Here are some of the issues I hear as we enter the back nine, or last six months of the year. Sales are up as profits are down. Things are a bit chaotic, seems like we’ve outgrown our processes. Our staff is comfortable, and borderline complacent. And our initiatives just seem to take longer to complete than they should. Does this sound like you? Well, as you enter the second half of the year, you have an opportunity to right the ship and make the changes necessary to have a successful year.
If you’re planning your next quarterly leadership meeting, encourage everyone to do the pre-work so that your team is prepared to discuss these issues. Make sure that the team leaders from sales, operations, manufacturing, and finance are all prepared with the information they’ll need to get at the root cause of these concerns.
Where are the Profits?
Things seemed to be going so well, and then the bottom fell out of the profit bucket! So, what changed? Was it the mix of business – work that was coming in at a lower value added or lower gross margin? Was it price concessions – have some of your key accounts put out RFP’s, which has forced you to sharpen your pencil? Or perhaps an influx of new business, which is good, but and that you had to compete for it and margins should improve once you’re in? Or maybe it is operations taking longer to produce the work than was estimated – due to staff issues or the work really didn’t fit your shop to begin with? Or perhaps some equipment issues – that delayed preventative maintenance decision has caught up to you.
The point here, is that it could be a variety of issues. Hence the importance of having team members from all the disciplines sitting around the table hashing this out.
Time to Re-visit the SOPs
Why is it that all a sudden you can’t seem to get out of your own way? No, not on all the work you do but on some. It just seems the more that you try to fix it the more it goes sideways. I see this often whereas companies grow, or the product mix changes, the process and procedures that got them to where they are, are no longer as relevant as they should be for today’s business conditions. It means it’s time to look at how you process the work, how you stage it, and what expectations that you make throughout your organization for getting the work done. Very rarely is this a major overhaul, usually it just requires a few tweaks from what I’ve seen. Leaving this unchecked, though can create an impediment, or an internal speed bump in your operations.
Engage the Team
If you sense your team members have become a bit too comfortable, borderline on complacency, it’s time to help them get reengaged in the work that they’re doing. This can begin by addressing the situation head on – let them know that while you value everything that they do, things have gotten a bit casual. It may mean that you’re missing details, or worse, missing delivery dates. It may mean that you’re not quite as responsive to your customers as you once were, or to what they expected. Take a hard look at your specific symptoms, talk to your team about it, and engage them to come up with ways to overcome this challenge.
Make Better, Timely Decisions
If you’re initiatives seem to drag on and are not getting done on a timely schedule, one place I might look is how you make decisions. As you begin each meeting, a question should be asked, “what decisions need to be made by the end of this meeting?” Part two of this question is, “who will be the final decision maker?” Full disclosure – it’s not always the person sitting at the head of the table. The person who owns the issues, who owns the work, and who will own the outcome of this decision is often the final decision maker. Bain Consulting has written extensively on efficient decision making and I’d recommend their insights if you want to improve your process.
These are my thoughts, but what’s working for you? How are you working to keep the momentum of your business going, while leveraging the opinions and experience of your team. Please add your thoughts and comments below.
Mike Philie helps owners and CEOs in the Graphic communications industry validate what’s working, identify what needs to change, and create a practical path forward.
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