Business Results – Critical Success Factors
These are the critical success factors that will, if not performed properly, impede all organisations from achieving consistent results:
Communication,
Goal setting and Goal achievement skills,
Attitudes and Alignment
Communication is the key to unlocking the potential within businesses as well as individuals. When the goals are in alignment with the vision and consistently communicated from top down, then performance excellence is much more likely to happen. Inconsistent communication contributes to missed targets and lowers the performance for the entire organisation.
Goal setting and goal achievement are learned skills. Unfortunately, many presume that these skills are acquired during our educational experiences. Also, these skills are not actively taught in the corporate setting. Yet, consistent goal achievement or the results are what every organisation seeks.
Attitudes drive behaviours that result in change. Many companies focus on trying to change negative behaviours because they are experiencing negative change. However, when the negative attitudes are replaced with positive attitudes, those attitudes will drive positive behaviours creating positive change. By failing to address negative attitudes, new trends, changes or initiatives, the result is wasted resources creating a negative drain on the profitability.
Alignment is necessary to ensure that the desired results are achieved. Performance excellence happens when the strategies, systems and people are working together to build loyal internal customers that drive loyal external customers. The much heard adage about “Getting everyone to row in the same direction” is true, but probably should be amended to include the following “by using the same paddles.”
When these Critical Success Factors work together, results happen quicker and create a culture of working, “smarter and not harder.” The following questions may help you to achieve the consistent results that you desire as you work your strategic plan:
Do I know with total accuracy that every employee can clearly articulate the top three goals for the organisation?
Does every person within the organisation consistently set and achieve all of his or her personal and professional goals?
Does everyone within the organisation at all times consistently demonstrate positive attitudes?
Are the strategies, systems and people in alignment, to build loyal internal customers?
Business Processes and the Leadership Decisions
Medium to large corporate organisations are having to change their approach to business because of the demands of their most important Customers, especially if these Customers are Industry Leaders and operate globally. These Customers are only willing to do business with the companies that have effective Business Processes and demonstrate good Leadership Decisions.
If we look at what makes up the major component parts of an organisation, then we discover the following: Structures – People – Products – Systems – Information – Customers – Relationships and Knowledge. What connects all of these are the Business Processes, which are determined by Leadership Decisions.
All organisations use Business Processes to administer their companies, but careful analysis of the Business Processes, which connect the major component parts of an organisation, are necessary to determine their effectiveness and to see if they reflect good Leadership Decisions.
First let us take Structures – should they be Rigid, which will mean the company could be slow to act, or Flexible, allowing the company to be quick to respond to their Customers needs, or should they be Aligned with your Customer’s Structures, which will mean a more ‘Connected’ relationship and many mutual benefits.
The selection of your People – very careful consideration should be given to this activity and as to who should perform this function, the company’s human resources department, or an outside agency, or should the board of directors make the final decision, especially for Top Management positions, Customer Facing sales positions and Customer Service support positions.
And how do you decide on People payment – against what criteria, by Performance and measurable value to the company, by surveying your Customer’s and determining their Satisfaction with the People that your company provides to them, or with a Bonus for significantly overachieving, in the duties that your company has asked them to perform.
Then there is Product Selection – should your product portfolio be Innovative, which will mean a lot of investment in research, design, development and time to market, or a range of Standardised products that are of consistent high quality, or Specialist products that are influenced by your Customers requirements, or maybe even a mixture of all three.
What is the determination of Product Pricing – by the Volume that your Customers are forecasting to purchase, or by the current Turnover of sales with them, or list pricing with a Discount for their continuity of business.
And then we come to System Selection – the technological recommendations should be closely reviewed by top management to ensure close adherence to your company’s Business Processes and policies, and then selection of the most appropriate Systems by Value, Functionality, Availability and Security.
Information and data gathering – the oxygen of all serious business organisations, this can be with a dedicated Marketing Department project, or by careful usage of Internet research and by the many trusted Personal contacts that your company has established. All organisations forget, until they are reminded, that the biggest source of Information that they have is with the People that they have in their own company.
A very important Business Process and one that needs to be very firmly underpinned by your company’s Leadership Decisions, is the activity of Customer Selection – should they be determined by the Industry that they represent, or the Potential business that they may do, or the Past Spend that they have made. If there is not enough attention paid to this Business Process by your company’s Top Management, then the penalty will be in higher costs, lower profitability and loss of respected Customers who do not wish to be associated with your company’s choice of Customers Selected.
The choosing of Relationships is fundamental to your overall business success – do you choose, Good Customer Relationships that have mutual trust, Bad Customer Relationships that spend a lot with you, but don’t trust you and would easily go to your competitors, if you did not give them their discount, or Political Customers who you must have a relationship with because of who knows them high up in your company, even though they cause more trouble and effort for your business, which increases costs and inevitably spend much less with your company than they should do.
Last, but not least is Knowledge – the life blood of your organisation, there are many sources for the acquisition of Knowledge, but this needs to be accurate and accumulated from trusted sources such as the Knowledge that is provided by your Customers, gathered from within your respective Industry, and even from your Competition. Knowledge is an intangible product, but if you share it with your Customers it is seen as a sign of respect and gives your company the reputation of being an Industry Expert.
The Leadership Decisions are an integral part of each of the Business Processes and can make a huge difference to the success of an organisation and to the continued support of its shareholders, who decide on the ultimate longevity of any company.
© James Chapman Business Leader Coaching
Business Success – Free Email Consulting
Following on, from the successful launch of Business Success, the Free Business Advice Service, that already helps businesses, no matter what their size, to be more successful.
The company, Adversity Overcome, which is famous for its ‘success secrets for business’ and for training organisations and their people to overcome adversities and be more successful, is now launching a new Free Email Consulting Service.
James Chapman, CEO of Adversity Overcome said “Business Success has a mission to provide information, insight, knowledge, direction, suggestions, hints and tips, which will ensure that your business endeavours are more successful.”
He went on to say, “We have a strong conviction to contribute more and more richness to our clients’ lives and businesses. We focus on giving you value with Business Success.”
Powered by Google, Blogger and Feedburner, Business Success provides its Free Business Advice Service and now a Free Email Consulting Service, wherever and whenever it is needed, 24 hours a day.
From today onwards, business success is going to be a lot easier to achieve for any business, thanks to this new service from Business Success. Success or failure in business should not be because a few words of timely business advice have not been given.
Business Success: http://business-success22.blogspot.com
Adversity Overcome: http://www.adversityovercome.com
Business Success – Free Business Advice
From today onwards, business success is going to be a lot easier to achieve for any business, no matter what its size may be.
The company, Adversity Overcome, which is famous for its ‘success secrets for business’ and for training organisations and their people “How to Overcome Adversity and Be More Successful” is launching a new free service, called “Business Success”
James Chapman, CEO of Adversity Overcome said “In this information age, success in business should not be determined by the money in the hands of a few, but by the information in the hands of many.”
He went on to say, “Success or failure in business should not be because a few words of timely business advice have not been given.” Business Success, which is powered by Google, Blogger and Feedburner will be a free business advice service, available wherever and whenever it is needed, 24 hours a day.
From now on, a search on Google for ‘business success’ will bring you just that. Success in business brings profitability to organisations and monetary, lifestyle changes to individuals.
Business Success: http://business-success22.blogspot.com
Adversity Overcome: http://www.adversityovercome.com
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