How do you Create a Daily Ritual ? [Supercharge Your Business]
Excerpt from Supercharge Your Business by Simon Weiner
General InformationTo maintain an overall view of the company and to identify value-added opportunities, it’s important to create and keep time available for reviewing the business activities and determining why things are done in a certain way and how they could be done differently.As I mentioned at the beginning of this book, the business person is probably too busy working on operational issues and, therefore, lack of time is a real limitation. However, without this extra time for the process I will describe, nothing will change. The business person has to make that important step and organize his or her schedule so he or she can identify those value-added business ideas.So let’s get to the core of this chapter.Stepping back only requires the business person to allocate a meaningful time to review (say half an hour per day in the morning to ensure he or she is still fresh and not preoccupied by current operational activities). That time should ONLY be used to focus on developing value in the organization by reviewing the material areas in the company (rather than thinking about day-to-day operational matters) and putting a plan together on how to realise the internal business value-added opportunities. Naturally, it would make sense, if a small team of people were involved, as “two heads are better than one,” and I propose creating a short-term value-added team. It is worth noting, though, that having such a team may also be problematical because its meetings involve discussing changes as well as questioning assumptions that may have existed over a longer time and may have become very personal. But as long as the team members are open to new ideas, quick wins will demonstrate that this is the way forward. Additionally, one team member needs to play the “advisor,” very much like the king’s jester at court, to ensure potentially lucrative opportunities are not overlooked by the old and conventional ways of doing things. What we are simply trying to do here is brainstorm value-added internal business ideas for further discussion. No idea should be too outrageous at this point, as an even better one might occur. Also criticism may reduce active participation because people will be worried about looking foolish. The CEO must clarify that this is a learning exercise and not an opportunity to criticise existing practices; otherwise, the whole process could lead to bitterness and recriminations. Team members can bring up a problem as long as they have an idea that might solve it. There also needs to be company social recognition for the team’s efforts and fair financial rewarding for members contributions when appropriate.Having a value-added team during the discussions also means it should be easier to sell the ideas of changes to the management and staff, making implementation so much easier.Ideally, the meetings should be in a conference room or similar place, away from the normal working environments, to avoid any interference like emails, text messages, phone calls, etc.
The DetailsOnce the 30 minutes a day have been set aside and the team has been chosen and motivated, the members can start focusing on working through the following five steps:1. Identify some value-added opportunities (1-2 weeks maximum). 2. Identify best possible solutions through financial analysis, based on 80/20 rule, with estimated value of solution (3 weeks maximum).3. Plan on how to implement the best possible solutions (1 week maximum).4. Implementation (this will take several months, but the relevant project manager will report separately to the CEO and not to the team).5. Post-implementation review to determine whether the expected results have been realised or not. (The implementation review itself takes 2 weeks maximum; however, since it takes several months or years to see the full value-added benefits, the review will happen over an extensive period for the different value-added projects.)Clearly—as can be seen from the above—the whole process of identifying value-added opportunities worth execution really does not take that much time. What does take time is implementation, and the period required is obviously dependent on its complexity. However, as we are talking about simple solutions here, the implementation period should really be less than 6 months.I have mentioned the 80/20 rule in the 5 steps, and it is especially important when people’s time is constrained. The 80/20 rule is based on the fact that 80% of the benefits can be achieved with 20% of the total effort, meaning in our case any business can benefit from the majority of the value added without too much effort. For detailed explanation on the 80/20 rule, please refer to the back of the book.It would make sense for the 5 steps to be included on a physical board, so they stand out during the meeting. This board should otherwise be locked away temporarily as the information could be sensitive.
Please see a possible example of physical board below:
There may be a number of management and staff opportunities and then there would be a line for each. This chart must be completed and kept up to date. It is essential that best estimated values are given to each opportunity, as this board will be used to determine which ones to tap and which ones not to pursue because they are insignificant or will take a disproportionate amount of time.
Therefore, the daily ritual will involve identifying opportunities, finding solutions, planning, implementing and reviewing the material value-added internal business opportunities until the 80/20 rule indicates this is no longer worthwhile. The next chapter will show how exactly this is done, but it also will bring you closer to discovering that golden nugget.
Excerpt from Supercharge Your Business by Simon Weiner
General InformationTo maintain an overall view of the company and to identify value-added opportunities, it’s important to create and keep time available for reviewing the business activities and determining why things are done in a certain way and how they could be done differently.As I mentioned at the beginning of this book, the business person is probably too busy working on operational issues and, therefore, lack of time is a real limitation. However, without this extra time for the process I will describe, nothing will change. The business person has to make that important step and organize his or her schedule so he or she can identify those value-added business ideas.So let’s get to the core of this chapter.Stepping back only requires the business person to allocate a meaningful time to review (say half an hour per day in the morning to ensure he or she is still fresh and not preoccupied by current operational activities). That time should ONLY be used to focus on developing value in the organization by reviewing the material areas in the company (rather than thinking about day-to-day operational matters) and putting a plan together on how to realise the internal business value-added opportunities. Naturally, it would make sense, if a small team of people were involved, as “two heads are better than one,” and I propose creating a short-term value-added team. It is worth noting, though, that having such a team may also be problematical because its meetings involve discussing changes as well as questioning assumptions that may have existed over a longer time and may have become very personal. But as long as the team members are open to new ideas, quick wins will demonstrate that this is the way forward. Additionally, one team member needs to play the “advisor,” very much like the king’s jester at court, to ensure potentially lucrative opportunities are not overlooked by the old and conventional ways of doing things. What we are simply trying to do here is brainstorm value-added internal business ideas for further discussion. No idea should be too outrageous at this point, as an even better one might occur. Also criticism may reduce active participation because people will be worried about looking foolish. The CEO must clarify that this is a learning exercise and not an opportunity to criticise existing practices; otherwise, the whole process could lead to bitterness and recriminations. Team members can bring up a problem as long as they have an idea that might solve it. There also needs to be company social recognition for the team’s efforts and fair financial rewarding for members contributions when appropriate.Having a value-added team during the discussions also means it should be easier to sell the ideas of changes to the management and staff, making implementation so much easier.Ideally, the meetings should be in a conference room or similar place, away from the normal working environments, to avoid any interference like emails, text messages, phone calls, etc.
The DetailsOnce the 30 minutes a day have been set aside and the team has been chosen and motivated, the members can start focusing on working through the following five steps:1. Identify some value-added opportunities (1-2 weeks maximum). 2. Identify best possible solutions through financial analysis, based on 80/20 rule, with estimated value of solution (3 weeks maximum).3. Plan on how to implement the best possible solutions (1 week maximum).4. Implementation (this will take several months, but the relevant project manager will report separately to the CEO and not to the team).5. Post-implementation review to determine whether the expected results have been realised or not. (The implementation review itself takes 2 weeks maximum; however, since it takes several months or years to see the full value-added benefits, the review will happen over an extensive period for the different value-added projects.)Clearly—as can be seen from the above—the whole process of identifying value-added opportunities worth execution really does not take that much time. What does take time is implementation, and the period required is obviously dependent on its complexity. However, as we are talking about simple solutions here, the implementation period should really be less than 6 months.I have mentioned the 80/20 rule in the 5 steps, and it is especially important when people’s time is constrained. The 80/20 rule is based on the fact that 80% of the benefits can be achieved with 20% of the total effort, meaning in our case any business can benefit from the majority of the value added without too much effort. For detailed explanation on the 80/20 rule, please refer to the back of the book.It would make sense for the 5 steps to be included on a physical board, so they stand out during the meeting. This board should otherwise be locked away temporarily as the information could be sensitive.
Why not Supercharge Your Business & Never Worry about Money Again? RT https://t.co/hZW71TRjqu #smallbiz #business— Simon Weiner CGMA (@simondweiner) November 26, 2015
Please see a possible example of physical board below:
There may be a number of management and staff opportunities and then there would be a line for each. This chart must be completed and kept up to date. It is essential that best estimated values are given to each opportunity, as this board will be used to determine which ones to tap and which ones not to pursue because they are insignificant or will take a disproportionate amount of time.
Therefore, the daily ritual will involve identifying opportunities, finding solutions, planning, implementing and reviewing the material value-added internal business opportunities until the 80/20 rule indicates this is no longer worthwhile. The next chapter will show how exactly this is done, but it also will bring you closer to discovering that golden nugget.
Excerpt from Supercharge Your Business by Simon Weiner
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