April 16th, 2010
I saw this quote in this month’s Inc magazine and loved it:
“It’s so funny when I hear people being protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.)…The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000. That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.”
-Derek Sivers
We’ve probably all done it…thought of a business idea and never acted on it and then saw someone else become successful with it. Wonder what they did differently?
All the greatest ideas in the world need to be taken down to the executable level. To take action on your business ideas and strategies, there obviously need to be tasks associated with them. The compilation of those tasks into repeatable and predictable tasks and results are business systems.
For example, if you need 4 new clients a month, how many sales meetings do you need to have? How many contacts do you need to meet to get a sales meeting? Are you making those contacts week after week and keeping your team accountable to doing the same? How are you tracking it? These are crucial to your business.
Each business will have different numbers for the example above. The system you use for these types of tasks is your business’ unique DNA. Build your unique systems in the beginning and change and refine as you go. Then continue to execute, measure, and refine. This is what will create value for your organization now and in the future.
I just read that McDonald’s first franchise operations manual was 15 pages long. Can you imagine how long it is now? Many volumes of hundreds of pages. That’s the perfect example of building, executing, measuring, and refining. And their idea was as simple as hamburgers.
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April 7th, 2010
It doesn’t matter what company, what industry, or who their customers are. There is often a disconnect between sales and delivery. We hear it all the time from the client delivery/service/production staff…”Sales is over-selling! Why would they promise that? How am I going to get that done?” And sales asks us, “Seriously, what do they do all day? I needed it yesterday!”
How does t
his disconnect affect the productivity of your company? What is it costing you to have these two departments battling it out?
For one thing it wastes time. For another, it creates additional tension in a work environment that has enough other stresses.
What can you do? A mutual understanding of each other’s departments would helpful, but how?
Recently we sat down with an entire team from a company with similar issues. When we broke down their processes, we found opportunities for simple, low-cost solutions. One of the areas for improvement was the sales meeting. If the salespeople used a simple process: a standardized form with questions (many added by the delivery team in our meetings), we could solve many of their issues. As long as the sales team remembered to bring the checklist to each sales meeting and used it to lead them through the meeting, details were not being missed. This is working so well that it is now the company standard for all salespeople to use the checklist in meetings.
The end result is less time being spent going back and forth to each other to get answers and waiting to hear back, as well as less complaints and frustrations. It moves the process along much more smoothly and saves the company time and money in the long run. Sitting down with both teams and seeing their role in the entire structure of the company gave each area a better understanding of how their roles contributed to the overall goals of the company. Only when you break down the details of a process together can a team identify areas where the process isn’t working and opportunities for improvements.
Do you have similar issues in your company? Try to estimate your team’s wasted time and use this calculator to see how it’s impacting your bottom line. If you find that your team is wasting valuable time, consider trying a process mapping session at your company. Be sure to find a place with a large whiteboard, get everyone that touches the process involved, and make sure you spend time on solutions – not complaints. Let me know how it goes!
Nicole
Tags: process mapping, sales
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March 30th, 2010
Our friends at Silver Square post a Proust Questionnaire on their blog each week, a local spoof on a series of questions featured monthly in Vanity Fair magazine. Check out the one on Nicole here!
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March 29th, 2010
The most consistently successful business is the franchise. Think about it…McDonald’s, The UPS Store, Jiffy Lube, Subway, Great Clips, Super 8, etc. If you want to grow your business, and especially if you want to expand into new locations, you must treat your business the way that franchises do. Which means that you must have business systems!
What is a system? The first definition according to www.dictionary.com is “an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole.” Makes sense, right? Many different tasks or functions make up the whole of your business. It is because of all of these unique ways of doing things that each business is different. It’s like each of us as people – we may look alike, but when you break it down, there are quite a few differences.
It is these differences that we need to build into regular systems and get into a document. Documenting your unique processes is what makes your business something that can function outside of your head…or outside of your employees’ heads. And when you can do that you can take some time off without worrying, expand to new locations, or even franchise. Although it may be a while away, documenting your business systems will also make your company more valuable when you sell it. If someone else can come in and take over your business just the way it is operating now, the value increases dramatically.
You have probably heard the saying, “start with the end in mind.” So even if you’re not going to franchise, pretend that you are and develop systems and an operations manual that is your own. It may take time, but the benefits make it worth every minute.
Tags: document, franchise, operations manual, systems
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March 16th, 2010
Every 3 months and/or 3,000 miles it’s the same process. I wonder when I am going to find an extra 30 minutes to sit and wait for my oil to be changed. I finally found a few moments last week and what I found was a lot more than a standard oil change.
I found a local Jiffy Lube and arrived around 9:20am. The manager greeted me and opened the car door for me. I asked if they would honor an expired $5 coupon and he said, “Well, since you arrived before 9:30am, you actually qualify for our early bird special which gives you $8 off.” What? Thanks, dude!
He noticed I had been there before and showed me to the guest lounge (not too fancy but nice way to refer to it, huh?) where there was a pot of coffee waiting. He said that I would be greeted by my guest services liaison (or something like that) in a few moments. Sure enough Ishmael came to greet me by name and took me out to review all of the points they were going over on my car. He verified that these were all ok with me and escorted me back to the guest lounge.
When the car was complete he again said my name and took me over to the payment area where they offered me a $10 off coupon if used within the next 48 hours for any other vehichles in my household. Cool! Gave that one to my husband.
I was then escorted to my car where they had washed my windows and vacuumed for me, he thanked me for my business, waited for me to get in, and politely closed my car door. I drove away from there feeling valued and important to them.
What made me feel special at Jiffy Lube is very obviously the product of an amazing process initiative. I have been going to Jiffy Lube since 1999 and only in the more recent years have I seen an improved level of service. It hasn’t been a change in location, or a fluffier “guest lounge.” It is as simple as calling me by name, going over the same points each time I am in there, setting my expectations for a high level of service, and delivering on it. Whether Jiffy Lube came by this as a corporate-level or store-level initiative, I was impressed.
The point here is that any business can implement these types of low- to no-cost customer-focused process changes. Whether it’s calling your customers by name or sending them a packet of info with expectations of your first meeting, it is often the simple steps you can take – that you consistently do – that make the difference.
Tags: customer focus, Jiffy Lube, process improvement
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March 1st, 2010
Most small businesses do not have an operations manual. Part of the reason is that they are small enough and people and departments communicate often enough to have a basic understanding of what everyone is doing.
About a year ago we worked with a three person consulting firm. That firm’s owner recently asked me why they weren’t using their operations manual more often and was it something they were doing wrong? Interesting and excellent question!
The short answer is…that’s ok! The reason is that much of the work went into the preparation of the manual: interviews, whiteboarding, planning, contingency planning, program development, etc. Once the building systems phase was complete they began implementing what they built.
The reason they don’t refer to it often is simply because each member knows their role in the new initiatives. Plus, helpful tools built from that phase, such as checklists, have become part of the day-to-day operations. The operations manual will definitely come back into play when things change or one of the employees leaves (permanently or temporarily) and someone needs to take their place. Since all employees main functions are documented, it will be simple for the new person to walk right into that role. This is where an operations manual really pays off for a small business.
As an example, I have a company of only two people: myself and a fabulous Project Manager. For our small company we have a 70 page operations manual. This may seem excessive however, if my Project Manager won the lottery and decided that she didn’t want to work anymore, I would need someone to quickly step into her role to serve our clients. If VisionBridge can’t adequately serve our clients we risk losing our valued relationships with them, and that’s not a risk I’m willing to take. What about you?
Tags: checklists, operations manual, small business
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February 22nd, 2010
Working with our clients to build systems to make their companies more efficient and profitable, we take existing and sometimes broken systems and mold them into what works best for that particular company. What we find however, is that once the changes have been decided upon, the most difficult part for the business owner or manager of that unit is keeping their people accountable to the changes.
There are a myriad of reasons that managers don’t hold their staff accountable. Sometimes they don’t know how, they aren’t around enough, they haven’t delegated enough responsibility to their staff, or they have the wrong people on their team.
No matter what the reasons are, managers need to realize that process improvement requires building in accountability for the staff and then making sure that they are building in a process to track it. You’ve heard the saying, “you can’t improve what you don’t measure.” Managers and employees alike need to know what’s expected of each of them and perform accordingly. They also need to know that someone will be measuring their progress. As a leader, you need to ensure this is taking place.
Planning ahead and preparing for accountability issues at the beginning of your process improvement initiative is crucial. Discuss it with your team and give it a permanent seat at the table.
Tags: accountability
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February 8th, 2010
With the SuperBowl last night and the Olympics coming up soon, professional athletes and their strategies have been on my mind. Over the weekend I flipped on the TV and saw an Olympic trainer being interviewed. What she said was counteractive with what we’ve heard in recent books such as The Secret. She said that she trains athletes not think of the crowds cheering and seeing themselves on the gold medal stand, but instead to concentrate on the process, doing the same things over and over again and continuing to do our best to improve each day. This is what creates success.
A colleague of mine teaches this same concept using Michael Phelps as an example. His argument is that what made Phelps successful was, of course natural ability (which we all have in some form), and then his process of each day practicing the same things over and over and pushing himself to do better.
As business people we imagine the next big deal we are going to land or if we could only hit $xxxxxx in revenue this month. But isn’t it really the practice of making a certain number of calls that help us land that big deal or increase our revenue? Determine what these practices are and turn these practices into habits. Build a process for creating the success you want. In the meantime, listen to your employees, have fun with your family, and read that book you’ve been wanting to read. After all, once we hit our goal, we will only have more.
Tags: habits, practice, process
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February 4th, 2010
I have good news and bad news. The bad news first. I recently turned 40. Yes, better than the alternative, but being in my 30′s was pretty cool. The good news is that I celebrated this milestone on a cruise.
The interesting thing about this vacation is that I thought a lot about work. Not in a stressful way such as worrying about clients or how I would get everything done when I got back. More in a thoughtful way about systems. What systems did it take for this cruise ship to run so well that I would feel relaxed, comfortable, and happy enough with the service to want to come back?
If you know us or work with us, you know that customer service is a hot button for VisionBridge. In working with our clients to improve and document their systems, the customer is always at the heart of it. What I noticed about our cruise line was that everywhere I went the staff made a specific point to speak to me and tell me good morning or ask if I had a nice breakfast or a wonderful day at one of our port stops. Even if I wasn’t looking at them they would make a point to speak to me and ask if there was anything they could do for me.
Our cruise line developed a simple, cost-free system that emphasizes kindness - the root of customer service. They teach their employees to speak to every passenger and empower them to help them in any way they can. It’s not a complex system and I’m sure it’s one of many, but it made a big impression on me.
As I go about my day back in Indianapolis heading to business after business and store after store, I notice that I don’t still get that kind of attention. Of course, we’re not on a cruise ship everyday. But what about the business I walk into that does treat me that way? Wouldn’t that make a big impression on their customers? So why isn’t it done? It’s simple, it’s free, and it’s just nice.
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