Here’s a question to ask yourself—Do you work for your business or does your business work for you? There’s a difference between the two, one follows an order, and the other one doesn’t. Knowing the difference can help you better sustain your company and maintain its relevance in the current market.
Sometimes you’re met with a certain set of people who think, “you know what? I’ve been an employee for too long. It’s time I run my own business!” For them, one of the sole purposes of creating their own company from the ground-up is because they don’t want to work for someone anymore; in other words, they want to be their own boss. This is fine, and in fact empowering. But for some of these people, their business gradually starts to crumble because the “employee mindset” never left them. The “go with the business’s flow” mentality won’t work when you’re running a business. You should always be prepared for the unexpected, and that means having the willingness to change the structure of your organization to adapt to the current situation, and not the other way around.
For example, people with an employee mindset might thing, “who’s going to run the company once I retire?” Their default is to hire a relative or second-in-line command to take the wheel, only to find out they aren’t exactly what they thought “the company needed.” It’s true, you can’t really pass down your ability to run a business through DNA, and neither can you guarantee your COO will be as good as the CEO before him. But the problem is when you keep thinking in terms of your business’s demands and not what the current market demands. Instead of constantly submitting to the fixed company system—just like a typical employee—learn to create and follow a certain order within your organization whenever change and adaptation is required to fit the needs of the market in which your company’s operating.
So for a business to sustain itself, it needs to have ORDER.
Perform an Organizational Structure Review — This includes taking a closer look at your business’s functional structure, organization chart, and analyzing its processes and important data such as financial data. These findings will help you stay aware of cashflow, how your business is doing business, who’s doing what and how they’re doing it.
This is the first step in figuring out whether or not you’re letting your business run the show, or you’re the one taking control of the situation according to the demands of the market, and not the demands of the company.
Rewrite job descriptions in position contracts — Now that you know how your company is functioning in the current market, it’s time that you reassess what each employee’s job within the company is. Avoid being rigid and allow room for flexibility in terms of your employees’ roles so that you don’t end up with multiple silo departments who refuse to work together because “it’s not what they were asked to do.”
Develop OKRs for each department — Objective Key Results help realign each employee’s departmental goals so that they work in favor of the company’s ultimate goal. Assuming that you already have a set goal you want to reach, you should be able to set OKRs for each department that are based on that goal. Working towards one goal will help achieve harmony within the organizational structure and create a sustainable system that will continue to work even after you retire and hand the reins over to someone else.
Evaluate processes and actual value — Is your product or service your providing really adding value to your clients’ lives? What separates you from the competition, and how can you convey that to your potential clients? Your company’s vision and goals should be key indicators of the value added by your product or service.
Roll out your new-and-improved system and get your people involved — It’s not mystery that Digital Transformation has become the goal everyone is striving to achieve. When you begin to lean into Digital Transformation, don’t leave your employees with questions. As soon as you replace an old system with a new one, get your executives, team leaders and members involved and make them feel that their opinions and ideas are valued.
Without these five components—without ORDER—no company can claim to be sustainable. Having these five components in place will help you more readily accept the changes that happen within the market and help you and your company adapt more easily. Remember, you company shouldn’t be the one taking the lead, you should.
Don’t know how or where to start? We can help you.
Case in Point will be able to create the kind of ORDER that is best suited for you and your goals within 3 to 6 months. Whether you’re a startup or a large corporation, it’s more than doable. Here’s what we’ll do for you:
- Design an organizational structure that delivers results
- Build position contracts that are readable by employees and highly applicable
- Develop an OKR strategy that is realistic, achievable, and ambitious, and also one that accurately reflects your vision and goals.
- Build key processes in a structured and accessible fashion, with minimal training required.
- Provide ongoing support to your team to ensure they deliver on their OKRs efficiently and skillfully.
Case in Point is all about effective, practical, fast, modern, and simple execution. We strive to design a strategy and structure that is as uncomplicated as it is ambitious.
Take your first steps towards becoming a true business owner and contact us at: [email protected].