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High Performance Culture

4/30/2015

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Creating A High Performance Culture
Aligning team goals & personal values


A couple traveled over-land from the United Kingdom, across Asia to Australia. They then wrote a travel guide very much in-line with “the hippie trail travel culture” prevalent in the 1970s. It was a success and grew over the decades into the largest travel guides company in the world. This is a great story of building a business based on experience, values and culture embraced by the founders of the business.

Business culture is an expression of the values, vision, mission and goals of an organization as practiced and expressed by the people involved in the business.

With outsourcing an integral part of business practice, the culture of a business can also be shaped by suppliers and external agencies that provide support services.

At the early stages of a business when the number of owners and staff are small it is easy to communicate the values, vision, mission and goals to shape the business culture.

As staff numbers increase and as more external agencies collaborate to grow the business a sense of cultural cohesion and common purpose may be lost. This can be due to the pressures arising from doing what seems to be necessary to achieve daily business targets.

High performance businesses tend to have a performance driven culture with attributes that include:

1. Across the business from leaders to shop floor staff there is an embrace of shared values, vision, mission and goals.

2. There is a sense of accountability with duties and responsibilities clearly defined and accepted.

3. There are channels that facilitate timely coordinated action based on insights from analysis of data and information.

4. There is an established timely conflict resolution process to resolve issues in a fair and just manner.

5. A trusted mechanism to collect, analyse and communicate reliable data and information to all parties for timely action is in place.
 
Creating a high performance culture requires taking the right action. The top leadership have to lead through example. There should be a critical assessment of the fundamental values of the business. In defining the vision, mission and goals the realities of the market need to be understood.

Modeling and benchmarking tools should be utilized to set standards for conduct and work performance. It is important to understand industry and regulatory requirements when setting standards within the business.

A business system based on the values, vision and mission should be designed to promote a high performance work culture. Members of business teams should be guided towards implementing goals within the framework of this business system.

The more a team believes in a business culture, the more they will act based on the values of the business. It is worth investing in creating such a culture. Spend time aligning the personal values of your team members with this culture to achieve high performance.

Siddha Param
International Business Consultant

Reboot your business plan for sustained high growth

Click For Link To:

CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE

BUSINESS EXCHANGE DIRECTORY

Do share this article on social media and with those interested

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brand identity

4/23/2015

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Your Brand Your Identity
Adding value to business


Do consumers recognise your brand?
Do you identify with your brand?

A Consistent Standard Across The Business 
If you were asked to describe the picture of a burger franchise with a giant M sign chances are you will describe an M that looks like 2 giant yellow arches. You may even be able to describe the popular items on the menu. Such businesses invest in branding that covers every aspect of a consumer’s experience. The brand can invoke happiness in every meal by establishing a standard for service, outlet ambiance and meal packaging.

A brand is an emotional message designed to create a bond of trust with the customer who is then drawn to buy from the business.

The lessons we learn from successful brands from the food to the electronic industry to practically every successful business is, a message of standards you can expect and trust. 

A Single Source of Standards
Branding cannot be limited to mere names and slogans promoted by a marketing department separate from the rest of the business.

Branding begins with a code of conduct across the business organization that sets standards for all individuals involved in the business from purchasing to production and delivery to customers.

There has to be a single source of standards that are inculcated into the team so that it becomes a business culture that guides attitudes and practices. 

Tell The Story of Your Business
All business begins with an idea that gets organised into a plan of action to deliver a certain quality standard in a manner that creates paying customers.

Even the largest corporations in the world tell us stories. Many are familiar with the story of a technology company that started in a garage which then grew into a Silicon Valley business that attracted very talented engineers to design and create products to delight the world.

Use your business story to create a personal resonance with consumers and the wider community. Associate your brand with this story. At relatively little cost, you can create a web based video to tell your story to a wide audience. This could lead to you competing very effectively against even the largest of global corporations.   

Make sure that all actions in your business are consistent with the standards you set and practice. Focus on the uniqueness of your offering in your story telling. It is vital to stay true to your declared standards and to deliver on your promise to consumers.

Take Advantage of Market Knowledge
In today’s world the internet allows us to collect and analyse market information on consumer, business and social trends.

There is plenty of data from your own business, the industry, consumers, consultants and government that can be analysed to help you identify your market.  

Set up a system to collect and analyse data and information. Knowledge gained through data and information analysis is the fuel that drives success in today’s knowledge economy.

Stay ahead of the competition by being the business with a brand, that represents consistent standards; and, delivers innovative offerings that delight consumers.

Siddha Param
International Business Consultant

Reboot your business plan for sustained high growth

Click For Link To:

CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE

BUSINESS EXCHANGE DIRECTORY

Do share this article on social media and with those interested

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Sales opportunities

4/16/2015

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Create Sustained High Growth
Generate sales opportunities 


Some businesses seem to take off almost immediately upon start-up only to slow down over time. The truly enduring businesses very often start slow, building up gradually along a sustained growth path over the long haul.

The challenge faced by businesses in a highly competitive environment is how much easier it is for new businesses to appear almost suddenly as market disruptors displacing older established businesses. An example of this is the emergence of online shopping.

Already, weather patterns such as heavy winter snowstorms have combined with easy use of electronic platforms to grow online shopping at the expense of big box stores.

Electronic commerce is rapidly transforming small businesses into Micro-multinational Businesses in direct competition with giant Multinational Corporations. This is because the world is getting more wired up and individuals who invest time in learning new stuff tend to create more sales opportunities for their business.

Lucky sales people are simply individuals who have invested in the right mindset to create and seize opportunities around them.       

It is better to make business opportunities than to wait for business opportunities.

Constantly Acquire Industry Knowledge
Knowledge creates opportunities. Invest in continual lifelong learning. Read books, magazines and any information you can get on your business and the interest of your prospective customers. Attend conferences, business meetings and events to learn. Listen to key industry players. Knowledge is transferable. The wise business individual stays interested and tuned-in to knowledge and new ideas.

Stay Focused on Customer Satisfaction
Business is about generating profits through sales and investments in customers. Seek out information and study changes in attitudes within the community you serve. Be genuinely interested in the people who buy your offerings. As consumer needs are continually evolving, be focused on identify emerging trends and sales opportunities.

Have Ambitious Goals
To grow a business it is important to desire self-growth. This is essential for sustaining ambition and a desire to succeed.

Take time-out to explore the world around you. Reconnect with your inner desires and values. Nourish your body and spirit. Make time to enjoy simple pleasures like quality time with friends and family. Get involved in hobbies. By having a balanced and healthy lifestyle you can remain energized to achieve ambitious goals.

Make sure you arrive at the work place truly refreshed and with a positive outlook to life. This will help you to stay focused on identifying sales opportunities even in very challenging situations.

It is possible to sell refrigerators to eskimos. After all most Winnipeg homes still do run refrigerators in winter! Business is very much about going out into the real world with a positive mindset to understand consumer needs with a constant eye on identifying sales opportunities.    

Sales opportunities come to those who continually stay positive, seek advice and remain engaged with the community.

Remember, a learning business is more often an earning business.

Siddha Param
International Business Consultant

Reboot your business plan for sustained high growth

Click For Link To:

CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE

BUSINESS EXCHANGE DIRECTORY

Do share this article on social media and with those interested

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Competitiveness & collaboration

4/9/2015

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Leading Your High Performance Specialist Team
Harness competitiveness through collaboration


A lady headed out to a region where there was an oil and gas boom. The plan was to set up a sandwich truck near an oil and gas drilling site to serve the numerous workers needing a quick lunch. The high salaries of workers translated into higher prices and greater profits. Soon, she received an unexpected request from an oil and gas company to deliver 10,000 sandwiches per day!

The challenge emerged for the business owner to very quickly assemble a team to, start a bakery; transport large quantities of ingredients to the remote location; train sandwich makers and service staff; and deliver the finished products to the customer on time for lunch every day. This was an opportunity that required leadership skills in assembling a team of specialist across the supply chain from receiving ingredients to delivering to the customer at very short notice.

There is an increased demand for business leadership skills to plan, produce and deliver on unique projects such as the one mentioned in a profitable manner.

A budget needs to be drawn up so that financing and a certainty of payment can be calculated. All these require a team of specialist with knowledge of the food industry, finance, contract law, risk management and human resources.

Balancing the individual competitive spirits of specialist and moulding them into a collaborative team requires leadership skills in:

1. Assigning clearly defined task; and,

2. Building a communication network between the specialists that fosters trust.

These are essential for sustaining a collaborative team spirit that generates high performance to complete the project on time.

It is a big challenge for a business leader to transform a group of specialist who are highly competitive individuals into a highly driven collaborative team. This is a challenge worth taking on for the following reasons:

1. Assembling a team of competitive specialist enables you to benefit from a wide field of deep knowledge and expertise;

2. It allows you to take on complex task by utilizing the skills of specialist in different fields;

3. Investing in building a collaborative team tends to lead to higher business growth;

4. You get to harness the high competitiveness of independent minded specialist;

It is vital to prevent a team of specialist and experts from disintegrating into productivity destroying conflict. A business leader can succeed in creating a collaborative high performance team by:

1. Modeling collaborative behaviour through leadership by example. The top leadership should   be bound by the same rules of engagement as the specialist at the operational level; and,

2. Practicing and encouraging open sharing of information across specialist areas to build relationships and establish trust within the team.

These simple actions applied to clear objectives and well defined tasks can lead to timely project completion within budget.

Siddha Param

International Business Consultant

Reboot your business plan for sustained high growth

Click For Link To:

CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE

BUSINESS EXCHANGE DIRECTORY

Do share this article on social media and with those interested


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