In the quest for success in this competitive world market, many companies often find themselves struggling to survive. They have created more products, services, suppliers and location, but instead of growing they find themselves sinking in a quagmire of stagnation.
Make no mistake, companies need new products and services to compete, but how many and how they are developed, introduced and managed, makes a huge difference in how successful the company will be. After all, in most organizations, people feel the need to create new products, processes, facilities and systems, but you need to keep things simple enough as to not stifle growth.
The purpose of any company should be to make growth more productive and profitable. The key objective is of simplify your company and use that simplification as a competitive weapon. If you want to simply your business without stifling innovation, you must have crystal clear focus on how you want to compete and what you must do to succeed in that approach.
Here are four key elements that your business must have in order to simplify and create profitable growth:
1. Your business must have a purpose. Before your business was started, you must have decided that there was a need that could be fulfilled, and thus was created to serve a customer. Assuming that you took the time to decide, you should have asked "What is the purpose of this business?" If you tested and communicated this purpose, then you've gotten off to a good start. One your purpose is set, it should remain largely unchanged until or unless there is a major need to change it.
2. Your business must have structure. To create value, which is the key to creating and keeping customers, your business must have a structure that is consistent with its strategy and vice versa. The structure is how your business is set up, organized and configured. You must have a structure that simplifies and streamlines product sales, customer service, dealing with suppliers, and marketing.
3. Your business must have processes. In other words as your business grows everything it does spreads. When you map out a precise process for everything your business does it ensures that every aspect of your business functions clearly and at a high level
4. Your business must foster relationships and culture. In other words it must have trust and openness. If your employees don't trust one another, they won't work together effectively, and that causes conflicts and destroys creativity and growth. The same goes for relationships with outside organizations of customers, suppliers, consultants, etc.
Contrasting strategies of "lose it" and "use it' take two different approaches in simplifying the way your company operates: For example in the former, simplicity and efficiency are used to reduce hidden cost which requires one sort of culture, whereas in the "use it" approach the systems, structure, process, technology and culture are intended to capture customers through variety and customization.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to get started. Think big, but try small, then adjust based on what you can change and get started. A specific framework for thinking helps clarify what is important in simplifying your business. Always keep in mind the five keys to change for any business; purpose, structure, processes, culture and relationships.
As you try to simplify your business, there is another essential concept you must take into account: value. Value is the ultimate business differentiator of the 21st century, and the companies that create and deliver the best value will always win. If you accept that value can defined by just five attributes, it can become the basis for part of the shared vision that all leading companies must create.
Copyright©2008 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and success coaching programs. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in career coach training. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world, on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing. Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.
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