In over 16 years of my career working with different organisations and being lucky enough to work in different positions over the years, I have finely studiedthe key factors that drive any company.
Just as any employee has various competencies organisations i realized are successful whenthey focus on these 5 factors.
- People
- Process
- Productivity
- Precision
- Profits
People:People, both Internal and external (Employees, Customers and Suppliers), are the most important part of an organisation. Successful organisations focus on developing internal people and building trust with external people. There are numerous studies and techniques available in the market and enough has been written even on LinkedIn on how to address this factor. The most important part of the people factor is to foster a sense of ownership. Constant recognition and clear growth path must be visible to all employees.
Process:All Successful organisations have one common factor, well defined strong processes to address all areas of activities. Strong processes not necessarily rigid but well defined ones which are flexible to accommodate the day to day changing business requirements are very important. Successful organisations have their processes defined and easily accessible to their employees and also spend considerable time to explain them to their customers and suppliers.
Productivity: Productive organisations usually have great teams working with wonderful customers and have well defined processes in place. But just having great teams and processes can also lead to complacent behavior resulting in lack of productivity. It is a must for every organisations to track productivity and always maintain clear goals on productivity. Hence productivity i consider one of the key factor for a successful organisation.
Precision:Precision also called Quality ispart of the project management triangle. I have noticed that organisations in their quest to meet productivity goals have a tendency to overlook precision or quality. Most often this have lead to rework resulting in losses. Precision has to be the basic factor before productivity always. With the constant evolution of systems today there are various tools available that can monitor Precision at every interval to avoid costly rework.
Profits: If an organisation is not profitable it is in the wrong business. The above four factors by default should enable any successful organisation to be profitable. Profits are necessary for continuous improvements, innovations and growth. Organisations should clearly focus on profits as a fifth factor.
The business owners who get the above five factors right usually are the most successful people we read about. The above factors are not difficult to achieve if one can look at the five factors from a dispassionate view.
Having been personally a part of a successful company and also having had the opportunity to study different organisations I can say the 5 factors mentioned above is what can drive any organisation to be hugely successful.
