Don Dennison

The Four Pillars of business growth!



Posted: Sunday, September 14, 2008

by Don Dennison
One Cup International consulting Group

Let's continue our series on The Four Pillars of business growth. The Four Pillars are Company Product Value Assurance, Business Alignment, Strategic Planning for Sales and Operations, and Management Complexity. In this article, we want to look at Business Alignment, which can mean something different to each person reading this article. To make it a little simpler, let's look at targeting your business customer and company focus.

I want to start with targeting your core business. What do I mean by this? For an Office Coffee Service (OCS), it is where your best accounts can generate the most dollars. In my 20 years in business, it has always been one firm that can generate the most dollars for your company. How do you get this kind of loyalty to your company? You need to go back to the basics in sales, Building Relationships. You need to teach your sales people to go after quality, not quantity accounts. All the computer companies that are doing business with retailers need to look at it the same way. Now when it comes to being a furniture retail store, the Building Relationship principle really applies, because you only have a few moments to build a relationship to get them to buy your product. However, don't kid yourselves price is still a factor.

The company focus equates to profits, so let's look at the differences between an average company and a great company. The average company is not goal-directed, and it usually makes decisions when in a crisis. They forget how important it is to train their operational and sales people. The great company is goal-directed and they invest in their sales and operational people. The most important point in this kind of company is the awareness of their investment in their own people, which makes for a great return in their profits.

The leader of the company should see further down the road than those around him or her, and knows where they are going. If you don't know where you are going, then how can you expect your people to know? A leader can't lead until he knows where he is going. The leader's focus gives the company its direction. Let me give you a list of attributes that great leaders possess. The most important one is just plain hard work. After hard work comes imagination, self-discipline, courtesy, honesty, perseverance, faith, courage, showmanship, product knowledge, self-confidence, conviction, organization, enthusiasm, service awareness, personal appearance, desire, setting goals, motivation, and finally, a nice personality. Wow! Possessing all of these qualities can seem overwhelming!

Let me close with some final words. Can we really do all this? Yes, I believe we can, by taking one step at a time. As we live our lives each day, we can choose to grow or stay the same. I want to grow and change I hope you want to do the same. In the next two articles, we will cover Strategic Planning for Sales and Operations.

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