Do not be afraid to shake the tree.
Be afraid of running a business in which nobody ever does.
Table of Contents
- What Does “Shake the Tree” Mean in Business?
- Why Comfortable Businesses Can Hide Serious Problems
- Pressure Does Not Always Create Weakness, it Reveals It
- The Five Areas Where Bad Fruit Usually Appears
- Shake the People Tree: Who Performs When Expectations Rise?
- Shake the Strategy Tree: Which Activities Actually Create Value?
- Shake the Customer Tree: Revenue Is Not the Same as Good Revenue
- Shake the Process Tree: Which Systems Break Under Load?
- Shake the Leadership Tree: What Happens When the Owner Stops Rescuing Everyone?
- Shake the Culture Tree: What Behaviour Is Really Being Tolerated?
- Accountability Is the Wind That Exposes Weak Branches
- The Danger of Shaking Too Hard
- How to Conduct a Controlled Business “Tree Shake”
- Practical Recommendations for SME Owners & Leaders
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
What Does “Shake the Tree” Mean in Business? (Business Improvement Perth)
To shake the tree means deliberately introducing enough challenge, scrutiny, accountability or change to expose the true quality of what is underneath.
It may involve:
- Raising performance standards.
- Reviewing every major cost.
- Analysing customer profitability.
- Challenging management assumptions.
- Clarifying roles and decision rights.
- Introducing KPIs.
- Testing succession readiness.
- Reviewing strategic priorities.
- Conducting a business health check.
- Stress-testing cash flow.
- Revisiting supplier arrangements.
- Examining employee performance.
- Introducing independent Board oversight.
The purpose is not disruption for its own sake.
The purpose is visibility.
Businesses often accumulate hidden weaknesses gradually.
One unnecessary cost becomes accepted.
One underperformer becomes tolerated.
One poor customer remains because “they have always been with us”.
One weak manager survives because replacing them feels difficult.
One outdated process continues because “that is how we have always done it”.
Eventually, these weaknesses become normal.
That is dangerous.
Normality is not evidence of effectiveness.
Sometimes it simply means the organisation has become accustomed to mediocrity.
Why Comfortable Businesses Can Hide Serious Problems (Business Improvement Perth)
Success can create complacency.
When:
- Revenue is growing.
- Cash is available.
- Customers are ordering.
- Banks are supportive.
- Staff shortages are manageable.
many organisational weaknesses remain survivable.
The business can afford inefficiency.
The owner can personally solve problems.
Management gaps can be hidden.
Poor systems can be supplemented by heroic employees.
Margin leakage can be absorbed.
Then conditions tighten.
Suddenly the same weaknesses become visible.
The Comfort Trap
An SME might report:
Revenue up 15%.
Everyone celebrates.
But underneath:
- Gross margin has fallen.
- Debtor days have increased.
- Overtime has exploded.
- Warranty claims have risen.
- Customer concentration has worsened.
- Management capacity is stretched.
- Cash flow is deteriorating.
The business appears stronger.
The underlying organisation may actually be becoming weaker.
This is why business owners need to look beyond headline growth.
A strong business is not simply one that performs well when conditions are easy.
It is one that remains resilient when the tree begins moving.
Pressure Does Not Always Create Weakness, it Reveals It (Leadership Development Perth)
This is one of the most important leadership lessons.
An owner introduces monthly management reporting.
Suddenly managers complain about accountability.
Did the reporting create poor accountability?
No.
It exposed it.
The company implements a proper CRM.
Suddenly the sales pipeline looks much weaker than everyone believed.
Did the CRM destroy sales?
No.
It removed ambiguity.
A new CFO analyses every customer’s profitability.
Several long-standing accounts turn out to destroy margin.
Did the CFO make them unprofitable?
No.
The analysis revealed reality.
This distinction is essential because leaders frequently blame the mechanism exposing the problem.
“Since we introduced KPIs, morale has dropped.”
Perhaps.
Or perhaps underperformance previously had nowhere to hide.
“Since the restructure, several managers have resigned.”
Perhaps the restructure was poor.
Or perhaps the previous structure allowed people to occupy senior positions without genuine accountability.
The leadership question should therefore be:
Is this change causing dysfunction, or revealing dysfunction that already existed?
That is a much better question.
The Five Areas Where Bad Fruit Usually Appears (Business Improvement Perth)
When SMEs begin shaking the tree, weaknesses generally emerge across five broad areas.
1. People
Poor performance, capability gaps, attitude problems and lack of accountability.
2. Strategy
Activities consuming capital or management attention without creating sufficient value.
3. Customers
Low-margin, high-maintenance or strategically unsuitable customers.
4. Systems and Processes
Manual workarounds, duplication, bottlenecks and weak controls.
5. Leadership and Culture
Micromanagement, avoidance of difficult decisions, weak communication and tolerance of poor behaviour.
These issues are often interconnected.
A weak process may survive because a strong employee compensates for it.
A poor manager may survive because the owner continually intervenes.
An unprofitable customer may remain because salespeople are rewarded only on revenue.
This is why shaking the tree must be systematic.
You are not looking for someone to blame.
You are looking for what is weakening the organisation.
Shake the People Tree: Who Performs When Expectations Rise? (Leadership Development Perth)
One of the clearest tests of organisational quality is what happens when standards increase.
Some people respond positively.
They appreciate clarity.
They want to know what good performance looks like.
They embrace accountability.
Others react very differently.
Suddenly you hear:
- “We never had to do this before.”
- “This is micromanagement.”
- “These targets are unrealistic.”
- “That isn’t my job.”
- “I don’t have enough time.”
- “Nobody told me.”
Sometimes these concerns are legitimate.
Sometimes they reveal resistance to being measured.
The Rehire Question
For every important employee, ask:
If this position became vacant today, knowing what I now know, would I enthusiastically rehire this person?
If not, investigate why.
Is it:
- Capability?
- Attitude?
- Values?
- Role mismatch?
- Lack of training?
- Poor leadership?
- Unclear expectations?
Do not immediately conclude the employee is the problem.
But do not avoid the issue either.
High-performance businesses require people capable of meeting tomorrow’s standards, not simply surviving yesterday’s.
Shake the Strategy Tree: Which Activities Actually Create Value? (Strategic Planning Perth)
Businesses accumulate strategic clutter.
Products.
Services.
Markets.
Projects.
Customers.
Initiatives.
Eventually everything becomes important.
Nothing gets stopped.
A good strategic review should shake the tree.
Ask:
- Which products produce attractive margins?
- Which services consume disproportionate resources?
- Which markets offer sustainable growth?
- Which initiatives have repeatedly failed to deliver?
- Which investments are absorbing capital without acceptable returns?
- Which activities no longer fit the strategy?
Strategy requires subtraction.
This is uncomfortable because humans develop attachments.
“We have always offered this service.”
“That project was my idea.”
“We have already invested too much to stop.”
None of these is a sound strategic argument.
The question is:
Does this activity continue to earn the right to receive scarce capital, management attention and resources?
If not, perhaps the fruit needs to fall.
Shake the Customer Tree: Revenue Is Not the Same as Good Revenue (Business Improvement Perth)
One of the most dangerous assumptions in SMEs is:
Every customer is valuable.
They are not.
Some customers can destroy value.
Consider a customer who:
- Negotiates aggressively on price.
- Pays slowly.
- Requires excessive management attention.
- Constantly changes scope.
- Generates disputes.
- Demands priority treatment.
- Produces little margin.
Revenue may look attractive.
Economic value may be poor.
Calculate Customer Profitability
Analyse:
Revenue – direct costs – cost-to-serve – working-capital cost – management burden = customer contribution
The results can be confronting.
You may discover that 20% of customers create most profits while another group consumes resources.
This does not necessarily mean terminating every marginal customer.
It may mean:
- Increasing prices.
- Changing service levels.
- Tightening payment terms.
- Renegotiating scope.
- Refusing uneconomic work.
Shaking the customer tree helps distinguish:
Revenue growth
from:
Shake the Process Tree: Which Systems Break Under Load? (Business Improvement Perth)
Growth is one of the best stress tests of an organisation.
A process that works at $5 million revenue may collapse at $15 million.
Spreadsheets become unwieldy.
Informal communication breaks down.
Approvals become bottlenecks.
Inventory errors increase.
Customer complaints rise.
The owner begins working longer hours.
Again, growth may not have created the problem.
It exposed a lack of scalability.
Ask the Stress-Test Question
For every critical process:
What happens if volume increases by 50% next year?
Can the process cope?
If not, what breaks first?
High-performing SMEs deliberately shake systems before customers do it for them.
Shake the Leadership Tree: What Happens When the Owner Stops Rescuing Everyone? (Leadership Development Perth)
This is often the hardest tree to shake.
The owner must examine themselves.
Many SMEs appear to have capable management teams because the owner constantly compensates for weaknesses.
A manager fails to decide.
The owner decides.
A salesperson cannot close.
The owner intervenes.
A customer complains.
The owner solves it.
The business appears functional.
But remove the owner temporarily and weaknesses become obvious.
The Three-Month Test
Ask:
Could this business operate effectively for three months without my daily involvement?
If not, investigate why.
Perhaps managers lack authority.
Perhaps systems are weak.
Perhaps roles are unclear.
Or perhaps the owner simply cannot let go.
Sometimes the most revealing way to shake the leadership tree is to stop rescuing everyone.
Allow managers to own their responsibilities.
Then observe.
Some will rise.
Some will struggle.
Both outcomes provide valuable information.
Shake the Culture Tree: What Behaviour Is Really Being Tolerated? (Leadership Development Perth)
Culture is not what appears on the wall.
Culture is what repeatedly happens without consequence.
If your values say accountability, but missed deadlines are ignored, accountability is not truly a value.
If the business claims respect, but a senior performer behaves badly without consequence, employees notice.
If the company talks about innovation, but mistakes are punished aggressively, people stop experimenting.
To shake the culture tree, ask:
- What behaviour do we reward?
- What behaviour do we tolerate?
- What behaviour do we quietly work around?
- Are high performers allowed to behave badly?
- Are poor performers protected because difficult conversations are uncomfortable?
- Do leaders model the standards they expect?
Culture improves when there is alignment between:
Words + Behaviour + Consequences
Anything less becomes corporate theatre.
Accountability Is the Wind That Exposes Weak Branches (Business Improvement Perth)
Accountability is one of the most effective tree shakers.
When accountability becomes explicit, ambiguity disappears.
Every major initiative should have:
- One accountable owner.
- Clear outcome.
- Deadline.
- Measurement.
- Review date.
Not:
“The management team is working on it.”
Who owns it?
Not:
“We hope to finish soon.”
When?
Not:
“There were several reasons we missed target.”
What changes now?
Good accountability is not punishment.
It creates clarity.
And clarity often reveals where performance has been hiding behind confusion.
The Danger of Shaking Too Hard (Leadership Development Perth)
The metaphor has limits.
Leadership should not become:
“Shake everyone until the weak people leave.”
That is poor leadership.
Sometimes performance falls because:
- Expectations were unclear.
- Resources were inadequate.
- The strategy changed repeatedly.
- Leadership was inconsistent.
- Employees were poorly trained.
- Systems were broken.
- Workloads were unreasonable.
Before deciding the fruit is bad, examine the tree.
This is critical.
A struggling employee in a broken system may not be a poor employee.
A frustrated manager with no authority may not lack accountability.
A salesperson missing target with an uncompetitive product may not be the problem.
Strong leaders distinguish between:
Person failure
and:
System failure.
The objective is not indiscriminate pressure.
It is constructive stress-testing.
How to Conduct a Controlled Business “Tree Shake” (Business Improvement Perth)
A structured review can produce better information than waiting for a crisis.
Step 1 – Clarify Strategy
What must the business achieve over the next 12–36 months?
Step 2 – Identify Critical Success Factors
What must go right?
Step 3 – Raise Visibility
Improve management information, KPIs and reporting.
Step 4 – Clarify Accountability
Step 5 – Stress-Test Assumptions
What happens if:
- Revenue falls 15%?
- A major customer leaves?
- Costs rise 10%?
- The owner is unavailable?
- A key manager resigns?
Step 6 – Review People
Do you have the right people in the right roles?
Step 7 – Review Customers
Which customers create value?
Step 8 – Review Products and Services
Which should grow, change or stop?
Step 9 – Review Systems
Where are bottlenecks and key-person dependencies?
Step 10 – Act
Analysis without action creates another form of organisational clutter.
Practical Recommendations for SME Owners & Leaders (Business Improvement Perth)
Start here:
- Ask what your business is currently tolerating that it should not.
- Apply the rehire test to senior roles.
- Analyse customer profitability, not merely revenue.
- Identify products and services that no longer justify resources.
- Stress-test cash flow and customer concentration.
- Clarify accountability for every strategic priority.
- Stop solving problems managers should solve.
- Identify processes that depend upon one person.
- Ask employees what everyone knows but nobody discusses.
- Review whether incentives reward the right behaviour.
- Distinguish individual underperformance from system failure.
- Deal with chronic issues rather than continually working around them.
- Use independent Board or advisory challenge where appropriate.
- Repeat the exercise regularly rather than waiting for crisis.
Most importantly:
Do not automatically fear what falls when you shake the tree.
Sometimes what falls was preventing healthier growth.
Key Takeaways
- Comfortable conditions can conceal organisational weakness.
- Pressure and accountability frequently reveal problems rather than create them.
- Poor performers, weak systems and unprofitable customers can survive for years when nobody challenges them.
- Revenue growth should never be confused with profitable growth.
- Leadership teams should be capable of operating without constant owner intervention.
- Culture is defined by what leaders tolerate, not what values statements claim.
- Accountability exposes ambiguity and strengthens execution.
- Not every performance problem is a people problem; systems and leadership must also be examined.
- Strategic improvement often requires stopping activities, not merely adding new ones.
- The objective is not disruption, it is clarity, resilience and better performance.
Frequently Asked Questions About “Shaking the Tree” in Business
What does “shake the tree” mean in business?
It means introducing enough challenge, accountability, scrutiny or change to reveal weaknesses, inefficiencies and underperformance that may otherwise remain hidden.
Why do problems often appear during business transformation?
Because transformation increases visibility, standards and accountability. Some issues exposed during change existed long before the change began.
Does employee resistance mean the change is wrong?
Not necessarily. Resistance may indicate legitimate concerns, poor change management or reluctance to accept higher accountability. Leaders need to determine which applies.
How can SMEs identify poor performers fairly?
Use clear expectations, measurable outcomes, appropriate resources, feedback and support before concluding that the individual is the problem.
What is the rehire test?
Ask whether, knowing everything you now know, you would enthusiastically hire the person again for their current position.
Can customers be bad for a business?
Yes. Customers producing low margins, high service costs, slow payments and excessive management demands can destroy value despite generating revenue.
How can SMEs test customer profitability?
Analyse revenue, direct cost, servicing costs, working-capital implications and management effort to estimate true customer contribution.
How do you know if the owner is the business bottleneck?
A useful test is whether the business could operate effectively for several months without the owner’s continual intervention.
What does accountability reveal?
It exposes unclear responsibilities, missed commitments, capability gaps and weak execution that may previously have been hidden by ambiguity.
Can shaking the tree damage culture?
Yes, if leaders create indiscriminate pressure, blame or fear. The process should be structured, evidence-based and fair.
How often should an SME conduct a structured business review?
At least annually, with major strategic and performance issues reviewed quarterly.
Should every weak business activity be stopped?
No. Some activities may be temporarily underperforming but strategically important. Decisions should consider economics, strategic fit and future potential.
What role does governance play?
Effective governance introduces independent challenge, accountability, risk oversight and discipline that can prevent serious problems remaining hidden.
Why can growth expose organisational weaknesses?
Higher volumes stress systems, people, working capital and decision-making structures. Weaknesses that were manageable at smaller scale can become significant.
What is the most important lesson for SME owners?
Perhaps this:
Do not confuse the absence of visible problems with the absence of underlying problems.
Conclusion: Sometimes the Falling Fruit Is a Sign the Business Is Getting Healthier (Business Improvement Perth)
Business owners naturally want stability.
We want employees to stay.
Customers to remain loyal.
Systems to keep working.
Revenue to grow.
Managers to get along.
But stability can become deceptive.
Sometimes an organisation appears stable simply because nobody is asking difficult questions.
Nobody measures performance properly.
Nobody challenges strategy.
Nobody reviews profitability.
Nobody confronts poor behaviour.
Nobody stops uneconomic activities.
Nobody makes managers truly accountable.
Everything remains attached to the tree.
That does not necessarily mean the fruit is healthy.
Throughout almost four decades of big corporate, being a start-up entrepreneur, and advising businesses across Australia and internationally, I have repeatedly seen that sustainable improvement requires leaders willing to confront what others may prefer to leave undisturbed. My career has encompassed organisational transformation, strategy, governance, M&A, due diligence, business improvement and working with Boards and executive teams to improve performance and long-term value creation.
The most important organisational changes frequently create discomfort before they create improvement.
Better reporting reveals bad numbers.
Clear accountability reveals weak performance.
Strategic focus reveals waste.
Delegation reveals management capability.
Customer analysis reveals poor revenue.
Governance reveals unmanaged risk.
And higher standards reveal what the organisation has been quietly tolerating.
The leadership challenge is not to panic when that happens.
It is to understand what you are seeing.
Ask:
Did shaking the tree create the problem?
Or:
Did shaking the tree finally allow us to see it?
That distinction matters.
Because once the bad fruit has fallen, leaders have an opportunity.
They can replace poor systems.
Develop capable people.
Remove unprofitable activities.
Strengthen accountability.
Improve governance.
Clarify strategy.
Build stronger culture.
And allow healthier parts of the organisation to flourish.
That is why I would encourage SME owners and leaders not to fear organisational discomfort.
Sometimes discomfort is simply the sound of reality becoming visible.
Shake the tree. See what falls. Learn from it. Then build something stronger.
Call to Action
If your business appears successful on the surface but performance has plateaued, accountability remains unclear, management capability is inconsistent or too much still depends upon the owner, the solution may not be another growth initiative.
It may be time to shake the tree.
As a Fractional CEO, Non-Executive Chairman, Business Advisor and Coach & Mentor, I work with SME owners, Boards and leadership teams to identify hidden weaknesses, strengthen accountability, improve strategy, develop management capability and build more resilient and valuable businesses.
Because sometimes the biggest business improvement opportunity is not what you need to add.
It is what you finally become willing to confront, change, or let fall.
