Operational Business Systems are a set of procedures, tools and processes that ensure business effectiveness, consistency and efficiency. They enable every member of your organization to carry out the functions that they are responsible for. They enable your team to drive ambitious results. Unfortunately, in many companies, operational business systems are not emphasized, as they should be. Many companies don’t prioritize focused investment in systems, tools and processes that drive growth and help a business to scale properly. Such companies almost always under-perform, as you would expect.
Systematic Execution Enabler – Great CEOs realize that one of their most important roles is to ensure that their organization has sustainability built in. Such CEOs insist upon repeatable step-by-step processes that allow for speedier training and on-boarding of new associates and more consistent daily operations. Those great CEOS also appreciate the value of making it easy for their teams to take care of customers. By investing wisely and proactively in state of the art systems and tools, they empower their people to run the business in an automated and systematic way.
Auto Pilot – With great business systems and processes in place, the leadership and management don’t have to do all the thinking and working. Associates who have been well-trained, can follow documented processes and use great systems can figure out how to win without supervision for extended periods of time.
Game Plan – When the organizational chart, all the roles and responsibilities and reporting relationships are in place, documented and distributed, everyone knows who does what and how we can work together. We can help customers to get what they want with minimal chaos and confusion, not to mention conflict. Too many companies refuse to publish and distribute organizational charts or to keep them current. Too many companies don’t eliminate confusion by assigning functions, roles and responsibilities to the appropriate parties. As hard as it is to imagine, many companies DON’T go to the trouble of documenting the job functions into job descriptions. With that documentation in place, and agreed upon measurements for success, performance management works better and performance improves. Ambitious results are far easier to reach. Implement a solid game plan and things get easier and smoother, immediately!
Outsourcing Allergies? – Smart companies regularly consider using options to outsource specialized work requiring expertise that they don’t possess internally. They use this as a cost-effective method of reducing expenses and leveraging the experience of outside experts while increasing efficiencies and keeping costs lower than hiring the expertise when needed infrequently. Don’t allow the hourly cost of an outsourced expert fool you into hiring someone to do something that infrequently happens. Don’t develop an allergy to outsourcing; it often makes great economic sense.