Most business owners have a clear view of their business strategy. The difficulty often lies in implementing this. The usual approach is to communicate the strategic vision, assign tasks to managers in the organisation, modify the organisational structure, recruit talent and seek out new IT systems and equipment. Whilst this approach is valid, it is not sufficient to change…
Information Technology is changing fast, and we need to think differently when applying it to the operations of a business. In the past, business owners would select an IT system to support a set of tasks within the business – CRM, HR, Production orders, Quality – you name it, someone had the software. The problem with this approach…
We are often asked, “how do I know when I have the right number of staff?” Most have too little, some have too many. Staff payments are usually considered an operating expense of the business. As such, we tend to equate less staff with greater profit. In fact, staff payments represent both an operating and investment expense. When staff…
Unlike big businesses, most privately-owned medium-sized businesses cannot afford full-time experts in HR and Safety. Despite this, they still have the same obligations. The solution is to embed expert knowledge into existing business processes. This sounds simple, but there are a number of tricks to getting it right. These are: 1) Get the right advice Consult with experts in HR and Safety that are happy to…
Businesses regularly undertake improvement activities, but we don’t often stop to ask: “Will these activities improve the business’ return on investment (ROI)?” To answer this question it is important to know that there are only three ways to improve ROI. These are well summarised by the ‘Theory of Constraints’1 : 1) Increase Throughput Throughput refers to the dollar value of goods…
The top 5 symptoms experienced by business owners and staff when operations go off track: 1) Constant Follow-up You are constantly following up on things for fear of letting down a client, losing money, and damage to your reputation. 2) Missing or Delayed Shipments Clients continually tell you that you are either missing shipments or delaying the service, and they may be seeking alternatives….
Businesses become difficult to manage when leaders think about business structure before the business process. When we think about business structure, we tend to focus on the organisational chart, who reports to who, the quality of our people as well as the setup of functions and departments. ‘The problem with this approach is that it…
