Looking at
business competition is very interesting. The competition is, of
course, fierce. Recently, I was a participant in a strategic
planning meeting with a client. The client had been able to secure
several contracts, but the results were less than expected. He asked
all the obvious questions: What did I do right? Where did I go
wrong? Once I know, what can I do about it? This client was
truly interested in bettering his business. I arrived and met the
"outsiders" who were friends of the client in the same industry.
We discussed and analyzed past practices
and developed a good plan for the future. All the models we
discussed were efficient and delivered the goods or services to the
customer with a minimum of effort and cost. All would meet or exceed
the customer's expectations. The meeting went amazingly well.
The part that amazed me the most, though, was that these younger and less
experienced business people had a firm grasp on the need for the process.
Unfortunately, process is something most business
people choose to ignore. It is that "thing" that everyone
knows they should do. It is that "thing" they have every
intention of setting down, developing, and actually putting into practice.
But most people do not follow through on their good intentions. As
the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, or should
we say the road to bankruptcy court.
The concept of process is essentially the same
for all businesses-big or small-to efficiently process the transaction and
meet or exceed the customer's expectations. Yet the general
perception id that a well-laid out, consistently applied process is
required only when there is great volume. Wrong! A business
needs processing efficiency in every step. As we know, the low-cost
producer has a distinct competitive advantage. However, their
efficiency can not stop with the manufacture of the product or delivery of
the service; it should continue through all aspects of the transaction,
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from initial contact with the
customer to consummation and delivery, from building and collection to the
post-sale follow up. Therefore, a business must apply a
well-developed process from start to finish.
"Benchmarking," a technique used to
measure aspects of an event by comparison, ahs yield astounding results as
information history is accumulated. The cost to process a similar
transaction in companies can vary by more than three times. That is
a huge range of costs with quite an impact to the bottom line.
There are many reasons why all small businesses
need to define and streamline their process. To name a few, they
need to contain costs and stay competitive, to deliver a consistent
product or service to the customer, and to provide a process whereby
employees can efficiently contribute.
Most people and businesses do not think enough
about process. The immediate goal is to get the job done. They
need to remain viable in the competitive business world. This is
proven by the rapid advancement of the megastores-large sales volume
combined with an efficient process. While some businesses cannot
generate the large sales volumes, they cab be more efficient in their
processes and thus more profitable.
This is even apparent in the accounting process.
Many owners are not accounting oriented and do not review and improve this
part of the process. Most accounting processes can benefit from
significant updating and streamlining leading to greater efficiently and
better control.
Most businesses would welcome this process
efficiency improvement. They need it.
Improve or be consumed by the competitive forces,
the choice is simple. |
