Articles
The Job of the Owner: Getting Things Right
"Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility." – Peter Drucker The problems we encounter in closely held businesses often stem from the fact that most of the business owners are experts in a professional discipline but are not trained and experienced businesspeople. They might be engineers, physicians, electricians, attorneys, accountants or any of a number of other disciplines. They know how to manufacture a great product or provide a critical service, but they usually do not have the broad business expertise to manage change or fend off aggressive competition. Many of these companies do all right [...]
World-Class Service
"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." – Donald Porter – V.P., British Airways I recently had an exceptional customer service experience. I had to take my car into my local dealer for repairs and the job was not done quite right. The technician apparently had not checked out the alignment properly and I had to take the car back. The service department gave me a loaner car and did the work correctly this time. Even though the work was not done correctly the first time, they did a [...]
How Does Your Company Stack Up Against the Best?
"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." – Paul J. Meyer The economic news has been so bad for so long, it’s hard to believe that any business is doing well these days. And yet, there are companies that have not only survived the recession, but thrived in it. Profiles International recently studied America’s Most Productive Companies to determine what sets them apart from other organizations. They identified five “people attributes” that help this elite group of companies succeed. If your organization isn’t doing as well as [...]
The Elephant in the Room
When you confront a problem you begin to solve it. ~ Rudy Giuliani I’ve noticed during my years as a business consultant that many organizations have become masters at ignoring the elephant in the room. These companies have one or more employees who perform poorly – and in many cases they’ve been under performing for years. Management tolerates it and completely ignores the tremendous cost to the organization. The direct costs of bad performance are pretty obvious. For example, say that you’re paying an executive $100,000 a year and he/she is performing at about a 50% level vs. the 80% [...]
Building a Culture of Accountability
"Accountability breeds response-ability." – Stephen R. Covey The importance of strategic planning is a frequent topic of these articles because it’s essential to business success. Especially in challenging economic times such as the past year, the businesses that are driven by a strong strategic plan are the businesses that not only survive, but thrive. I’ve focused in recent columns on the One Page Plan as an efficient strategic planning tool. It’s a deceptively simple system that helps business leaders develop measurable goals, engage the entire organization and establish accountability for results. Whatever planning tool you use, make sure it is [...]
Adding Value through Differentiation
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." – Warren Buffett In these economically challenged times when customers are watching every penny, smart business leaders step back and look at their products or services through the eyes of the consumer. Part of this assessment is to determine what value their products or services bring to the consumer. For example, let’s say you manufacture and sell shovels. If your customers can get similar shovels at any number of stores in the area, then the primary decision factor for the customer is price, which makes the product a commodity. Some [...]