It would not be an exaggeration to say that any owner of a developing company dreams of an organization working autonomously and without constant close supervision. If at the initial stages the participation of the owner in all processes is natural, necessary, does not oppress the organizer, because excitement and enthusiasm compensate for the loss of personal time, then as the business expands, the burden of management becomes heavier and heavier.
Moreover, the more the company develops the less effective the personal leadership model becomes. A digital business systematization is a tool that allows you to move to a more profitable and comfortable relationship between the owner and his company. Many PPC advertising agencies have worked on this model to help them achieve their goals and it worked for them.
The concept of “business systematization”
You can do without structuring when your whole company is, in fact, you. You carry out all the processes leading to profit; moreover, you do not need control, training, motivation:
- Made product A
- Sold it through the A1 point of sale
- Made a profit
- Fixed the algorithm as valid
However, another scenario is also possible: you sold the product, but the selling costs were so high that the profit could not cover them. Or the product was not in demand in the market segment served by your A1 point of sale.
You analyze the situation, come to the conclusion that it is more profitable to sell product A in bulk to a reseller or in your own network, but through point B. This means that in the future your company will apply an algorithm that takes into account this experience. And then you hire smart guys to your team who don’t know why you can’t sell product A through point A1.
Activity Control
You still have to control any activity:
- Explain why you need to sell there and not here;
- Argue with a trained marketer about the effectiveness of the proposed advertising activity;
- Act as an arbiter between the chief accountant, who in the reports clearly demonstrates the benefits of meeting the needs of the staffing table through outsourcing, and the heads of departments who claim that outsourcing employees are not motivated, they are unmanageable, and therefore ineffective, etc.
That is, a paradox arises: you have a team of professionals, but you cannot move away from control and solving daily current issues.
Of course, regulations, instructions, circulars are written at every enterprise, but the problem is that they often contradict each other and confuse line employees.
For example, building an algorithm for the cashier’s work, the sales department releases one set of rules and the security service releases another, which contradicts the first in five points. When a situation requiring settlement arises, the staff gets confused, irritates and delays the buyer; as a result, the company’s reputation suffers.
Another example: the purchasing department, trying to avoid complaints about its work, acquires a volume of raw materials that exceeds the processing capacity for a given period. As a result, raw materials become unusable, the company incurs losses.
A conflict of algorithms is inevitable, because each instruction is aimed at supporting the interests of a specific link; there is no single platform on which they could rely.
Systematization of business processes is work on a consistent description, and most importantly, synchronization and automation of all mechanisms of the company.
Systematization goals:
- Building an effective system for making and implementing decisions
- Increasing the productivity of the team as a whole and each employee separately
- The acquisition of competitive advantages
- Ultimately, business process automation provides the owner’s personal freedom
Final Words
To bring maximum benefit, business systematization activities must be clearly linked to each other. Spot modernization will not allow a step towards real scaling of the enterprise, since for this it is necessary to organize processes in such a way that the owner does not have to be responsible for everything that happens in the company.