Presented by Ed Bierschenk, Facilitator and Owner, Full Potential Leadership
Most business owners who are looking to find the key to successful expansion are looking for the silver bullet to help them grow. Based on my forty years of experience in business, there is no silver bullet. But if you want at least an armor piercing bullet I encourage you to consider documenting your core processes and making sure that they are followed by everyone. Yes…process documentation requires discipline, but it can be a powerful and frequently overlooked key to operational effectiveness and profit. It is one of the best ways to replicate a business.
Processes define how our business works and how we keep our customer promises. Too often business processes reside in the heads of one or two members of the organization or the content expert in a particular function. Far too often in my work as a business coach, I have seen a content expert leave with critical institutional knowledge. The company has to go back to square one and re-create the process and train new employees which leads to “virtuous waste” of time and resources.
According to experts, including the author of ”Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business”, an enterprise can gain significant momentum by documenting it’s Five Core Processes first. Here are some areas for consideration;
The People Processes are the ways in which you recruit, hire, orient, manage, review, recognize, reward, retain and release Human Capital. The people in your organization must be positioned strategically to deliver on your customer promise and brand. As Jim Collins has cautioned you must have “the Right People in the Right Seats”.
The Marketing Processes are the ways in which you get your message to your target audience and define a compelling value proposition for which a customer in the vast universe is willing to exchange their prized money, loyalty, and testimonials.
The Sales Processes are the ways in which you convert a prospect into a loyal customer once they have responded to your marketing effort. It is simply how you build a relationship and convince a customer that you are the best solution for their problem.
The Operations Processes are the ways in which you fulfill the product or service delivery to the customer. This may include work-flow, production, quality control, service fulfillment, logistics and lot’s of other processes that deliver on your brand promise.
The Financial Processes are the ways in which you track the money flow in and out of the business and the methods by which information is captured and reported.
Business research from William F. Heitman, author of “The Knowledge Work Factory: Turning the Productivity Paradox into Value for Your Business”, points out the following facts:
*70% of intangible assets in business are “economic competencies” made up of loosely standardized knowledge work in the form of operational processes, competencies, and practices of employees.
*Two thirds of knowledge workers tasks are repetitive and “ideal for standardization”.
*The business penalty without standardization of processes is that workers spend 25-40 % of their time on “virtuous waste”-corrective work activity which is misperceived to be unavoidable and valuable effort.
As an astute entrepreneur you will not have to look very far into the success literature of business to find tons of references pointing to the power of process improvement and documentation. If you are looking for a brass bullet to give you the edge over your competition or to improve your organization, consider process improvement and contact an expert with The Alternative Board to begin your journey to operationalize the processes. Put that brass bullet to work in your organization to deliver consistent value and produce a more reliable revenue stream.
Ed Bierschenk is a seasoned business coach with The Alternative Board and Rice University’s Executive MBA Program. Contact Coach Ed through TAB or 281-795-1845.