by Richard Smith. richard@levelplain.com

Spend Wisely / Continuously Improve Quality / Meet your commitments

It can be very tempting to find a catchy and concise way to explain the vast subject of business success and many writers have taken it to extremes. Think about the book “Blink” which basically says that you come up with great ideas in the blink of an eye and that if you follow through on that inspired thought then you will reach the top.

But I believe there is a lot more to business success and that there is no shortcut for any company that wants to be on the top of the charts. In fact there is nothing secret about what it takes to achieve greatness as a company and the main reason more companies do not end up doing much better is a lack of belief that what is really needed is to work hard and smart and that success will only come when you have world class execution.

So while I will not distill the process down to a blink of an eye I will concentrate on what I think are the top three most important areas that will bring your company success, if you actually execute.

In reverse order of importance

3. Spend Wisely.

You must ensure your company is investing its money and people resources in the right areas. This applies to many areas such as innovation, where you must choose wisely what you will invest in to meet those long term plans. It also applies to how smart you work; working smart will ensure you are not wasting scarce resources on things that will not create the raving fans you need as customers for long term success. So you must be a good steward of your resources and also put in the hard work, study and research to know that you are investing wisely for your customer’s and your own futures.

2. Continuously Improve Quality.

You must ensure your company is finding ways to continuously improve the products and services you offer and improve the processes you use to create and deliver the same. This is required to retain your current customers and to be able to differentiate your company and pull ahead of your competition. Whether it is the reliability of your software that you improve, or the time it takes to help solve a customer’s concern, each and every area of your business will have numerous opportunities to improve and you should be on a never ending campaign to identify those opportunities and deliver the improvements.

And finally,

1. Meet your Commitments.

To be a world class company and be better than your competition you must ensure that all of your great plans and good intentions are realized. You need to state out loud what you plan to do and do it, do it right and do it when you said you would. This applies to all of the internal goals within your company and of course to the commitments you made to your customers. When customers see that you are a reliable supplier or partner, one who makes and meets their commitments, those customers will then reward you with more business whether directly or by recommending you to others.

So remember, Spend Wisely, Continuously Improve Quality and most importantly Meet your Commitments.


Please send any comments to richard@levelplain.com