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Keep Sharpening the Saw

Guest post by: Bill Boyer

Article Overview: As a manager, you must always be looking for ways to improve your company.

Keep Sharpening the Saw

Everyone knows that even in good markets that business is changing rapidly. That is even more evident with the current downturn. You are seeing more companies competing against your business as they try to find some way to offset their loss of business. Some may be cutting prices. And even with the shortage of cash, other companies may still be upgrading their operations and bringing on new products. Unfortunately, some have cut advertising while others were smart enough to evaluate the advertising expenditures and continue to advertise where there was a proven return on the investment. What are you doing? According the Michael Gerber, many of you are just working on the tactical side of your business-doing what you have to do to keep it going. This is the bottom of the business pyramid-you will not get the growth needed when you concentrate all your efforts here. It is very difficult at times, but you must work on the strategic side of your business. This is where your growth and real rewards are. And how do you become more strategic. This entails planning for the future with established goals and measurement points. To get there, most of you must avail yourself of new knowledge and information.

In small businesses, there are two aspects to sharpening the saw: knowledge acquisition and thought process change. Big business does a much better job of both. In big business, everyone has a boss, even the president and/or chairman-the board of directorsHaving a boss usually can keep your decisions on track. This boss can be your sounding board or you may have coworkers who you can bounce ideas off of. This boss and or/board of directors will also be your accountability influence. There is always someone to follow up to be sure that you are attempting to meet your objectives or the tasks that have been assigned to you.

In most small business, you do not have the luxury of having someone you can use as "a sounding board". Also, there normally is no one to hold you accountable. You are like a boat without a sail.

How do you sharpen your saw? The following are some suggestions:

• Attend workshops and seminars. Not only will you probably get some good information, there will be other participants that may have had some experiences similar to yours and may have a solution. You will be able to build off of other managers/owners' knowledge.
• Join an industry group. Many industries have associations that you can join. There you may meet with owners from other geographical areas that are not competitors and you can learn from them. These contacts will produce good information that is specific to your industry.
• Benchmark your company. If you are in the industry association, they will be able to give you comparative financial and sales information for others in your industry. If you don't have an association, your banker or accountant may be able to give you some comparative data. Or you may be able to find some information on line or in industry magazines.
• Read one business book a month. You can get lots of suggestions of titles from friends or other sources.
• Join someone else's board of directors or board of advisors. While you will be helping the other company, you will still be learning.
• Form your own board of directors or advisors. These must be paid or it will not work.
• Hire a business coach or develop a mentor relationship with someone you respect.

A real example: Nick ran a successful manufacturing business for over 20 years. When work began to move to Mexico, he survived for a while by cutting wages. Also, as this business also started to move to Asia, he cut even more expenses.

He found it was very hard to compete with China who were using the old, tried, and true manufacturing methods. Nick could have modernized his equipment. He also could have implemented cell manufacturing, lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, or such; but he considered these "fancy MBA tricks. He could have even moved his operations out of the US. But he did none of these and unfortunately closed his operations.

Would this story been different if Nick had participated in some of the previously mentioned suggestions for assistance? We will never know, but had he other owners or advisors to talk with; they may have made other suggestions. He could have learned about the "MBA tricks at some seminars or in a book.

Effective owners/managers must keep their saw sharp.

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Article Tags: coaching, Improvement, innovation, profits, small companies



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