I've been asked many times what is the magic formula for building a successful small or mid-sized business. I usually answer that there is no magic just hard work and experience.
It’s certainly true that the success of a small or medium-sized business depends on consistently executing a well-defined mission, finding the right talent, setting goals, measuring progress towards those goals, and then addressing the inevitable when they occur. contradiction. It’s the latter part that’s really tricky!
With that in mind, here are my five no-nonsense magic formulas for small or medium-sized business success.
.Establish a compelling company mission. A clear and compelling mission not only attracts talent to the business and creates a strong sense of dedication in the team but also acts as the glue to keep team members united over time. When formulating a task, start with the why and not the how. For example, ask yourself why the company is in this field? Why can't other companies solve this problem?
Find the right talents. Finding talented people with the right skills and experience is crucial but this is the easy part. The hard part is finding people with the right personality. I'm looking for someone who enjoys working in a team.
Many smart and successful people do not work well in teams and it is more difficult to build a successful business with them, in part because the contradictions become more severe as the business grows. It's getting harder and harder to solve.
I also want to hire people who are change pioneers who have the instinctive ability to create plans, structures, and processes. These traits are critical because people who lack them simply cannot support a rapidly growing business. After all, employees' personality traits (their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors) and their commitment to the mission will foster a successful company culture.
.Set clear goals. Establishing progress toward long-term goals and short-term goals to support the mission is also critical to successful execution. Clearly articulating these goals will help ensure that your people and efforts are geared toward moving the business in the right direction.
Imagine you are a group of fish or a group of birds. If the goal is to move from point to point, if each individual organism moves in the direction of its own choosing, then the group will not make any progress.
In a workplace, every member of the company team should work towards a common goal.
.Ability to measure progress in real time. There isn’t much point in setting goals if it’s impossible to measure progress toward them. Align specific financial, operational, and process-oriented performance goals with specific activities that support them.
Measuring these activities against goals provides a clear picture that reflects progress toward long-term goals. Based on this blueprint and with input from the team and the market, goal support activities are continuously developed and refined and goals are measured to ensure continued successful execution.
.Be prepared to solve problems. No matter how successful a company is in developing a compelling product, hiring the right talent, and measuring progress toward its goals, issues related to strategy, execution, and culture will arise.
To solve problems I like to start with empirical data. I identify what the problem is based on progress toward measurable goals. Do we have customer profiles that are not adopting the company’s solutions? Are partners not moving forward with the company because of unanticipated issues? Finding empirical data points can help determine how big the problem is.
Then I address the root of the problem. Is the company failing to seize a particular opportunity? Are team members communicating effectively internally or having the right workflows in place? Is the company not providing enough service to consumers? Have competitors ever successfully countered the company's Information Communication System?
By bringing all the key stakeholders together in a room I asked them to write down what they believed were the root causes of the problem. We feel free to express our opinions fully until every possible issue has surfaced. Then I asked everyone to rate each presumed reason based on a total score. We focused our discussion on areas of disagreement.
This process allows us to quickly uncover and solve the biggest problems first. This is the opposite of what is done in other businesses (focus on areas of agreement and ignore outliers). But those who use such procedures say that although it is more difficult to do so, it promotes closer collaboration.
After all ensuring that there is agreement on methodological issues from all stakeholders and encouraging their dedication is the only way to help a business execute its plans effectively and produce a product that is better than any other company .
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