Ordinary People Can Produce Extraordinary Results

Many Local business owners and managers have spoken of the difficulties of finding, attracting and retaining a qualified and committed workforce in Southwest Florida. Local wage rates are low by national standards and competition is keeping them that way.

And yet, the demand for talented workers increases at an astonishing rate as the area continues to grow. Is there a solution in the foreseeable future? Ironically, the typical service based businesses of Southwest Florida may find their answers in the practices of the hugely successful multi-billion dollar manufacturing and service based companies of the north; companies like Ford, Xerox, Motorola, AT&T and so on.

Over the past 15 years, these and hundreds of other organizations have had to dramatically restructure and downsize their organizations or face extinction. In the process, they learned a very important lesson: a business that is solely dependent on the knowledge and talent of key employees is destined to fail.

Michael Gerber, in his excellent books on small business and entrepreneurship titled The E-Myth and The E-Myth Revisited claims that "it is literally impossible to produce a consistent result in a business that depends on extraordinary people. No business can do it for long, and no extraordinary business tries to."

So what is the alternative? Create system-dependent businesses, not people-dependent businesses.

Systems are a set of proven processes that an employee or team follows to ensure customers' and company's requirements are being met. Simply put, systems are a way of doing things - they are a set of steps (step 1, then step 2, then step 3 etc.) that when carried out in order, will get the job done right. When effective systems are documented and in place in all areas of the business and employees are fully trained, an organization can begin to realize results that yield consistently high levels of customer satisfaction.

At a recent conference in Orlando, hundreds of very successful, system-dependent organizations came together under one roof to share their successes and accomplishments as well as to learn 'best practices' from other organizations. What I am referring to is one of the premier quality conferences in the nation: the Fifth Annual Florida Sterling Quality Conference.

A key part of this conference is the Quality Team Showcase where winning teams from each of six regions in Florida compete based upon significant process improvements they have undergone to increase quality, retain customers and decrease costs. SW Florida's own region 5 produced the Yoder Brothers "17 Days In May" team. This enthusiastic and articulate team presented to the hundreds in attendance how they were able to restore on-time shipping and customer satisfaction at the same time as improving their operational efficiency by 68% resulting in cost reductions of over $400,000 annually.

Other teams shared different stories yet they had key things in common. First, they all spoke in terms of processes. Second, they achieved dramatic results. Specific results included improving public safety, saving jobs and saving over $1 million dollars.

The encouraging thing for SW Florida business owners and managers is they can achieve results in these areas, plus many more. Effective systems and processes in the workplace allows one to:

1. Reduce costs

Don't pay for talent you don't need. Using systems, MacDonalds has found ways to deliver consistent, high levels of service with minimum wage earning teenagers around the world.

How much would you save if everything you did was done right the first time, effectively eliminating all errors, waste and re-work?

2. Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty

Consider yourself as the customer. Think of how wonderful it is to deal with a business when regardless of whom you speak with, you are confident that they will be courteous and provide you with a level of service that meets all of your needs. Why would you go anywhere else?

3. Take vacations without waking up with the 4 AM sweats

How would it feel to know that you could step away from the business for a day, week or even a month, yet be confident that the overall level of service to customers would remain unchanged?

4. Maintain service levels despite employee turnover

Consider the employees in your organization. Are there one or more key employees that are so heavily relied on because no one knows their job? What if they left tomorrow?

5. Grow the business successfully

Have you ever considered opening a second location or expanding your business scope but can't because you are unable to remove yourself from the current operations or find another person who has the knowledge to make it happen?

6. Sell the business more quickly and for more money

Business sales and acquisition professionals tell us that the greatest concern of buyers is the transfer of knowledge. When the owner sells the business and leaves, the new owner is unsure whether he/she possesses sufficient knowledge of the business to continue operations successfully.

In future articles, we will discuss how to use systems and other performance tools and strategies to improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, reduce costs and achieve peace of mind.

BPM International's Total Customer Satisfaction Team provides contemporary business solutions for growing organizations. They specialize in customer satisfaction, quality & process improvement consultation and implementation. For more information on this topic or the Florida Governor Sterling Quality Awards and Conference contact BPM International - The Krypton Institute at (941) 495-3552.