#294: 3 common factors for success
How to use a quality control system to improve your chances of becoming a successful business
In 2012 “The Economist” published a 12-year study of over 20,000 businesses from around the World; 150+ Business Researchers, Economists, and others have identified the “formula for success” for business. To be successful, it comes down to three simple principles. All successful companies are using these tactics.
This group looked at over 50 factors that influence good and successful businesses. They looked at the market, product, individual elements like logistics, and research & development. Although each has influence, they become a subset of the three overriding principles.
Setting Clear Goals & Objectives for the Organization from the top down
Setting & Identifying Clear Measures and Standards for each activity within the organization
Setting & honoring Clear Deadlines or Timelines
By executing these principles, a business should be successful, and it makes perfect sense. A leader must be willing to accept responsibility for results. Objectives for your organization must be transparent to all in the organization. Each department should establish its goals & objectives that support the organization’s goals.
Objectives must be easily monitored, measured, and managed. Every activity within the organization must be known, and the ability to time it must be developed. Then, when you measure, you can improve and set goals for those improvements.
From the early writings of Drucker to Deming and many iterations since quality control systems have been developed for organizations. TQM, SPC, QS, and many other acronyms for systems all say the same thing; say what you are going to do, then do what you say”. The one quality system that I like to think about when setting goals, objectives, and targets is the 6-sigma process, or at least the Lean Six Sigma (LSS). The aim is to improve your technique continuously. If you continue to improve, your results will also improve.
For example, let’s look at continuous improvement in top-line revenue. Sales growth is your organization’s ongoing goal. If you use this process, you will improve your chances to be a success!
DMAIC
Define
Your objective is to grow sales, so in this stage, we define what part of the sales process we can control. These processes could include; marketing programs in social media, discounts packaging, placement, cold calls, and closing ratios.
What we can’t control are external factors like the overall economy, interest rates, pandemics, or government programs that may affect our marketability - that’s for another article. You need to be aware of them, but you can’t control them.
Measure it regularly; this could be weekly, monthly, or quarterly (at the least)
Defining the time to measure is product and service dependent. For example, if you are in an industry with a long sales cycle, six months or more, you aren’t looking at sales weekly. However, you are looking at the progress of every prospect along the way. For example, if you expect a deal in month six, proposals must be written in month three, and presentations and negotiations in month four. Those are the processes you can control here.
Analyze where you are, compared to where you should be. Find out what is working and what’s not
The programs that you defined early in the year should be analyzed. Are the marketing pieces gaining traction? Are you closing percentages what they should be?
What went wrong if you expected ten appointments from marketing piece A and only have three? Unfortunately, we can’t wait until the end of a long period to do an after-action report.
Improve the process to improve the results
Change the script if you need to, add in additional social media programs, for example, eliminate the low ROI activities
Control it by defining when it is out of control
Anyone can have a bad day or week, but the process is out of control when that happens two or three weeks in a row.
In the quality world, we use the acronym OCAP, out of control action plan. If you do have a process that is out of control, Plan B should be ready to implement. Your process control sheet should have If this - then that process embedded from the beginning. If a process gets out of control, you are already behind, and now is not the time to brainstorm the next steps.
Take a look at the goals and objectives of the organization. If they are important enough for the C-Suite to pay attention to them, don’t you think this type of thought and analysis needs to be put into the planning?
LSS / DMAIC is a stand-alone quality system that can be implemented in nearly every product or service type. Remember, we control three things in our business: people, products, and processes. DMAIC is a way to focus on the process to ensure you are improving.
If you have a tough time defining any or all of the DMAIC principles, give us a call at the Kole Performance Group! CLICK HERE to access the calendar to setup a free 30-minute consultation.