A formula for success?
Technology is a massive enabler of success for small and medium sized businesses (10 - 150 staff), it's not just for big businesses. However technology can just be a cost, and get in the way of efficiency and success, if not used right.
We believe there is a simple formula for using technology to help turn an SME business into a smooth running, powerful and efficient engine of success:
(EOS + 2HEM) x T
T stands for Technology. Technology is an enabler, a multiplier. But on its own, if not aligned to the business, it is just a cost. To ensure that the cost of IT is not wasted, it's important to align the team, the systems, and the business. It's all about your team. We help you and your people follow the formula. To give you the best chance to achieve your goals and success. Through this formula, you and we will be clear where you are now, where you want to go, and have the IT team and systems to support you successfully getting there.
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Ideally your business will already be using, or in the process of implementing, the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) or a business management model similar to EOS such as Scale Up. If not, we will assess your current organisational maturity and make recommendations to ensure you have the business foundations for success. We then align IT management process, including 2 Highly Effective Meeting structures to ensure IT is aligned to the business goals. We help your team use Technology to multiply the impact of your team on customers and your business.
Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)
Most people don't get in their car and turn the key, without knowing where they want to go, and confident that the engine will run smoothly.
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Having your business as a smooth running engine allows you to navigate and run a successful business, coping with whatever challenges and diversions occur each day.
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What is the best smooth running engine though? That depends on "where you want to go". In a car, if you want to cruise comfortably to a destination hundreds of miles across the country, you may want a silky smooth BMW straight 6. To race around a race track, you may prefer a high revving V8 or V12 in a Ferrari; or you might prefer light and moderately powerful 4 cylinder in a Caterham or Elise may be perfect. It depends on your vision and the rules of the race. If you're regularly popping to the nearest town, an efficient 1 litre engine, or electric motors may be best. In each case, it's a case of choosing the right engine for where you want to get to. Of course if you want to get to the other side of the world, a jet engine in a plane may be the best way if you want to get there fast, or a big diesel engine in a ship if you want to move a large amount of cargo more slowly. To go to the moon, a rocket will be best.
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The same applies in business - there is no single right team or details of how to work. What you do and how you work is makes your business special unique. But there are some straightforward tools that will help businesses with 10 - 250 staff build the right smooth running engine, based upon the business's goals of where you want to go - the equivalent of the difference between electric motors, 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, 12 cylinder, jet engine, diesel marine engine or rocket.
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EOS gives business leaders the tools to create and set that vision, shared by all in the team. It also helps to choose the right style of engine, to then build the smooth running engine that will help the team deliver on the vision of success as efficiently and enjoyable as possible with:
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The right people, in the right seats
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The data - a scorecard and measurables - to enable good decision making
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Processes documented, and followed by all - to ensure consistent quality to customers
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Issues identified and solved - to respond and adapt to the real world
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Getting traction with a weekly meeting pulse aligned to quarterly objectives
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Dave Abraham is an experienced EOS "Integrator" (what would typically be called a CEO, or Managing Director, which are both titles that he's held over the years). He helps founders and their management teams to focus on and deliver their vision, as big or as small as they wish. He does this either by helping them self-implement EOS by becoming a part-time Integrator, or by helping develop their existing Integrator through training and guiding their management team.
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He says "EOS is brilliant at giving clarity and a consistent model of the core minimum set of things that every good business should have. EOS knows its limits, it doesn't have try to do everything, just define what must be at the core. The one addition to EOS, that I almost always add, is 2 highly effective meetings - daily huddles for teams, and management teams. This is the one structure that is in the book Rockefeller Habits, that isn't included in the book Traction which introduced EOS to the world. EOS doesn't say you shouldn't do daily huddles, it just doesn't mandate that you should. I usually find they're invaluable.
Therefore I apply EOS, add the 2 daily meeting huddles. And then we apply appropriate technology to turbocharge the structure."
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If you run an SME with 10 - 250 staff, and have a clear vision of success, whether that's large or small, and you have the team, processes and systems in place to deliver that success, that is fantastic. We hope all your dreams come true, and I'm sure they will, if you keep focused on that vision.
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If you run an SME with 10 - 250 staff, and would like some help either getting your vision of clear, or would like help making the appropriate adjustments to turn your team, processes, or systems to turn them into a smooth running engine of success to confidently get to your goals, then feel free to contact us.
We'd love to discuss and understand you a little more of what success means to you, and together decide whether we can help enable your success.
Dashboards, reporting and the scorecard
People make the best decisions if they have good information to inform their mental model of the world.
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One key to build an open and successful business, is to create a "data democracy". Give your staff as access to information, in relevant, easy to access ways, with appropriate security controls. Not everyone needs all data. And too much data can be overwhelming. A scorecard for each team, feeding into a management scorecard, is a key ingredient.
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A key step in building a great company, with a data democracy, is visualising what is going on within an organisation. And using visual tools to understand and evolve. Often, instinctively people feel they know. But beyond a company of 8-10 staff, it is amazing how different reality can be from the feeling. And especially the ability to spot trends and see what is going to happen, before it happens.
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The EOS scorecard is a superb way of visualising this.
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Often producing the measurables can take significant effort. But it's a necessary step to go through to make sure the team understands the driver of the business, and how to use the systems in the business. We used to go straight to implementing a dashboard. Now we slow down slightly, for the greater good, and iterate the scorecard for a few weeks, before automating it with a dashboard.
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Therefore once you've identified your scorecard measurables, one key step is to ensure that as many of the measurables can be produced automatically. To do this we implement a dashboard for a team by using live data from their existing systems. This dramatically streamlines the data democracy and access to information and helps an organisation evolve and improve with only minor interventions to shape processes. We typically work with PowerBI and Brightguage, and work directly with SQL to give you real time data from your systems.
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Core Infrastructure Systems
Whatever CRM, ERP and other operational, finance and people systems, there is always some core IT infrastructure - laptops, desktops, mobile devices, and some wifi and network infrastructure. There will usually either be other "on premise" infrastructure such as servers, desk phones, door entry systems, CCTV. And in a modern architecture there will usually be some systems "in the cloud", whether that is a private cloud (your own dedicated infrastructure) or shared cloud (using someone else's share infrastructure).
You may have a dedicated IT person or IT team in your staff, or you may have it outsourced to one or more IT providers (often called IT Managed Service Providers - MSPs) for different parts of your infrastructure.
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We don't manage your IT infrastructure directly. As Virtual CIO, we work on your behalf, as a virtual member of your management team - we will liaise with your existing IT staff and IT providers, wherever possible and appropriate helping ensure they are clear on what is expected of them, and holding them to account, to ensure they deliver on their commitments, in line with your business goals and budgets. We can help assess alternative IT providers and MSPs to help you as a business decide whether the "cost of change" will bring benefits and success to your business - or whether better strategic management will help get the most out of your existing systems, staff and external providers.
The modern IT architecture - Operational Management Systems, People and Finance systems and Core Systems
In a modern business, technology and systems help enable each person to be much more productive than a single person could be in years gone by.
The architecture can be visualised in 3 main areas:
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Operational Management systems (including sales & marketing)
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Finance & People systems
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Core Infrastructure systems
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In order to produce the measurables on a scorecard and dashboard, you need your data in a suitable system. You shouldn't be creating scorecard measurables just for the sake of the scorecard with manual effort. It should come from the data in systems that actually help people do their job better. Typically this is a CRM or ERP system. Some people may just call it "the system".
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We help companies align their IT systems to their business strategy (rather than vice versa!).
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Operational Management systems - Sales, marketing and delivery - Customer Relationship Management (CRM), ERP and other line of business systems
Every successful business is clear of it own niche and target market(s). The operational management systems should be aligned to marketing, selling and delivering to this niche. Depending upon the size and maturity of the market and the business, sometimes there are "standard, general purpose" systems that can be customised to that niche; sometimes there are "off the shelf" systems dedicated and optimised for that niche with minimum customisation. And sometimes there is a need to develop systems specifically to address the niche. Usually, unless the market niche is brand new, the optimal approach is normally a hybrid of a combination of off the shelf to build upon the experience of existing market participants and competitors, with customisations and custom code where required.
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We have worked with "standard" CRM systems Salesforce.com, MS Dynamics and CapsuleCRM to industry specific systems as diverse as Connectwise for IT Managed service providers and Gamma for Tourist Attractions - we have worked with many, and they all have something in common.
CRM, financial systems, other line of business/ERP systems help optimise and manage an organisation's relationship with its customers, from initial sale, delivery of the product or service, and ongoing further sales.
We can help you make the most of your systems, and your people, and align them all to your business strategy, and use the data within them to drive the access and clarity of data.
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Usually, by visualising the data within the systems, you discover the data is not perfect. This is fine. To use the phrase "sunlight is the best disinfectant" - we find that by helping teams visualise the data in their systems, it very quickly gives reason and purpose to use the CRM and other systems better.
Finance and People management systems
In most cases, finance and people management is best managed through an "Off the shelf" system. Although each business is usually unique in what or how it delivers products or services to its customers, the best practices of accounting for the finances, and managing the people are much more universal. Therefore for financial management, usually a standard off the shelf system such as Xero, QuickBooks or Sage gives the systems infrastructure for accounting for SMEs. It is more efficient to use something off the shelf, and more resilient, because recruiting staff and working with external book keepers and accountants is easier if you're using a standard system.
Similarly, whatever your HR policies are, they are always going to include some elements that are similar in structure, even if your company's choices are different to others:
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Leave - every company has a policy of holiday leave, sick leave, other forms of leave and benefits.
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Where things tend to differ is in areas such as recruitment - some SMEs recruit very few people, whereas others, especially with zero hours workers, recruit regularly.
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Other areas of variation tend to be around rostering (some companies need it, others not very much - depending upon their employment policies and working hours) and pay (some companies are mainly fixed/salaried/hourly, whereas others align their pay to performance
Wherever possible, we recommend using off the shelf systems such as BambooHR, BreatheHR or People HR for the core holiday policies and assessing whether they also meet the needs for recruitment, rostering, performance management, and other benefits.
We have had very good experience of using BambooHR in various companies. Especially if you are developing a supportive environment for your staff, because that is very much the ethos that BambooHR encourages themselves.
