Monday, February 11, 2008

What do most Business Owners Have in Common?

Over the years I have dealt with all types and sizes of businesses. I have seen all types and sizes of problems as well as quite a variety of solutions that emerge to resolve them. Throughout my experiences in consulting various companies and working to unravel the difficulties they sometimes encounter a very basic common denominator is always present. That common denominator is the inability to confront or perceive what is really
going on.

Now, there can be a number of ways that that common denominator manifests itself. It can be an owner or manager who is unable to face staff so turns a blind eye to what may be happening in the various areas. It might be that there is too much “wishful thinking” going on because confronting what the “dangerous” scene really is unpalatable. It may also be something as simple as not being able to perceive because one has no information in an area such as statistics that reflect the production and viability of the company.

Most businesses to some degree or another use statistics. Few however use them to measure the individual production of each staff member or areas of the practice. It can seem like a formidable task but it doesn’t have to be if one has a basic understanding of organization and what products are really important to its survival.

If an individual staff knows what it is he or she is supposed to produce and it can be measured then it is not difficult to assign him a statistic that will reflect
his production.

One of the first steps in solving the common denominator is being able to measure one’s production so that one can confront and “see”.

This is an amazing step for most people as it puts them into a position where they can now be in charge of what happens in their own practice as, for the first time, they can actually “see what’s happening.”

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