Do the systems in your business work together like the interconnected dynamic systems they are?
I was collaborating on a book on the topic of increasing the value of your business with a colleague yesterday, and we both latched on to the systems thinking view. We agreed it is “the” way to look at a business.
What is a business other than a set of interconnected dynamic systems? To give you a flavor of these systems, I thought I’d list several to spur thinking. Stay tuned for workshops, assessment tools and our book on increasing the value of your business:
- Financial – Every company has financial systems. P&Ls, balance sheets, cash flow statements, key performance metrics…
- Operational – How does your company operate? Does it produce products? Provide services? Service repairs? There are countless operational processes we could discuss.
- People – Do you have employees? How do you hold your employees accountable? What reward and recognition systems do you have in place?
- Strategy – Do you have a strategy? If not, does that mean you are flying blind? How does your strategy fit with your day-to-day operations?
- Metrics – How do you track progress? Do you know if you are improving or declining?
- Planning – How do you translate your strategy into plans? Do you have goals and objectives? Is there a continuous feedback loop?
- And the list goes on: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are countless more. The key is how to put all these together successfully.