Business Process Strategy

Trying to be great at all things is a guaranteed loser. Your business must be truly great at something that appeals to your customers and adequate at all others. When you identify what you are, or hope to be great at, you need to identify all those business process that support that “one thing”.

For example, let’s say your “one thing” is superior delivery. You get it there on time, every time, with all the right stuff. That’s why your customers prize you over your competitors. Obviously, your delivery systems must be superb. Additionally, the systems that directly support the delivery systems must be above average. Your inventory system needs to provide the goods for delivery on time, every time. However, if your billing system isn’t the world’s greatest, your customers won’t leave. If billing was so important to them, they would already have left for the competitor with the superior billing process that probably isn’t that good at delivering on time.

When you identify the processes critical for the application of your business strategy, you know what processes need to be constantly improved to stay on top of your game. I recommend you formally review these systems at least once a year to explore what else can be done to keep them in superb shape.

The other processes only require being adequate to good. To spend money and time building a truly superb payroll system when your business advantage is speedy delivery is a waste of resources and poor management. Instead, regularly review the list of these processes and ask, “Is this business process adequate?” Fix those that are not and then go back to work on your critical processes.