Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 5

Week 5 of the series in discussing the Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business brings us to a subject that scares many people due to the pace of its change and the need to constantly keep up to date.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

The right use of technology can not only reduce manpower needs and operational costs but also increase efficiencies and open channels to new markets, all directly affecting your bottom line. The danger is adopting technology for technology's sake, care must be taken to identify and only implement that technology that is needed to support your business and its growth.

As part of the technology consideration the mix of Online vs Offline must determined.

Many facets of business operations can now be conducted both on and off line - e-commerce, business development, sales, customer service, marketing and public relations - you must find the right balance between online and offline that is right for your individual business and budget.

Whatever the mix though, consistency of message must always be maintained.

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 4

Week 4 in my series of the Top 7 critical success factors for business brings us to a discussion of how we cannot go it alone.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
   
7. Global thinking

No one can be all things to all people, so use the skills and resources of others to open and unlock growth opportunities and provide support outside of your core business.

Analyse and determine what capabilities (usually non-core) that could probably be provided more efficiently or effectively through strategic alliances in which each alliance partner realises a benefit from working together.

There are many virtual resources that can be tapped into that in years past would have necessitated capital and or human outlay.

Networking requires thinking outside the box and building strong relationships, it does not happen overnight but persistence can reap huge rewards.

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 3

For week 3 in my series of the Top 7 Critical Success Factors I discuss the thing that many businesses place too little importance on and is my pet subject.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

Sub standard customer service not only alienates the immediate customer but can damage the reputation and brand of the organisation, leading to additional customer loss and an inability to attract new customers.

Surveys suggest that a discontented customer tells an estimated 10 people about their experience while a happy customer tells only one.

The more information you have about your customers the better you can service and anticipate their needs. You must have mechanisms in place that gathers customer information to allow personalised marketing and service and the future needs of your customer to be anticipated.

There is also the internal customers to consider - the humble employee, a type of customer that is quite often left feeling very dissatisfied at great cost to the business.

Remember a satisfied customer is a repeat customer!

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 2

This week I discuss number 2 on my list of 7 Critical Success Factors for Business:

1. Plan
2. Competitive Velocity
3. Customer Satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

To maintain an advantage in a highly competitive world a company must move faster and more effectively to outpace its rivals and grow as a business.

Successful businesses not only provide a better product or service than their competition but continue to innovate, by adding new functionality to old products or creating new offerings.

As a result of the GFC many businesses cut R&D costs and are now finding it hard to maintain market share as their products are old and tired.

Jeff Immelt of General Electric said recently that "only optimism creates growth". This is a fabulous statement and for any business that has put off any innovation they should heed these words and create!

Time to gain velocity!

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business

I have been asked to join the panel on a series of Webinars addressing businesses concerns post the Global Financial Crisis. See this link for details: http://www.corporatecanary.com.au/uploads/ProtectGrowFly.pdf

In formulating my material for the Webinars I have listed what I feel are the 7 critical success factors for sustaining profitability in business.

Over the next 7 postings I will dedicate each entry to discussing one of these factors.

1. Plan
2. Competitive Velocity
3. Customer Satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global Thinking

First and foremost in my opinion is to have a business plan. They seem to have become a bit passe but given the pace of business today it is imperative that businesses have at least a basic operating plan and budget as the framework to keep things in focus.

This plan needs to be organic, changing and evolving as opportunities and challenges arise. Reviews and updates should happen at least quarterly to keep the business on target. Both financial and operational metrics should be measured to allow for early detection of problems before the business reaches crisis point.

Not sure how to write your business plan so that it is a useful tool that can be used to drive the success of your business, Ivy Business Consulting can assist by either completing the entire project or facilitating your own staff in the compilation process through insightful workshops that will sharpen the focus of even high functioning management teams.

Remember the Peter Principle

I recently came across The Peter Principle again and was struck anew by its aptness.

Formulated by Dr Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull way back in 1969, it is a humourous treatise which essentially states that members of a hierarchy are promoted so long as they work competently, sooner or later they are promoted to a position in which they are no longer competent (their level of incompetence) where they remain, unable to attain any further advancement.

Peter further states that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence"

This is the statement that I think both employees and employers need to be aware of. If someone is achieving great things in a role, does it necessarily follow that they should be promoted? The answer obviously is no, but as a society, if we do not achieve regular advancement we presume we have ceased to perform at our best, or worse yet that we have failed.

The best employers find ways other than promotion to solve the stagnation problem, such as:

• to acknowledge and reward performance, with things such as company awards, financial incentives or elevation to mentor status for others.
• provide training in a new role and only promote after sufficient evidence of capabilities have been displayed.

Don't become a company which blindly elevates employees to their level of incompetence, a properly constructed performance management system will identify not only who, but when someone is ready for promotion. To do otherwise only elevates the company to its level of incompetence and reduces its competitive advantage.

Competitive advantage in service organisations

When operating a professional services business the primary means of achieving a competitive advantage over your competitors is to have a better understanding of the needs and wants of clients then the competition does.

The greatest way to learn what these needs and wants are is to listen to your clients. Sounds very simple but many service practitioners do not actively listen.

There are various ways and means to listen to your clients:

1. user groups
2. reverse seminars
3. attending client industry meetings
4. market research
5. senior partner visits
6. engagement team debriefings
7. systematic client feedback

You must also determine the difference between reactions and feedback. Reactions are an immediate response, either verbal or non-verbal, to a communication whilst feedback is a response with logic and reason, or other useful information. Take note of the reactions but to truly learn what your clients want feedback is more useful.

Designing and implementing an active client listening program can have immediate and startling results for any business. Call Ivy Business Consulting for help with developing such a program.