A recent article written by Mike Kotsis reminded me of a recent client conversation. When asked what his ideal scene was for 2017 he quoted “less stress, less time at work wearing other people’s hats, a consistency in service delivery, scalability, higher moral and of course more profit.
As Jim Collins said, “Magic occurs when you combine a spirit of entrepreneurialism with a culture of discipline.” So keep an open mind and let’s see what kind of magic is in store for your company in 2017. This is not a company handbook or procedures manual, let me walk you through the three steps.
A big ask? No not really, for many, one of the keys to achieving these goals is often a three step exercise of identifying, documenting, and following your company’s key Processes. It’s not a sexy solution, but it’s incredibly powerful because as a company grows....................... it naturally becomes more complex.
Your core processes are your way of doing business. Every company has a handful of core processes that make the business run. Usually these include:
The HR process — the way your company hires, manages, reviews, rewards, promotes, retains, and fires people
The Marketing process — the way your company gets your message to your target market audience and generates leads for your salespeople
The Sales process — the way your company converts a prospect into a customer
The Operations process —the way your company makes the product or provides the service to your customer
The Accounting process — the way your company manages the flow of money coming in and going out
The Customer Retention process — the proactive way your company takes care of your customers to keep them happy, coming back, and generating referrals for you
On average, my clients conclude on 4 to 10 core processes for their business. Even when using an organising board you do not need 25+ core processes—this is being way to analytical and overthinking it. For many businesses they are able to simplify it down to four: 1) People Process 2) Get Work 3) Do Work 4) Accounting. Everything else will fit within these four areas. These process areas work well in with businesses whether they are running a company organisational chart, EOS accountability chart or the HMS organising board.
Document your core processes using a 20/80 approach: just document the important 20% that will give you 80% of the positive results. This isn’t a detailed training manual, think high-level. Each process should be between 1-10 pages (checklists or bullet points).
Put it in a binder or in a shared electronic folder (cloud or LAN) to make it accessible for all.
Founders and leadership teams who go through these three steps consistently tell me that they have more peace of mind, their business is easier to manage, they’re more efficient, errors and mistakes are reduced, the business is more profitable, and everyone is having more fun on a daily basis.
For more information on how the EOS process tools can work for you contact us for your free 90 minute meeting.