FOR THIS, WE USE A 4-Pillar Business Process Solution, which focuses on:
1. Strategy
2. Sales and Marketing
3. Client Fulfilment
4. Operations
Based on your company’s business strategy and the strategic vision you want to achieve, the 4-Pillar Business Process Solution will involve these steps:
• Create a BUSINESS PROCESS LIST – this list is crucial to running a smooth operation. By using this list, you can identify and organize all the processes required to operate as a well-oiled and profitable enterprise.
• Build an ORGANIZATION CHART that will guide the most appropriate organogram that contains all the roles that a company will need to hire for actioning its business processes.
– Using your dynamic organization chart as a reference point, define job descriptions for each position in your company. Do this by linking the processes listed above to their matching positions. This will help you to define measurable job descriptions which are based on what the people in those particular roles (including you) should be doing to steer the company towards its daily and monthly goals.
– Full job descriptions for each member of staff will clarify ownership of responsibilities and ensure that everyone in the team is aware of the commitment and contribution required to deliver on the company strategy.
• DESIGN AND MODEL BUSINESS PROCESSES – workshop and empower your managers and staff members at every level of an organization to design their own business processes using BPM (Business Process Modelling).
• Last (but not least) CREATE (AND THEN FOLLOW!) A BUSINESS PROCESS PRIORITIZATION PLAN that guides how, when, and by whom the processes will be written and implemented. Train your colleagues on how to write basic business processes by documenting how they do what they do.
Discuss the processes among yourselves to help improve on them, as well as to train each other on the different processes. Make sure this plan is completed in direct relation to a schedule which defines when (and by whom) processes will be written and implemented.
For details, guidance and videos on how to implement business processes, log into the A-Game Business online course, which can be purchased here: www.agamebusiness.com/online-course/
The Bottom Line
NOTHING IS GUARANTEED. Especially not in the world of business. By doing business, you accept risk. But the amount of risk you take on board can and should be minimized.
The best thing you can do to protect your investment – your business, in other words – is to safeguard it by ensuring it will run effectively, regardless of which individuals have their hands on the wheel.
Much of this can be achieved by systematizing your business – by implementing repeatable business processes and systems. This is not an easy task. If it were, every company would operate like a well-oiled machine. Implementing processes and systems is a whole lot easier when you’re not doing it alone. Secure the assistance or support of a trusted and experienced specialist, and you’ll take your business to even greater heights.
Intelligence Requires Information
YES, WE’RE ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT Business Intelligence, but I need to make 100% sure we do so on the right footing. The most important dimension of Business Intelligence is information. In fact, I will go so far as to say that it is information, more than anything else, which will change your business for the better.
The rule is simple.
There can be no Business Intelligence at all if company decision-makers don’t have access to regular, good quality information. Good quality information about your customers is hard to find for two primary reasons: Firstly, customers never tell you everything – and rightly so. There is a natural limit to how much information people share. Secondly, customers themselves don’t even know what they want a lot of the time. They will never think about your business in the detailed fashion you do. They have a need and they’ll pay someone to solve it. They’ll keep paying different people until they find a relationship that works for them for reasons about which they don’t think too much, and then they get on with their lives.
Simply going through the information motions and then spending huge swathes of time on company strategy can be a huge mistake. You need to think creatively and constantly about how you source information about your customers and their experience of your product. Only once this foundation is in place should you start thinking in terms of Business Intelligence.
Major organizations have a “measure, analyze and act” mindset threaded into their organizational culture. There is no reason, given the right technical knowledge and support, that the same ability shouldn’t be threaded into the fabric of smaller businesses. If you’d like a business that can survive without you, and possibly be sold for a profit one day, then you need to start systematizing. Let’s take it as a given that you are continuously innovating in the realm of your business model and customer service.
Let’s also assume that you are in the process of implementing processes. As you implement these processes, you can target certain points in each process as a measurement marker. These are crucial points where you will take regular measurements in order to ascertain how the business is actually performing. How smartly these measures are put in place determines how effectively the business performs and is managed.
There are only a few effective ways to measure the performance of a business. Financial performance is often used as a measure, and it is a valid measurement tool. Often, however, relevant financial information is only available after the fact. Once you get your hands on it, it’s too late to really use it.
Another important method to assess performance is the measurement of the product or service. Entrepreneurs should strive to ensure that their products are delivered to a standard that the clients expect, and that they are always manufactured in an optimized manner.
In addition, it is important to understand that computer systems play a key role in the paradigm. You can’t truly gauge performance without them, and they add a special layer of complexity to the competitive environment.
Computer systems take care of processes that people have been doing themselves for years – only the computer can often perform these tasks in milliseconds, and in the same way every time (including errors!). So, a standard market-ready computer program can slot straight into your business and give an immediate return. Of course, you must remember that your opposition, and, in fact the market in general, will probably be looking at deploying a similar application and will likely gain similar benefits. This conundrum means that meaningful competitive advantage is defined by the company’s ability to utilize a set of processes and systems in a unique way.
Put another way: once you have the right information at hand, intelligence comes into play.
Long-Term Business Requires Continuous Measurement, Assessment and Refining
CONTINUOUS MEASUREMENT OF process and system performance – against clearly defined company goals – is the core of long-term sustainability.
Knowing which points to measure within your processes – and what they mean in the greater scheme of things – is a vital skill which will dictate the quality of your business processes and systems.
