Organisational Development | Teik Oh

How to create targeted Performance Measures in your business

Mar 06 2015

Have you ever felt that you need to check performance in your business against some yardstick?

It might be that you want to set some Key Performance Indicators for your staff, or you want to see how one branch is performing against another, or perhaps you just want to see how your business as a whole is performing against the bigger picture?

In trying to create Performance Measures for these reasons have you created a set of measures that you haven’t been too happy about? Perhaps you haven’t been sure that in achieving those Performance Measures you actually achieve an outcome!

Performance Measures are essential in your business. They are objective and quantitative, they should reflect your Vision and Mission so that they measure progress against “getting there”, and they create targets for people to work towards. However appropriate Performance Measures are crucial – don’t expect a Vision target of an empowered workforce if your Performance Measures are about ticking off procedures checklists!

This video explains how to create targeted Performance Measures that cascade from your Vision so that everything is measured against the desired outcomes, not just against outputs.

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Never mind the width, feel the quality!

Mar 02 2015

I hope that you are keeping an eye on your business performance. However, even if you are, you may be overlooking several critical factors about how your business is performing, and some of these could be the difference between success and failure.

Most business owners probably keep a good eye over quantitative measurements such as sales, average markup, salary costs and expenses. However some of the most useful measures can be qualitative rather than quantitative, for example staff and client turnover rates or average service-delivery times.

Overall, before you start measuring your business performance, you need to be very clear what “success” means to you so that you can measure and benchmark the measurements that really count toward that success. If you are not clear on what success means in your business, you may be measuring the wrong measurements. For example if you focus on profit, you may actually be driving away customer volumes if your success is based on low margin/high volume.

Having determined what success means to you, you can then choose the metrics, both quantitative and qualitative, that drive that success. As you choose them, always ask yourself: “If I improve this measure, will that improvement lead to success?”

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7 Steps to develop a high-performing Team in your Business

Feb 27 2015

Teamwork is essential in any business, no matter how big or small.

Even if your team were only two people, teamwork is important in co-ordinating your roles, ensuring you support each other in multi-disciplinary skills, and operating at an optimal level.

Teamwork is not just about being friendly with your co-workers, it is a very disciplined approach to working effectively together. Businesses need to develop real teamwork in a disciplined and structured way.

From my experience businesses, and especially small businesses, can best work on their staff to create a high-performance team by following the 7 steps of the “PERFORM” model. It is a simple set of steps where you work in a disciplined way on each of the characteristics of a high-performing team, layering one characteristic on another and building up optimum performance.

Watch this video and you will learn about the 7 Steps to Develop Teamwork in your Business and how to implement these 7 steps, no matter what size business you have.

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Does my business need a Board of Directors?

Feb 16 2015

Larger companies have Boards of Directors to provide governance over the company. The question is, does your small or micro-business need a Board?

Boards of Directors have different roles from company management. Directors provide a layer of governance while management provide the leadership over the operations of the company. Directors provide strategic oversight not operational management. Directors set the company’s strategic goals, vision and direction, its limitations of purpose, and the accountability frameworks, and assess management’s performance in following strategy and accountability. Management on the other hand oversee the day to day operations and allocates resources in the pursuit of strategy.

Clearly larger corporations need this distinct role, especially if they report to shareholders who do not have a working knowledge of the day to day operations of the company. In this way Boards provide transparency for stakeholders.

On the other hand, in a small business that is owner-operated, the manager is usually the owner, and they may also be nominally “on the Board” if the small business is incorporated. Other micro-businesses may not even be incorporated and may only have family members as employees. Do these businesses need a Board? Read More

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Does My Small Business Need a Marketing Plan?

Feb 09 2015

When I talk to small and micro-business owners, I always ask them if they have a marketing plan. Their answer is invariably “no”.

So the next question, in exploration of that, is usually from them: “Why do I need a marketing plan? What I need to do is in my head, and besides, I’m stretched enough as it is running the business”.

I have to point out to them that’s really three questions and I deal with them one at a time. The first question is, as a small business, do I really need a marketing plan?

Of course you do. It need not be a large document, and in a small business you may not need to detail every item in a traditional marketing plan, but you do need a marketing plan, it should be written, and it should deal with the key concepts of marketing.

You need a marketing plan because running a for-profit business without a marketing plan is simply opening your doors and hoping for the best. Finding customers, increasing sales, meeting break-even and growing profits cannot be done while simply hoping for the best. Even if you had, in your head, a sure-fire way to find new customers, or sell more to existing customers, writing it down and sharing it with your team is the best way to relieve the lonely stress of doing it by yourself – they can help achieve those sales targets with you if they know what your sure-fire procedure was.

If you were taking your family on holiday, would you simply buy tickets to where you were going and just arrive? No, you would have some sort of plan that you share with them and some key bookings. So why would you not have a plan when your business’ performance and its livelihood is at stake? Without a marketing plan, you do not know who are your optimum market, the best way of getting to them and appealing to them, the resources you will need to service them, and what you need them to buy and when. Read More

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Increase your sales through a highly focused marketing plan!

SMART Marketing: In this book, the owners of a small business are led through the SMART Marketing 7 Step Process to produce a marketing plan targeted at their most desirable customers. Any business can use these principles and in 4 to 6 weeks implement a plan to get them through the door! Find out how...

The SMART Marketing Workbook: Companion to “SMART Marketing”, this workbook sets out the SMART Marketing process in 7 workshops for you and your staff to complete questionnaires and templates that at the end, form the marketing plan you need to sell your REAL product to your REAL customer! View now...

Category - Organisational Development

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How to create targeted Performance Measures in your business

Never mind the width, feel the quality!

7 Steps to develop a high-performing Team in your Business

Does my business need a Board of Directors?

Does My Small Business Need a Marketing Plan?