Business Performance Improvement

Growing companies suffer from growing pains, just like children. There is a point in the lifecycle of most companies where the goals go from being simple personally orientated, e .g. “to not be poor”, or “to be able to retire at 45” to being team orientated e.g. “biggest supplier of plumbing equipment in the Swindon area”, or “increase number of customers by 50% each year”. Often this change is associated with a change in the organisation and instead of one or two people knowing everything and being able to do anything it now takes a team of people to do the work.

If the business model is sustainable there is no reason why companies shouldn’t grow quite happily. However it is very common to find organisations that have been founded by someone with essentially a technical skill, such as accounting, sales, marketing or product development that doesn’t translate well into taking a group of individuals through the pain of growth.

The best business advice for successful companies is for the founder to surround themselves with clever people and to ensure that they deliver on the founder’s vision. In a lot of companies, this isn’t the case, and it’s not uncommon to find owners that feel they aren’t doing as well as they should and generally they aren’t sure why.

A typical response to this situation is to find a business coach or a consultant. They will provide an external perspective, but frequently will only work with the owners or a problem area. This can be a bit of a sticking plaster approach, where a holistic approach would be far more effective. This is where CJB CC can make a difference, by working with the company, rather than a handful of individuals.

Growing a company is a team sport, and needs everyone to know both where the goals are and which way they should be kicking. For the majority of small companies, establishing this as a shared vision among your managers and staff also needs to be a light touch approach, that over a period of time directs the behaviours towards a shared vision and values that improves company performance without taking key staff out of the business for long periods.

The most effective way to achieve a shared vision is to develop it with the team to be. Undertaking this kind of exercise in a group environment will not only set the vision and goals but also enable you to establish the roles and responsibilities of each of the team members. This will ensure that not only do the players understand what is expected, but everyone else will know too. This can be one of the greatest motivational opportunities available to a business owner, not just you setting the agenda but peer pressure and expectations from everyone else.

Once the vision and objectives and roles are established the approach takes this several steps further by identifying performance measures and KPI’s, agreeing a work or project plan to reach the goals and then regularly reviewing performance, adjusting as necessary to ensure that the vision remains achievable.

If you have found this interesting and you would like to explore the implications of this approach in your business give me a call on 01420 588172, drop me an email here or try me on skype at chris.j.bryan.

Chris Bryan