Your Health… Your Business Processes… What’s The Difference?

Recently, I was working with a senior leadership team who was convinced that the key issue in their business was industry knowledge. They were thinking that a lack of industry knowledge was the root cause of their issues in the marketplace. It was difficult to get them to focus on the other issues in their business. While I agree industry knowledge is important, it is only one of the seven business processes every business needs to do well in order to be successful. In this case, the people running the business knew their industry very well, but were lacking knowledge in many other areas. If too much emphasis is placed on one area such as industry knowledge, then the business is likely to realize mediocre results. Businesses need to:

• Know their customers and competitors
• Frequently create new products or services
• Market (acquire customers) and Sell effectively
• Collect cash and pay bills
• Have an efficient supply chain for delivering products and services
• Collect and Manage information/data
• Manage people

These look obvious to any of us who have been in business for a while; almost commodity like. Indeed, these business processes are ones that most people take for granted. But when you look under the covers, each of these business processes is very complex and can make or break a business. The expertise of the leadership team will often cause them to focus on one or two of the 7 and not all 7. For example, CEO’s who spent their careers in Marketing and Sales are tempted to focus more of their attention on that process. It happens to all of us. Senior leadership needs to step back and ask about each of these business processes and have a plan for assuring their health. Just like an audit or a health physical, there is a methodology, which we call a Company Physical^® for examining the health of a business process. The physical needs to:

• Review the vital signs (Key performance indicators: leading and lagging)
• Fully understand the operating gaps: process/information/people
• Compare the process to industry best practices
• Understand how the process supports the strategic plan and identify the strategic gaps
• Assess scalability and sustainability

Senior Leadership teams who understand these critical business processes and the importance of doing them well have businesses that perform well above their peers. These businesses have balance and allow the senior leaders to focus on those elements of the business that provide competitive advantage. If you want to find out more about the Group50’s Company Physical call +1 (626) 644-9746 or email us at info@group50.com

Group50’s focus is working with our clients to develop a culture of effective strategic execution coupled with sustainable and scalable business processes. Group50 takes a holistic approach to effective strategic execution utilizing proprietary methodologies and tools that are sustainable and scalable. We approach all projects with a focus on alignment, integration and optimization in support of the company’s strategic objectives.

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