Being First to Market

In the competitive world of technology, being first to market is a worthy leadership objective. Getting an early lead on competition is most often well rewarded and could lead to Entrepreneurial success.

Is being first to market something that Entrepreneurs should always strive for? Absolutely, but first ensure that your product or service is working properly and fairly reliable.

While waiting for perfection before launching your product or service is utopian, it is not a valid competitive strategy. Fulfilling a market need on a timely basis is optimal.

However, in rushing to the market merely to be first to fulfill a need could be disastrous if your product or service is not yet fully ready. One might be first to market, but the negative reputation from an unreliable, not fully tested  product or service is definitely more harmful.

Entrepreneurs would be well served to aim for launching a new product or service first, but only after fully ensuring that their credibility is not jeopardized due to a premature introduction. Test your product/service and be comfortable with its function and reliability before you go to market. You might not get a second chance or it might be too costly!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

 

A Strong Foundation For Growth

Watching a tree sway with the gusty Santa Ana winds creates a business analogy in my mind.

In order to survive the strong winds, a tall, growing tree needs to have a strong foundation (deep roots) combined with the flexibility to sway with the gusts instead of being rigid.

Similarly an Entrepreneur needs to build a solid foundation to combat competition, market and regulatory forces and an uncertain economic environment. Without a solid foundation a business might not be able to grow significantly. It would be akin to building a castle on sand.

What are some of the key ingredients to build a strong foundation? It starts with a system to deliver quality products and services repeatedly and consistently. In order to do that one needs a competent and dedicated team of employees and management utilizing robust business processes and procedures. A superior customer service mentality coupled with continuous innovation and improvement adds to the mix.

Just as a tree cannot remain rigid to survive gusty winds, a company must be nimble and flexible to adapt to the changing environment and customer needs to grow the business.

With such a foundation and flexibility not only survival but also significant growth is possible. Have you built a solid foundation for growth?

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Client Post-Acquisition Management

Entrepreneurs and their marketing/sales teams spend a lot of time signing up new clients. Sophisticated companies have a well thought out plan and process for reaching new clients.

But what happens after the clients have been acquired, other than providing them products or services?

Do you have a post-acquisition process to manage these clients into your systems and organization? Obtaining a client is merely the first step.

Just as a new employee goes through an orientation process to rapidly onboard him/her in the company, a client has to be similarly managed into the organization. A well-defined process to onboard new clients is critical in obtaining continued business. The first impression a client forms has to be positive and outstanding; that can only happen if there is an active program to orient the client as to how you do business. The easier you transition new clients into your company and make them feel comfortable, the more likely is their satisfaction.

Just as you properly focus on obtaining new clients, have a similar dedication for post-acquisition management of  new clients. Do the Right Things!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Trust, but Verify

President Reagan has been attributed with this famous philosophical statement in connection with the nuclear arms treaty with the old Soviet Union.

What can Entrepreneurs learn from that?

As Entrepreneurs start building a solid leadership team for growth, they have to rely on and trust their key management personnel. But is that enough to ensure superior performance and growth?

While trusting the leadership to do the right thing, the Entrepreneur must also oversee the building of management reporting systems that independently verify the progress made by the company in established metrics. Such systems should have checks and balances to ensure that verification can be relied upon.

Trust is essential, but verification is paramount for long-term success. This is similar to a previous post on People or Process Dependency. Trust is people based; verification is process based.

Entrepreneurs, trust your people but do have verification systems in place.

Ravi Patel

You Can Improve Only What You Measure

Entrepreneurs might have heard this expression before. What does it imply?

As discussed often in this blog, implementing solid business processes is crucial for superior performance and growth. But, how does one know that the processes are continuously improving?

Do you have metrics in place to evaluate how well the processes are functioning? Have you identified and picked the relevant metrics? Are the measurements timely and widely communicated? Do you analyze the results and brainstorm ways to further improve the procedures?

If Entrepreneurs do not have effective measurement systems for their business processes, it will be difficult to analyze and improve your performance.

Ravi Patel

Functional Friction

During a regular staff meeting it appeared that there was a difference of opinion between two departments. A colleague was observing this exchange of arguments and commented that ”it is productive to have functional friction.”

Something to ponder.

As I have posted before encouraging healthy conflict in the management team is a good thing. Carrying that thought further, having constructive friction among different functions in your company might also be a good thing.

Functional friction, if channeled correctly, brings about favorable competition among departments to be the best in what they do. It also enables constructive criticism from fellow functions to allow improvement in processes not only for the department, but also the company.

Entrepreneurs need to manage functional friction for positive change in their organizations.

Ravi Patel

 

Confusion Kills Excellent Business Processes

While travelling recently, we stopped at a food establishment in the airport.  This chain had an established process of ordering and delivery of food items. However, this process was neither intuitive nor well-posted for patrons to understand, creating confusion and frustration.

There is a lesson for Entrepreneurs. As you focus on reviewing and improving business processes, do not forget that such processes have to be well understood by the users. There should be a strong emphasis on effective communication of the established processes.

For external users of your business processes, such as clients and vendors, lack of proper communication could negate the effectiveness of your procedures regardless of their excellence. Periodic follow-up with these users as to their understanding and feedback on the process would create an opportunity for refinements.

For internal users, communication combined with training is absolutely necessary. Developing a business process, no matter how good it is, will be effective only if your employees understand it.

Develop, improve, effectively communicate and fully train the users about each business process, otherwise confusion will kill your processes.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com