Increase Sales Decrease Costs

To decrease costs, decrease inventories

2010-02-07T23:44:00.000-08:00

Decrease inventories using the just-in-time supply chain process.

The limit of inventories reductions should not be set by financial indicators like capital or time in inventories but rather by the customer satisfaction on the time to deliver.

If the use of the "zero inventories" and "build-to-order" processes increase the "time to deliver" up to a full red "Customer Moving Away" index, reconsider rebuilding some stocks.

Beware specially with impulse buy products lile portable computers. Customers buy them when they see them, touch them and bring them back home immediately.

Review your job descriptions to reduce your fix costs

2010-01-31T23:57:00.000-08:00

Redesign your jobs descriptions in a way that all one-person jobs will produce tangible, valuable, measurable outputs

Advantages

Better people motivation
Potentials for variable compensation
Self-management

Increase the measurability of the job descriptions to reduce your fix costs

2010-01-31T23:47:00.000-08:00

All your job description documents should include six figures as quarterly targets for the six key performance indicators of that job.
The advantage of a better jobs measurability are numerous

Employees self-management, less supervision needed, potentials for middle management downsizing
Potentials for remote works
Potentials for pay-on-merit and variable compensation
Less conflits in employee evaluation

If some jobs are difficult to measure, redesign them in order to be more measurable

To increase sales, add customer segments

2010-01-23T02:19:00.000-08:00

Create more versions of your products for different categories of your customers.
Segment them, their needs vary by age, gender, professional functions, social classes, potential returns for you,...

The six steps of profit making

2010-01-05T00:04:00.000-08:00

A. The 6 steps / business rules sest of the process of making profit

1. Get profit
1.1 Customer / marketing. Start with selling
1.2. Protect profit with costs decrease. Buy what you sold at lesser costs.

2. Get resources and innovation productivity
2.1. Resources: human and information
2.2 Innovation gathering

3. Get transactions. Operate at low costs and stable quality level
3.1 Sales automation
3.2 Production flexibility

Identify and automate your Business Rules

2010-01-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

Favorite business rules in 6 sets

Sales
Production / quality
Resources / productivity
Innovation
Customer / marketing
Profit / costs

Examples

Increase our % of sales revenues from new products

Increase our % of revenues on the R&D budget

At least 5% of lowest performers should be out-placed per year

Abandoning 10 % of the least profitable customers

Reducing costs by 2% a year

Reducing travel costs by 30 % in two years

Aligning all sales points on the performance of the best sales point

Sales revenue from services at 50 % of product sales revenue

Financing new activities at 50 % with gains made from abandoning old activities

All managers rated AAA this year should be promoted within 1 year

Allow no one task outside a project or a process

Reduce the streamline index of your critical processes

To control the promotion freedom of your sales people, link it’s use to their bonus

Move back people to front by back-office automation

Each year, select and move out of your business, the 5% of your current tasks that add the lowest value to it

Never contract fix resources without a full control of their severance costs at any time

Protect your profit from the first purchasing step

Abandon budgets for scoreboards and internal business plans.

Allocate automatically and rapidly more resources to the best performers and less resources to the less performing collaborators

Keep pipeline value at 200 % of the sales objectives

Match compensation variability up to sales revenues variability

2010-01-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

Link more and more compensations to results: pay-for-performance, consultants or sub-contractors replacing payroll employees. Increase your compensation variability to match your market variability, but not over.

Your sales revenues may vary according to the day of the week, the season, economic downturns, customer moods.

Once a year, conduct an audit to detect tasks overpayement.

2010-01-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

Overpaid tasks are tasks which can be conducted at the same quality level by less paid workers or software.

5 to 10 % of the tasks is a current finding

Bring your maps

2010-01-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

Strategic positioning
Business plan
Project master document
Process master document

Day Cash Gains

2010-01-02T03:41:00.000-08:00

Days to cash in
Day Sales Outstanding: customer
Days Interest Paid: capital

20 % inferior to

Days to cash out
Days Suppliers Paid: suppliers
Days Investments Burn

Outsourcing index

2010-01-02T03:31:00.000-08:00

Will you make or buy what you sell to your customer ?

Vertical or horizontal integration ?

Focus on core business or diversify ?

Select your strategy

2010-01-02T03:26:00.000-08:00

1. High costs effectiveness, beating competitors on cost, measured by the GFP indicators
2. High customer flexibility, beating competitors on customer satisfaction measured with TFC indicators
3. High innovation, beating competitor on new products, measured with SFN indicators

Playing on resources
1. The best people measured by the PRL indicators
2. The best finances measured by the RCR indicators
3. The best processes measured by the KPS indicators

Check your "Sustainability index"

2010-01-02T03:20:00.000-08:00

Balance fix / flexible / variable costs
Balance fix / flexible / variable revenues
Cash available / burn rate
Capital available / interest paid
Patent owned
Captive customers
Market diversity
Market leadership
Brand value

Keep the pipeline value at 200 % of sales targets

2010-01-02T03:13:00.000-08:00

Suspect profiled
Lead contacted
Prospect bidded: 10 %, 50 %, 90 % chances to sign
Customer
Consumer
Repeat customer
Captive customer

Supply chain costs

2010-01-02T03:06:00.000-08:00

Inventories costs : raw, in-process, end
Delays costs
Back orders costs
Out-of-specs costs
Procurement costs

Measure the appropriate Quality Indexes

2010-01-02T03:02:00.000-08:00

Rework / repair rate, before and after delivery
Warranty paid
Customers complaints
Customer injuries
Deviances from specifications
Delays

Measure the relevant productivity indexes

2010-01-02T02:56:00.000-08:00

Units produced per hour
Units sold per square meter
Sales revenues per employee
Return per 1.000 Euros
Units produced per process
Units sold per distribution channel
Return per customer segment
Profit per senior manager

Optimize your Innovation Index

2010-01-02T02:33:00.000-08:00

Sales from new: product, customer, supplier, technology, distribution channel
R&D budget
Proprietary patents
Budget of projects vs budget of processes
Investments for small company acquisition
Investments for new managers acquisition

Measure the Employee Satisfaction Index

2010-01-02T02:25:00.000-08:00

Survey on spot ESI: a particular employee segment on a particular satisfyer.

Complaints logging

ST Absenteism

Undesired Turnover

Measure on-going Customer Satisfaction

2010-01-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

Survey on spot CSI: a particular customer segment on a particular satisfyer.
Complaints logging
Repeat business
Fidelity indexes
Moving away trends

Measure and improve your "Environmental Index"

2010-01-02T01:24:00.000-08:00

Overshooting environmental regulations
Waste reduction and sorting
Use of green energy
Reduction of energy consumption
Public transportation for employees
Green spaces for employees

Improve your "Social Index"

2010-01-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

To the employee
Overpayment index
Extra benefits
Surface per employee
Training per employee
Transportation facilities
Time flexibility
Food and rest benefits

To the community
See Green indexes
Tax paid
Donations and sponsoring

Improve your "Resource Multicompetency Index"

2010-01-02T00:59:00.000-08:00

Employee MI: Ability to staff 2 different positions
Production line MI: Ability to produce 2 different products
POS MI: Point of Sales ability to sell 2 different product lines, to serve 2 different customer segments.

Increase the "Staff Quality Index"

2010-01-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

Education level
Multicompetency level
Seniority level
Internal rating level
Internal training level

Increase your "Pricing Flexibility Index" to maximize your revenues from the same product

2010-01-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

For the same product, the price should vary according to

Sales date and hour (early bird lunch)
Sales location (high end avenues)
Local competiting products prices
Volume purchased
Bundling ( free phone against long term subscription)
Customer identification (fidelity card)
Product life cycle ( introduction price, end-of-stock price)
Product inventory (yield management in aircraft)
Time to expiry date (quick sales price)
Costs of goods sold ( margin protection price)
Distribution channel (cheapest on the web)

Increase your POS Transformation Rate

2009-12-31T03:38:00.000-08:00

POS: Point of Sales. Virtual or physical shop
Transformation: Turning Visitor into Buyer

Measure your "Suspect-Prospect Transformation Rate"

2009-12-31T03:34:00.000-08:00

Suspect: people with the profile or your market
Prospect: Suspect on a approach program

Always try Up-selling or Cross-selling

2009-12-31T03:30:00.000-08:00

Up-selling is a sales technique whereby a saleperson induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. Upselling usually involves marketing more profitable services or products, but upselling can also be simply exposing the customer to other options he or she may not have considered previously. Upselling implies selling something that is more profitable or otherwise preferable for the seller instead of the original sale. A different technique is cross-selling in which a seller tries to sell something else."

Take special care for your HiPo employees

2009-12-31T03:25:00.000-08:00

Label 5 % of your employees and managers as High Potential
Give them more resources.
Keep them captive

Improve your "First Pass Yield"

2009-12-31T03:22:00.000-08:00

No delay, rework, waste, customer complaints, warranty paid, refusal from quality assurance

Reduce your "Costs of Back Orders"

2009-12-31T03:18:00.000-08:00

Back order costs

Lost of revenues: temporary or definitvely ( airlines ) to balance with the cost of increasing the capacity ( over time, temps, subcontracting )

Reduce your "Time to fill a position"

2009-12-31T03:07:00.000-08:00

Time to fill reflects the elapsed time between the initial approval or posting of a requisition and the final acceptance of a job offer from a qualified and approved candidate.
Time to start reflects the elapsed time between the initial approval or posting of a requisition and the actual day when the newly hired candidate begins work in the position

If your TFP increase, check

Your compensation policy
Competitors chasing for the same profile

Reduce your "Cost of goods sold"

2009-12-31T03:00:00.000-08:00

In financial accounting, cost of goods sold (COGS) includes the direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold by a company. This amount includes the materials cost used in creating the goods along with the direct labour costs used to produce the good. It excludes indirect expenses such as distribution costs and sales force costs. COGS appears on the income statement and can be deducted from revenue to calculate a company's gross margin."

Protect your margin from the start

2009-12-31T02:57:00.000-08:00

Limit the supplier bill to margin ( Cost of Goods Sold)
Limit the sales and production costs to margin

Reduce your "Order to Cash" delay

2009-12-31T02:55:00.000-08:00

From customer order to customer cash on your account

Time to supply
Time to build to order
Time to deliver
Time to invoice
Time to cash ( Day Sales Outstanding)

Match your "Cost to Sell" with your "Return per Customer Segment"

2009-12-31T02:52:00.000-08:00

Cost to sell: In % of the sales price

Compare your "Cost to sell" per distribution channel: Web, POS, External sales force, own sales forces, distributors

Keep your "Resource Occupation Rate" at 90 %

2009-12-31T02:45:00.000-08:00

1. Select your critical resources to monitor

People OR
Machine OR
Square meter OR
Cash OK
Patent / contract OR
Process OR

2. Select your target OR

Minimum OR for profit
Maximum OR for technology
Ideal OR for energy

Select your 20 own business rules

2009-12-31T01:02:00.000-08:00

Business rule is a statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business. It is intended to assert business structure or to control or influence the behavior of the business. Individual business rules that describe the same facet of an enterprise are usually arranged into business rulesets. Business rules describe the operations, definitions and constraints that apply to an organization in achieving its goals.
For example a business rule might state that no credit check is to be performed on return customers. Others could define a tenant in terms of solvency or list preferred suppliers and supply schedules. These rules are then used to help the organization to better achieve goals, communicate among principals and agents, communicate between the organization and interested third parties, demonstrate fulfillment of legal obligations, operate more efficiently, automate operations, perform analysis on current practices, etc"

Visualization

Red lamps on MC indicators
Special visual per rule: ILS, OTV,...

List of potential BR

All investments in new activities should be financed at 50 % by gains from abandoning old activities
Each year abandon 10 % of your activities or delegate to the computers, to the subcontractors or to other locations
Keep salesforce availability at par with return per customer segment
Adapt costs to sell to return per customer segment
Keep your "Workforce Flexibility Index" at level with your "Market Flexibility Index"
Select the 5 % best people and give them more resources
Match the "Cost of Stock" versus the cost of "Delay to Deliver"
Keep "Resource Occupation Rate" at 90 %
keep the "Cost to Sell per Channel" at level with the "Expected Return per Customer Segment"

Go for virtual business with SLA

2009-12-31T00:48:00.000-08:00

Service Level Agreement: Turning suppliers into owned activities

Virtual companies delegates operations to no-name suppliers (flextronics, salesforce) to keep the support functions only: finance, marketing, RD and legal.

Airlines without aircrafts
Software companies that do not produce codelines
Manufactures without factories

To reduce costs: automate, subcontrat, delocalize target tasks each year.

2009-12-31T00:43:00.000-08:00

List the 10 priority tasks that

Are low added value at your level of competency. Subcontract
Are automated by your competitors. Automatize
Are too expansive to conduct from your location. Delocalize

To reduce costs, automate 5 % more of your tasks each year

2009-12-31T00:36:00.000-08:00

Activities Automation Index
% of the activity done without human intervention

Task Automation Scale
1. No computer help
7. Computers fight / harm human to keep control

Turn your Costs Centers into Responsibility Centers

2009-12-31T00:28:00.000-08:00

Resize your centers at 100 people
Turn their costs or budget objectives into profit or customer satisfaction objectives

To reduce costs, abandon your less profitable activities

2009-12-31T00:24:00.000-08:00

Assess the "Margin per ---" and terminate rapidely the less profitable

Products
Customers
Channels
Geographies
Senior managers
Suppliers
Technologies

To increase sales, improve your "Salesforces Availability per Customer Segment"

2009-12-31T00:20:00.000-08:00

Number of sales hours ( salesperson days times hours of sales per day) available per categories of customers
Non-customers
Suspects
Prospects
Customers segment A
Customers segment B

To reduce your costs, increase your "Resource Flexibility Indexe" per resources

2009-12-31T00:12:00.000-08:00

Workforce flexibility Index. Total compensation paid to workers with a short-term contract compared to total compasentions paid to all workers.

ST contract workers: temps, subcontractors, consultants.
LT contract workers: payroll workers

Other resources: Machine, Process,...

Compare the RFI with your Market Flexibility Index to get a measurement of your agility.

A performance index for assessing the rapidity to change of a business. The index is a ratio of the variable costs to the fix costs. to provide a simple and quantitative measure to support decision.

A high RFI indicates that the business will adapt rapidly to market changes.

To increase your Flexibility Index, reduce your Severance Costs

2009-12-30T23:50:00.000-08:00

SC: The total amount of money spent on severance pay for employees/ fix spending / contract / activity who had their contract terminated."

Employee SC
Activity SC
Factory/ location SC
Contract SC
Fix asset SC

Before signing a contract, calculate the severance costs

To reduce costs, reduce your "Costs to Support"

2009-12-30T23:43:00.000-08:00

Costs to Support. Total costs to support a doer, excluding "Costs to Supervise" and "Cost to Equip"
Doer: Operational people who really make and sell things in the business.

Costs to Support = HRM costs per doer + Costs to manage finance + Corporate costs + Costs to market

Control that your "CTSupport" decrease with the size of the business.

To reduce costs, reduce your "Costs To Supervise"

2009-12-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

Costs to supervise. Total compensations paid to non-doers compared to total compensations paid
Non-doers: Senior and middel managers
Doers: Employees and first-line managers

Compare the CTS between your different units
Decrease your CTS
1. By middle management downsizing
2. By first-line managers self-supervision tools ( profit or responsibility center, performance pay, activity based management)

To reduce costs, simplify your processes. Measure and reduce your Streamline Index.

2009-12-30T23:23:00.000-08:00

The "Process Streamline Index" measures the complexity of your processes. Number of tasks, , steps, references, locations, moves, people.
The scale is from 1, high simplicity, to 20, high complexity. Abandoning steps that do not hurt the customer satisfaction is one way to cut costs

What is Process Streamlining?

Process Streamlining is the improvement of an overall process, and the individual steps of the process, with a goal of meeting or exceeding client needs and expectations.

Why do Process Streamlining?

- Client needs and expectations change

- The approaches and tools available to complete a process change

- Processes are “in motion” and are not usually “revisited” and improved

- The focus on the goals of the process get lost

How does Process Streamlining work?

A project sponsor identifies a process that is broken or has room for a lot of improvement. The sponsor then crafts an End Result, or vision of what the process should "look like" and/or enable (especially from a client's perspective), if it was working well.

A carefully chosen team is then trained in Process Streamlining methodology and charged by the sponsor with streamlining and improving the identified process so it meets the goals of the End Result (while staying within constraints also identified by the sponsor). The team spends two solid weeks following the methodology to improve the process.

One big difference when using this approach is that the team is not told "how" to achieve the End Results. Rather, the End Results paint a picture of the experience the client and process participants should have, and what the process should achieve, and the team works to change the process in order to meet this vision.

Try the Six Figures Method to boost your business

2009-12-27T01:47:00.000-08:00

Professor Patrick Georges’ six figures. An accurate way for boosting a business ?

An interview with Professor Patrick Georges by Dwight Kennedy for EFQM
Professor Patrick Georges is known for his research and publications showing that measuring and improving six carefully chosen figures are necessary and sufficient for ensuring that a business is well managed. The results seem to prove that he is right.

More and more managers are adopting a management approach based on improving performances in the following areas: Sales from New, Time Facing Customer, Gain From Processing, People Responsibility Level, Key Project Status and Return on Critical Resources.

For more information: pgeorges@arcadis.be

Patrick M. Georges is MBA Professor in Management at the University of Brussels. He is famous for his teaching on measuring and mastering performance while being at the same time an active brain surgeon at the hospital of the same university

Could you summarise for us this method that you have been recommending for many years?

It is very simple. We have demonstrated that the key to good management and growing a business is simply a matter of measuring and improving a few carefully chosen indicators. These key success factors are now well known and studied in economics and management courses. If you measure them and optimise them, your business will be successful.

What are these six key success figures?

SFN measures your organisation’s innovative capacity, TFC measures you customer focus, GFP measures your ability to deliver quality at the lowest cost, PRL measures your ability to provide the best people with more resources, KPS measures your ability to implement successfully a key change project and RCR measures your ability to channel your investments into your most profitable activities.

Why these indicators in particular?

Because they focus the business on performances which can not only be measured, and therefore can be improved, but are also relevant in the 21st century economy and are motivating for employees.

And does this method work?

Yes. In the 180 cases that we have studied over 5 years, the majority of business units that have adopted this method have improved.

What difficulties does this method entail?

First, convincing the people involved that it is necessary to measure these figures accurately and every quarter. Then, convincing them that if the figures are bad, they must activate very specific well-known methods to get them out of the red.

Are these indicators enough to manage a business?

Measuring these six figures does not mean that nothing else needs to be measured. Traditional reporting is still necessary but its monitoring can be delegated to specialists. The CEO and senior managers need to concentrate on the six figures. If they are bad, the software will then identify and “flag” in the traditional reporting the factors causing these poor performance levels.

Isn’t it somewhat simplistic to manage a business with only six figures?

It is simple, but not simplistic. These six figures cover everything. If they are good all the other results follow.

You do not leave your clients with much choice. It is these figures and no others!

That is to same extent our weakness. But there are so many economic studies and business success studies that prove that they are the most relevant indicators that we do everything possible to ensure that they are accepted by clients. However, we are also flexible. For example there are several possible indicators for measuring TFC, SFN performances, etc.

Is it absolutely necessary to measure all six figures?

Yes, for a balanced view. With the six figures, managers obtain an overview that it is well spread across all the sectors that are vital for a business to be successful: strategy, customers, sales, operations, human resources and management

They are not very operational indicators?

Few people are motivated by free cash flow! Managers need indicators which motivate them to take action; this requires indicators that are exciting and motivating for everyone! They should not bother with indicators that motivate only specialists to explain deviations from the six figures that we suggest.

In addition to measuring these performances is it necessary to optimise them?

In the six figures method, for each figure, three or four methods are recommended for improving and optimising them.

For example, to improve TFC, the recommended methods are, for example, help desks, extranets, back office automatization which frees up people for the front office, a structure which avoids creating a distance between anyone in the organisation and customers, etc.

Most managers that we have interviewed understand that they all need o be measured to take stock of the business. But can they really all be improved?

It is necessary to prioritize between the six indicators. If the strategy is innovation driven, then the business must first of all activate management tools which will increase SFN, whereas if the strategy is above all customer-oriented, then the business will need to activate methods which increase TFC, and do so on.

Managers prioritize the six figures to be improved according to their strategy.

Are there optimal values to be achieved for these six figures?

Over the past 10 years we have studied so many businesses that we obviously have a solid database to identify the optimal values for these indicators by business sector. We could easily offer corporate benchmarking services, but the most important thing for a business is to improve its own previous figures and progress.

Is it difficult to obtain data?

That is no longer a problem because there are now specialised “six figure” software programmes which make the relevant data searches at all levels of the organisation in order to make the necessary calculations.

How can businesses measure those of the six figures which are not yet measured? That must take a lot of time and cannot be easy!

We have allowed for that. The “six figures” method allows these performances to be measured without too much expense or excessively complicated administrative procedures. We proceed via samples, by checks using statistical instruments which provide an overall value which is sufficiently accurate to be used as a basis for the right decisions.

Is the method onerous to put in place?

Not at all. Within twenty days, the local team is trained and the software is prepared. If the value of an indicator is unsatisfactory for a manager, it takes approximately another twenty days to prepare and activate the corrective method.

You often mention large organisations as examples. But reading you numerous case studies, it seems that a large number of small organisations and small units within large organisations have also put in place the six figures method!

You are right. It was an error of appreciation by us. We thought that it would above all be large organisations which would be the most enthusiastic. But we realised that small units were rapidly attracted by it, undoubtedly because of the low cost of the six figures method, its simplicity and the speed with which it can be put in place.

You are far more discreet about your other activity. I see on web sites devoted to you that you are also a doctor, a brain surgeon and a specialist in human intelligence, in which areas you are still very active. What is the relationship with the six figures management method?

None.

The work that you have carried out at company level is huge. Did you work with your students?

Yes, but also with the Academic Consulting Group which is a network of university teachers from Europe’s top business schools. These teachers work as corporate consultants to finance their research.

______

Increase your "Return on Critical Resource" performance

2009-12-27T01:44:00.000-08:00

It summarises all financial indicators for a manager. It is the most useful financial indicator for management since it convinces your organisation’s internal and external investors that you are capable of delivering a profit on the resources that they entrust to you by selecting the right activities and by withdrawing from the worst.
HansPeter Kurtzmeyer who, since our meeting, has become a senior executive in a large Swiss multinational, has often based his approach on this indicator to grow the business units under his responsibility.

Increase your "Key Project Status" performance

2009-12-27T01:43:00.000-08:00

This measures the ability of each manager to focus on a key project every year. At my first meeting with Gilles Pélisson, who has since become CEO of Accor, the world’s leading hotel operator, he asked us to work first and foremost on this indicator.

Increase your "People Responsibilty Level" performance

2009-12-27T01:41:00.001-08:00

This is the concrete measure of a manger’s ability to recruit, retain and promote the best employees by evaluating them constantly and providing them with increasing resources depending on the results they achieve. It was not difficult, at our very first meeting, to convince Henning Kagermann, who has since become CEO of SAP, the number one corporate software company, to base his management approach on this measurement and on improving this indicator. It is still his credo.

Increase your "Gain From Processing" performance

2009-12-27T01:40:00.000-08:00

It measures a manager’s ability to cut costs and delays while respecting a targeted quality.

We have done a lot of work on this measurement with Unilever for marketing and sales processes. The implementing of the marketing and sales processes has enabled them to make considerable savings on time and money in their decisions.

Increase your "Sales From New" performance

2009-12-27T01:39:00.000-08:00

This performance measures the activities implemented by the business with new services, new customers, via new channels, thanks to new employees, new suppliers, etc. It measures a manager’s ability to progress, change and innovate. A few years ago, we convinced Paul Navratil, CEO of Hewlett Packard Europe to base his management on this measurement and on improving performance in this area. He has never regretted it.

Increase your "Time Facing Customer" performance

2009-12-27T01:36:00.000-08:00

Time Facing Customer measures improvements in customer contact time and the quality of the contact between a business and its market. The higher it is the better the business knows its customers and the more capable it is of satisfying and serving them. After having consulted us, a top manager from UBS, a bank which is considered to be one of the best managed banks in the world, constantly told his employees “hat are your objectives this year? Above all double your TFC, all the other results will follow”. The facts proved that he was right, as you know.

To decrease costs, first things first

2009-12-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

Will you decrease costs ?
1. By abandoning an unprofitable activity
2. By reducing the costs of all the activities

To increase sales, first detect the problem

2009-12-26T05:43:00.000-08:00

Is that a problem of

1. Time facing customer
2. Time or cost to sell
3. Sales method
4. People motivation
5. Coordination with marketing
6. Coordination with production

To manage simply, divide and control

2009-12-26T03:36:00.000-08:00

Divide your business into

1. Processes and projects, controlled by outputs
2. Manager's responsibility centers. Team members pure indicators controlled by KPIs
3. Small profit centers controlled by margin or contribution
4. Customer segments controlled by satisfaction
5. Taskforces controlled by results
6. Activities controlled by return on investments

Assign three pure performance indicator per manager

2009-12-26T03:30:00.000-08:00

Ask your team member to accept the full responsibility for at least three pure "no excuses" business performance indicators

Use the full delegation method. Check that if all your manager get their indicators in the green, your own scoreboard is automatically in the green

Divide your business into six processes

2009-12-26T03:07:00.000-08:00

1. Needs to orders process
2. Orders to cash process
3. Supply chain process
4. Knowledge process
5. Resources planning process
6. Customer relationship process

Use a Project Master Document

2009-12-26T02:49:00.001-08:00

Turn your business into a collection of project. Approve the Project Master Document for each of them

Allow no activities outside a project or a process

2009-12-26T02:47:00.000-08:00

An excellent way to manage a business simply.

Turn your business into a collection of projects and processes. Identy a collaborator as fully responsible for each project / process. Ask them to report sending you weekly a visual showing that their project / process is in good shape, or not.