Tweet

Increase the Effectiveness and Profitability of your Business

Guest post by: Howard Litwak

Article Overview: Do you want to improve the effectiveness and profitability of your business? Of course you do! The fact is that organizations small and large that are in alignment in seven key areas have a critical competitive advantage over their competitors that do not. Developing and or strengthening these key areas is something that will yield you a huge return!

Increase the Effectiveness and Profitability of your Business

Do you want to improve the effectiveness and profitability of your business? Of course you do! And the good news is that you most likely have everything that you need under your roof already. The fact is that organizations small and large that are in alignment in seven key areas have a critical competitive advantage over their competitors that do not. A successful organization is one where all of the parts are working together. These organizations are innovative, customer responsive, and prevent fires- they're not spending their time putting out fires.

Do you agree that "hoping" for results in today's business environment is just not acceptable? What we need is a perspective that is focused on ensuring successful outcomes. Regardless of the current state of your business or industry it is imperative to thoroughly assess where your business stands in order to maintain and gain a competitive advantage. Now is as good a time as any. These seven key areas mentioned above are Strategy, Structure, Process, Rewards, People, Loyal Customers and Results, and Leadership.

Let's take a look at each. And remember, to get the most from this for yourself and your organization, the thought process cannot be "I know that" but rather, "How well do I do this?" and "Can I be better here?"

Strategy- Everything starts with strategy. If you want to accomplish something new than you will need to do something differently or do different things. That's change. Where do you want to go, what do you want to accomplish, and what is the game plan? Has your organization defined what success looks like? And, your strategy will only be achieved if the other six areas are in alignment with your strategic vision.

Structure- Many times when something is not working, organizations change their structure rather than address the real problem. Does your structure support your strategy? If you are constantly putting out fires, the answer could be no.

Processes- Do your processes support your strategy? Look at the way work flows, how much time to produce a product, how much waste is there? It is important to have your processes aligned with strategy. If your plan calls for low cost, quick turnaround, but the processes don't support it, your strategy is dead.

Rewards- Do your rewards and recognition systems support the strategy? If your plan is team based but you are rewarding only individuals, again, the strategy is dead.

People- Do your people (or do you...) have the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to implement the strategy? Are the right people in the right places, doing the right things, for the right reasons? Are they aligned with the strategy? Do they even know it? The bottom line is people. They are your number one asset.

Loyal Customers and Results - All of the above feeds into this, the heart of the business. What are you measuring? If it's only profitability, is that a good measurement? How does that support creating loyal customers? Profit is a result of something. It is the result of past decisions. This is important because you cannot forecast your future by looking only at profit.

Leadership- This is another key. How do you define the difference between Leadership and Managers? Which do you have? One has to do with the future, innovation, determining where you are headed, and what the right things to do are. The other just has to do the right things now.

Here are some symptoms to look for to determine if there is possibly an alignment problem which is costing your company the ability to fully fulfill its vision and mission and thus it's competitive advantage:

-High turnover, turf wars, gridlock, silo mentality, reworks, long response times, scrap, customer complaints, low morale, poor communication, long meetings, low productivity, lost targets, and no focus to name a few.

Here are a few questions that you absolutely must have answers to if you are to survive and excel into the future. They touch on all of the seven areas outlined above.

What do you hope to accomplish in the next 18-24 months?

What are your success factors?

What is your vision and your values?

Are your resources allocated properly? How do you know?

What does "done right" look like and how long does it take?

What is your major customer complaint?

What do you reward and why?

How do your recognition programs tie in with your strategy?

How do you gage your employee's productivity?

How do you measure the morale of your employees?

How do you develop leaders?

How do you measure success?

How do you know if you are heading in the right direction?

How do you measure customer satisfaction?

The message is clear. If your organization suffers from lack of clarity in any of the above areas and you do nothing to correct it, your success is questionable. If a doctor diagnosed you with a serious illness, you would have two choices. Do nothing and most likely die, or take measured action to get back to optimal health. With the fore mentioned challenges, you have the same choices.

Many organizations view development for their leaders and themselves as "discretionary." This couldn't be any further from the truth. People are an organization's greatest asset and their development is necessary for the organization to succeed. And people are the critical part in making sure that all initiatives in the seven critical areas support each other regardless of the size of the organization.

Your investment in time, energy, and yes, possibly money in developing or strengthening the alignment of these seven critical areas of your business is an investment that actually will yield a huge return!

Related Articles
  How You Can Benefit from Small Business CRM Software Program
  How to Increase Sales Is Process Driven and Begins with Existing Customers Not New Ones
  FREE Salesforce Grader Tool
  The Evolution of Customer Analytics Marketing in the Gaming Industry
  1-Minute Manager Mentality: The Root of most evil
  Value Over Price Preserves Profitability
  Monetize Lost Productivity
  Analyzing the Profitability of Product Lines
  Brand Strategy Self-Quiz - Are You Reaping the Rewards of a Strong Brand?
  Change for Good...What You Leverage and Measure, You Get!
  Home-based Business: Selling Your Taper Candles
  Sales Big Picture - Top Salespeople Combine the Art and the Skill
  Third Generation Leadership = Increased Profit
  Why Network Marketers Desperately Need to Niche Market
  Five Ways to Business Success through Action
  Why You should Never, Never, discount your prices - Unless You Know The Following!
  Measuring and Tracking Your Marketing Effectiveness
  Kurlan's Law of Increased Sales Effectiveness
  HR Departments Need Business Acumen Too
  5 Ways to Stimulate Sales Growth and Business Value

Article Tags: alignment, competitive advantage, key areas, profitability
Referred by: http://www.processspecialist.com/



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
2007 Goals - My yearly goals for December 2007: 1. Add 10-15 new "ideal" clients to our client roster 2. Increase revenues by $500,000 3. Average at least 1 paid speaking engagement per month.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Increase Productivity and Profits on the Web - A Web site is a great way to better service and market to current customers, but often a difficult way to attract new ones." Increase Productivity and Profits on the Web New! Don’t let the savings and productivity enhancements described in the following pages make you rush out and spend thousands of dollars overnight to have someone set you up with your own Web server, hosted Web site, or intranet.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The five pillars of internet marketing strategy

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Affect

Build Corporate Credit for Your Small Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.