In the end, it is productivity that will produce better long-term profits and nothing else. Yes, you could come up with a great sales slogan or package your product in such a way that people will pay a higher price for it. But such techniques will not produce superior profits for the long-term simply because your competitors will emulate you and commoditize the product. Improving productivity is the only reliable technique for getting more money to your bottom line.
So, how do you get your business to be more productive? This boils down to having better processes for doing business and who would better know how to improve those processes but the people working in them. However, as we all know, getting those people to think about efficiency and then actually speak up about it is a monumental task all in its own. So here is an idea that I recently read about that might work.
Have an “Idea Campaign” that runs for maybe 2 weeks soliciting suggestions that might reduce waste and inefficiency. To provide the right incentive to participate, offer a reward to share the first year’s savings with whoever makes a suggestion this is actually implemented. Be upfront in your requirements that the suggestion be measurable in order to qualify.
There are lots of stories about big companies using this approach to save millions. I can think of no reason why it couldn’t be used by small companies to save thousands while giving employees a good reason to think of their company in a different light.
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