A common goal among all businesses, regardless of size, is to grow and prosper. This will require a well-researched and carefully executed plan based on each business’s unique environment. This sounds cut and dried on the surface, yet today's business and economic environment has heavy undercurrents that can easily drag any business's growth plan under.
Every organization has a culture that is truly their own. This creates great diversity in every industry. Smaller organizations, as well as large corporations, work to co-exist in any industry.
Growth and profitability are common threads among both small and large organizations. These goals must take many factors into account. One key component of this process is the unique set of assets accessible to an organization, which must be carefully evaluated. Every business must also navigate the current industry environment and its impact on their plans for forward growth and economic prosperity.
Positive growth is achieved not only by relying on previous successes. In reality, more knowledge is gleaned from past failures if they are used advantageously.
Lessons learned from past experience are a very powerful asset when taken strictly as data used to move forward. I say that, because many times, lessons learned can lead to potential finger pointing and calling individuals out as scapegoats for failure. The more extensive the recovery process for the failure, the higher the chance that one or more individuals will be singled out. In today's chaotic business landscape of inventory unavailability, exorbitant costs and staff shortages, it is easy to escalate an issue from easily solved to an all encompassing mess.
I have seen situations where a senior and very skilled designer had an error occur in their work, due to high work load and or time constraints. Management used this situation to chastise this employee, while not looking into the true environment the designer was in when the error occurred. This error was costly and required both in house and field rework.
I cite this example to point out an important factor in positive growth: corporate culture. If the corporate culture is not open to being transparent and digging deep enough to find the root of an issue, there will be very little interest in even discussing lessons learned. These valuable lessons will then be relegated to a spreadsheet somewhere and of no benefit in forward-thinking plans. Good luck finding people who will try to solve past issues when real issues get ignored at a corporate level. It is a true recipe for failure, as well as alienating your best employees.
Too often, company culture is assumed to be good when management sees no active issues on their radar. When culture related issues go undisclosed or employees just chalk problems up to "the way that it is" the best and most reliable people in an organization become uninterested in continuous improvement. This attitude, if allowed to spread, will become a major roadblock to the growth of the business. Even the most dedicated and reliable employee will see that their efforts are not being recognized eventually. When this happens, lack of interest in other than “just doing my job” becomes the norm.
An additional concern today is the material availability related to vendor timelines and the cost. Finding reliable shops to fabricate material as needed has also become a major challenge, as many shops have closed or greatly reduced capacities. If a business requires high volumes of purchased or fabricated products, the challenge can set a business back months on a project.
Management must be actively involved in planning and developing any forward-thinking business plan. However, decision-makers can easily get wrapped up in the challenges of vendor supply and timeline issues, as these challenges are high-profile and always on the radar. However, these high profile and high visibility issues are not the only areas of concern.
To ensure success, a review of corporate culture, employee skills, and experience must be part of any established plan. In any organization, there are employees of multiple experience levels. All employees in an organization have something to add to the growth of the business in some way. Respecting employees and their skills when deciding on where to establish responsibilities and how to set up policies is just as critical as material concerns.
As a final thought, I leave you with this: starting with an internal review of your organization's assets (regarding employees and their experience) will give your growth plan the most solid foundation. When people and their work are respected, they will become your best edge to increase ROI (return on investment). Industry situations will fluctuate, as will the economic environment. However, a respected employee who will find a solution in a crisis will be a rock that your organization can rely on even when external situations change.
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