Better - Faster - Cheaper

by Jay Perry

Regardless of what business we are in, we will always be challenged with a common task: to provide a product or service Better - Faster - Cheaper.

Look at any business. It is the same challenge. From the logging industry to manufacturing cars to computers to television news, always a better mouse trap. You are in business. What makes you think you are immune to the same challenge? You are not.
 

The Challenge

The challenge will always be the same. That sameness is actually providing the difference in the “day-to-day” that keeps us going to the shop to open the doors. Without having a challenge, you would have no interest in your business. As an owner, manager or supervisor, the job of looking for continued improvement to the efficiencies of your operation should be your primary concern.

Customers are no longer willing to pay for industry’s inefficiencies. Consumers are more educated (and protected) than before, also making demands that stretch our abilities. They make “unreasonable” requests. I say to you those “unreasonable” requests are going to be the new standard for minimum performance by your business. It is the business that responds to the marketplace’s requests that will soar above the crowd of competitors.
 

Keep Looking

Also, you should always be on the lookout for people to assist you in improving your business, making it run smoother, developing into a better place to do business for the community you serve. The people can come from outside your industry or could be as close as one of your vendors. Keep your eyes open for people who have a caring attitude toward others and enroll them into the supporting of your business.
 

The Lime

Here is an actual experience.

When I arrived into town late one evening, I went to the hotel restaurant. I felt like having a beer. After ordering one, I asked a server for a lime wedge. The woman I asked this of was not my server but one of the regular staff, filling salt shakers. After she was gone for what seemed a long time, she returned with a little bowl full of lime wedges. I asked her what had happened. She informed me that the kitchen was out of limes so she had to go clear across the hotel’s casino (very large) to the bar to get some for me. I recognized this as someone who would not let anything stand in her way of making the customer happy and subsequently talked to her about a job as Customer Service Rep at one of my clients’ businesses. She interviewed and took the job offer. She become their best performer in the month of December of her inaugural year.

You need to lookout for people who can make a contribution because they hold the view that part of their purpose is to help others. With the continuous improvement they can bring to your business, you can do what you do better, faster and cheaper.

Links

• Overcoming mediocrity consistently
• image courtesy of Klaus Eppele

Improve the processes and you change the culture. Ally Business Coaching helps progressive companies manage both aspects of these kinds of transformations. Leadership is developed in people, not trained. With over 20 years of experience in developing leaders through a coaching style, Jay brings quick, effective and permanent improvements to clients all over North America. Here are the complete services. You’ll find more about Jay on the Experion website and LinkedIn.

Survive and Thrive In Turbulent Times

by James Phillipson


When a business encounters turbulent times, there are many ways that the CFO/Controller and CEO can face the challenges to enhance the financial position and significantly improve opportunities to restore business growth. These strategies enhance the likelihood of the business surviving turbulent times and being put in a position to thrive again, when the environment improves.
 

Cash flow management

The management of cash flow is one of the cornerstones of most successful businesses and becomes much more critical when a business goes through turbulent times. We all agree that “cash is king” but many businesses leave the decisions about cash flow management to the clerical level staff and only occasionally instruct that minor changes be made. The CFO/Controller and CEO must have management of cash flow as one of their key areas of focus during challenging times.

Consider the possibility of your biggest debtor (often your biggest customer) being unable to meet established payment terms. In many businesses this would cause a potentially fatal cash flow crisis. This is not an unforeseeable event for many businesses in today’s economic climate.

So many actions can be taken to improve cash flow from working capital that it often only requires some focus and a determination to find the best way to reduce your risk. The first place to focus your attention is on collection of accounts receivable. See the article on speeding up the collection of receivables in the Mastermind archives


Consider your ability to release cash tied up in your business by managing the following:

1. Payment of suppliers
2. Reduction of inventory
3. Speeding up the production cycle

Banking Facilities

We have all heard that “a banker is someone who only wants to sell you an umbrella when the sun is shining,” or some variation on that. Certainly, if you expect to have a downturn in financial results in the next few months, then now is the best time to ask for an increase in the facility that you have with your bank and to seek out other sources. After a downturn in operations causes the need for a larger facility, it is difficult to convince a banker that you are deserving of his umbrella — much better to ask before there are a few months of reduced profitability or even losses.
 

Key Performance Indicators

Take a few minutes to carefully assess the trends in your ratios and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) over the last two years. Consider how you can reverse any adverse trends and how you can improve those that are stable. It often helps to consider each of the factors in the calculation of the KPI, not just the result, as that is where the action step will need to be taken to yield the result. For example, when assessing the KPI of Days Sales Outstanding, examine the amounts outstanding from individual customers – say the twenty largest balances and any balance that is more than X days outstanding.

Update the KPI regularly and incorporate them into the ongoing reporting and management of the business. Include them in the budgeting process and report the KPI compared to budget.
Ensure that you investigate and take action on any KPI that changes from expectation. Challenge your management to improve on selected KPIs each month. For example, make next month the month in which you challenge your management to improve Days Sales Outstanding by 10% (and then illustrate the success by showing the effect on cash flow).

Ratios have the ability to reflect trends that are not easy to spot. If you track and graph your ratios on a monthly basis, with comparatives to previous periods and budget, you should be able to easily explain why a ratio has changed and what you propose to do to manage the situation, for better or worse.

For example, the Days Sales Outstanding and Days Inventory on hand are often effective warnings about cash flow problems and usually the first sign that more analysis and focus is required, so that management can develop a solution.
 

Disposal Of Non-core Assets

Consider every asset in your business as a candidate for disposal – no exceptions! There are often assets hidden in categories where the component part can be sold. For example, slow moving inventory, surplus or old equipment, waste, scrap, by-products, accounts receivable, business units, lines of business, product lines, etc.

If your challenge is caused by a downturn in business volumes, consider selling or sub-letting surplus space. One creative idea, in certain circumstances, is to “sell” your surplus capacity to a non-competing business that would need the same equipment. In other words, your business becomes a sub-contractor for them. A simple application is to use surplus space to provide storage for another business.

Take a page from retail businesses that sometimes have concessions in their premises, selling products that complement their lines of business. This can generate cash flow from the rental charge for the space, as well as draw additional traffic to your store. Is there a way to apply that to your business?

Links

• Identify and leverage your Key Performance Indicators
• The small business hard times survival guide (About.com)
• Five tips to help your small business survive tough times (MegaDox, Mar 2013)
• image courtesy of Paula Fisher

 
James Phillipson is a Chartered Accountant and a Principal of Mastermind Solutions Inc. with over twenty years experience in large and small businesses. He has provided financial counselling to his clients since 1996, often in the role of a Controller or Chief Financial Officer, for both public and private corporate clients. James has experience in financial roles in a wide variety of businesses and industries. This includes several large corporations and many medium-sized public and private companies. James can be contacted at james@mastermindsolutions.ca or 905-731-8255. You’ll find more details on the Experion website and LinkedIn.

Ask More Questions

by Billy Anderson

Bad leaders have all the answers. Great leaders do not.

We live in a world where management is expected to have all the answers, all the time. If an employee comes to you with a question you probably feel you should give an answer immediately (God forbid the “boss” doesn’t know something). Why do we do this? Because admitting we don’t know something means showing vulnerability, which many people assume is a weakness.

If that’s you, you make up the majority of management who underutilizes their team’s potential. As a leader, you will get more from your team when you ask more questions and give fewer answers. Asking them questions leverages their skills while showing them respect, and respect motivates the right people more than anything.
 

Try It

Next time an employee comes to you saying, “I’m not sure what to do about this”, try responding with “What do you want to do about it?” Chances are they’ll be taken off guard the first time, but they’ll get used to using their brain more and they will come to you less often with challenges they realize they can sort out on their own. They will then feel empowered, and empowerment fuels creativity and hard work more than green beer fuels St Paddy’s Day.
 

Goals

Now let’s look at your organizational goals. Every organization (and individual) needs goals: they provide direction, focus, and a strategic filter for decision-making. However, goals and guesswork both start with the same letter for a reason: goals are educated guesses.

We set goals based on what we know about the company, the competition and the market as it stands right now. But all that will change over time. If you follow your five-year strategic plan to the letter for the entire five years, you’ll go out of business. You set goals and targets in order to provide direction, but you have to accept they might change.
 

Next

Once you have your goals and strategy, you need to determine how often you will revisit them to see if they still apply. Put the review dates in the calendar. At this point you’ve figured out what you need to do to get there.

Now you can focus on who you need to be as an organization. Who are your employees being when they’re at their best? This will link to your organizational Values because your company will perform at its best when living true to its Values and Mission (assuming they were created properly in the first place, which most aren’t).

So try not knowing. Ask your employees more questions more often. Have the courage to know when a plan no longer works and needs to be revised. Have the guts to admit you don’t know and follow with “…but I’m confident we’ll figure it out”. That will gain the respect of your team and encourage them to do more.
 

Links

• image courtesy of Paul Moore

Billy Anderson is a Courage Coach & Speaker, and founder of Made You Think Coaching. He helps people get the life they want, because once they have that they perform like superstars.You’ll find Billy’s profile on the Experion website and LinkedIn.

Overcoming Mediocrity Consistently

by Jay Perry

I came across a quote from Jim Collins, best known as the author of “Good to Great”.  He states:

“The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”

In every business I have worked with I find this to be true.  Some things get done well one time and then not as well another time.  A case in point is a client company where we had instituted a scheduling program to better control work flow for their production.  It was off and running well two months prior.  I arrived for a follow-up visit to find that they were using the system only 50% to 60% of the time.  In other words, inconsistently.  What were the results?  Chaos!

Diagnostics

I also see inconsistency and mediocrity in diagnostics.  When done properly, there is a smooth production flow.  Then someone has a “better idea” — usually to go back to what they used to do — and the everything falls off the rails again.

The true enemy of greatness in business is this inconsistency in performance.  What causes that inconsistency?  Myriad reasons but one of the most common is complacency or satisfaction with the status quo.  That is fear.  People are afraid to make a full commitment to a new way of being.  They have reached a certain level of comfort and go into “preserve mode” which means let’s not get too far from the average way of doing things.

Great Leaders

That is where the call for great leaders comes in.  Without a great leader who is willing to look at bold ideas and then present them in a safe way that the followers can support the new initiatives, nothing will get done.

The followers will not do proceed on their own.  Not because they do not want the benefits of a better way but because they cannot connect the dots between their current position and where they potentially could be.
In leadership the job entails more than looking at new ideas.  You must make it OK for people to accept the changes necessary to affect improvement.  Followers are willing to change if shown an acceptable way to do so.

Accountability

What follows next is the need to root out the inconsistency that will creep back into people’s behaviors. Holding people accountable for the promises they make in implementing new ways is one of the most important things a leader has to do.  A leader often figures that everyone else can see the same benefits that they see. To the leader it is a “no-brainer” that we should do this and everyone will support it.  That’s a mistake as others do not see things exactly as we do.  Accept that truth and make your life easier.

Many leaders also do not see themselves as helpers.  They like to think of themselves in a more romantic fashion, riding the great steed, leading the army into victory, always looking forward.  Like the old saying says “Get off your high horse.”  Your job is to constantly help others do their job better today than they did it yesterday.  Once that mindset is firmly entrenched in your being and your behavior shows it.

Links

• 15 lessons from the 2012 Global Leadership Summit
• image courtesy of puravida

Improve the processes and you change the culture. Ally Business Coaching helps progressive companies manage both aspects of these kinds of transformations. Leadership is developed in people, not trained. With over 20 years of experience in developing leaders through a coaching style, Jay brings quick, effective and permanent improvements to clients all over North America. Here are the complete services. You’ll find more about Jay on the Experion website and LinkedIn.

15 Lessons From The 2012 Global Leadership Summit

By Cheryl Crumb

In the world of self-development, I’m like the proverbial shoemaker who is barefoot. My unoriginal excuse: “I’m too busy.”

I recently gifted myself 2 days to attend a telecast of the 2012 Global Leadership Summit sponsored by the Willow Creek Association originally held in Chicago in August.

I luxuriated in the wisdom of experts like Jim Collins, Patrick Lencioni, Condoleezza Rice, Carly Fiorina, Marc Kielburger, and Bill Hybels. My briefcase is weighted down with new book purchases and I’m still smiling and inspired as I write this.

For those not fortunate enough to attend, here were some of the messages that resonated with me.

1. Take responsibility for your own development. Don’t wait for your company to do it.
2. Leadership at its core is about character.
3. Every adversity brings gifts if you can allow yourself to see them.
4. Don’t resent or judge the next generation. Believe in them. The old and the young need each other. Honour what the old have done and what the young will contribute. Find ways to learn from each other.
5. Delegate authority, not tasks. Give freedom: “you’re bright … you’ll figure it out.”
6. Ensure your greatest legacy is making sure your organization is in good hands when you’re no longer there.
7. Many leaders incorrectly assume their most valuable quality is time. But it’s really energy. Be prepared to put out energy “bursts” against all challenges and opportunities.
8. As a leader in any journey from “here” to “there”, where is the vision most vulnerable? Divide the journey into three phases. It’s the middle phase that’s red flagged. You’re past the adrenaline rush of the starting line, but not yet near enough to the finish line to feel its magnetic draw. The middle is where everyone — including you — most needs your bursts of energy.
9. Leadership requires irrepressible optimism to see the possibilities of a better future. You must continually generate this.
10. We’ve all heard about company values, but it’s not a litany of all known qualities + the Boy Scout motto + the Ten Commandments + The Bill of Rights. Instead select a maximum of three endemic behaviours for which you’re willing to get punished. It’s not something you aspire to, but where a violation would be like selling your soul.
11. You are the most difficult person you’ll ever have to lead.
12. Two requirements for a success organization are its smartness (strategy-finance-marketing-technology) and its health (minimum politics, minimum confusion, high morale, high productivity, low turnover). The former gets 95% of the attention, but it’s only half the equation. A healthy organization becomes the multiple of its smartness. Focus on making your organization healthy. It’s not “beneath” effective leaders.
13. Be prepared … it’s what you do before difficult times, so that you can be present and strong when people need you the most.
14. Winners aren’t luckier than the also-rans, but they didn’t squander their lucky (bad or good) moments. Ask yourself and act on, “what do I need to do now to make the most of this event?”
15. The only mistakes you learn from are the ones you survive. Ensure your survival with discipline, creativity and paranoia.

Here are video highlights


Cheryl Crumb helps you get customers for keeps. She is an ISO 9000 accredited trainer, coach, transition consultant and facilitator who designs training programs to fit specific corporate needs. You’ll find more on her website, the Experion website and LinkedIn.