In this 2-Part blog, I’ll share with you compelling hacks and tactics to make this year in a business more enjoyable, productive, profitable and sustainable.
Let’s go.
1. Revamp Strategy
New year – new strategy.
Right?
Before throwing out last year’s goals, take a pause.
The key here is that your goals and priorities are a mix of forever staples, incomplete or unachieved current projects/initiatives and new or emerging goals/opportunities.
It’s important to recognize this and objectively revamp your strategy based on a finite set of priority goals.
Some of these may be included on a ‘forever’ basis due to their importance, while others will drop off when achieved or obsolete. New and emerging goals should also have a place in your strategy.
I recommend and use a One-Page Strategic Plan which is highly effective in summarizing the Game Plan for the year ahead.
Make sure your strategy has a Top 5 of goals and key projects over the next 12 months, medium term (3-5 years) and long-term 10+ years). Themes, projects, smart numbers all need to find an important place in your strategy.
Launch this with your team, review it quarterly and make it come alive within your business.
2. Smart Budgets
Pushbacks and objections around setting budgets always amaze me.
How do you know where you’re going if you don’t have a map and set a course to arrive at your destination.
These objections are nearly always fear-based.
This should never be the sentiment internally around budgets.
Get input and workshop budget projections over 3 scenarios:
Blue Sky Targets (we hit the moon and are successful beyond expectation)
Stretch Targets (what could we achieve if we stretched ourselves and excelled)
Baseline Targets (what would be the minimum result we might accept to achieve)
I suggest that workshopping this with key people and arriving on budgets using the Stretch Targets approach is critical.
Blue Sky opens people’s minds to dream without committing to them. It then helps in getting ‘buy-in’ on tasking the team on achieving the Stretch Targets.
Baseline Targets should not be shared with the broader team and only used for comparison at an owners’ level.
3. Focused Pricing
A proactive and dynamic pricing regime must be adopted to maintain your competitive edge, particularly in an inflationary environment.
This includes:
Reviewing and increasing prices regularly (annually)
Understanding your pricing position within your industry
Understanding your cost inputs and passing these on in price increases wherever possible
Knowing your gross profit margin like family and protecting it
I encourage you to adopt an honest and consultative approach to explaining price increase to customers. Manage expectations in advance of price rises.
4. Productivity Reality
The virtual hybrid workplace, with working from home and remote work (gig economy), has introduced changes to the management of labour not seen in a hundred years.
While the employee experience from the hybrid or virtual workplace has been well received and documented, the impact on real productivity is yet to be fully revealed.
I encourage you to be more curious and lean in to assessing productivity within your business.
Do everything possible to measure and manage productivity.
Change brings change.
You and your management team will need to identify and introduce new ways to manage and measure productivity to ensure competitive advantage, margin and sustainability are protected.
In the end, the people that will determine your productivity will be your customers.
And by the time they tell you, it may be too late.
5. Outsourcing Ops
Conduct a review of internal operational functions. Focus on the most appropriate team member to complete operational workflow on time, cost and quality. Delegate, empower and re-jig the Org Chart. Reallocate operational tasks from you as owner, that can be done by others. Invite your management team to do the same.
Conduct a review of what external operational functions are in place and what other operational functions could be performed better or cheaper externally. Invite all team, members to present business cases for this. Offer trials to support this with the caveat that, should it not work, that the function will be return to being conducted internally.
Be dynamic, daring and transparent.
The only rider to this is that team members must present what ‘extra’ they are going to achieve or deliver by delegating or outsourcing operational load.
6. Powerful Projects
A game-changer in my work has been introducing projects to team members for the year ahead.
In additional to key functions, each team member has 1-3 Key Projects that they will focus on.
Project teams can be formed with rolling project team meetings, project plans and project software (Asana and other cost-effective software is available).
This creates a real dynamic change-up to empowerment, accountability and job satisfaction for team members.
But importantly, it creates a framework for the business to focus on achieving big things strategically.
Next time, in Part 2 of this blog, I’ll share another six compelling hacks and tactics to make this year in a business more enjoyable, productive, profitable and sustainable.
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Email me at darren@darrenkbourke.com to schedule a meeting (at no cost or obligation) to discuss how I can help you, your business and your team this year.