Inefficiency in your company can have really negative consequences. It is the opposite if your company is efficient, that means your company is effective and efficient at the same time.
I have seen many small business owners who simply suffer to bring back their companies in the right way. Some of them are doing really wrong things, and some of them are doing the right things but in the wrong way. In such a case, you can’t know what is worse.
When I work on improvement projects with such companies, one of the first things that I do is try to find answers to five important questions that will define my and the entrepreneur’s future work to fix the currently broken company.
Here are these five questions that I think will help you to start thinking about a more systematic approach to managing your company.
1. Do you know what efficiency means for your company?
Yes, start with the meaning of efficiency in order to think about what negative effects bring inefficiency in the form of productivity, income, profitability, customer satisfaction, and so on. Remember that efficiency means to be effective and efficient, and in such a way, your business will do the right things in the right way.
2. Do you have written officially documented working procedures for all processes in your company?
In order to enable a high level of efficiency in your company, you need to have in place working procedures that will be implemented by your staff members and that will be improved on a continuous basis in order to improve your overall business efficiency. So, if you have written working procedures, that means you already have in the system that searches for possible inefficiencies and work on removing the causes of these inefficiencies. In other cases, you need to start immediately on preparing working procedures.
3. Are your working procedures ensure that your company’s processes are doing the right things for your company?
The next question is related to your business effectiveness or doing the right things for your company in order to reach the business goals. Because all working activities and tasks that your staff members will need to carry out are based on your working procedures, in large part, your working procedures will be responsible for the overall effectiveness of your company. So, if your working procedures ensure that your company is doing the right things, then you are in the right way. But, in another case, you will need to check all procedures and change them in order to ensure high-level efficiency instead of inefficiency.
4. Are your working procedures ensure that your company’s processes are doing things in the right way?
This question is related to efficiency or doing things that you are doing in the right way. Again, because your working procedures describe the work that will need to be done by you and your staff members, they will be responsible in large part for the efficiency of your company.
5. Do you have a system that will improve all other systems, processes, and their working procedures to ensure high efficiency in your company?
And the last question is about improvements, improvements based on your continuous search for possible inefficiency everywhere in your company. So, start asking yourself this question and if you answer positively then you are on the right way to having really great company, but if your answer is negative it is a strong sign that you need to make something in order to bring back your company on the right way.
