How to Make Your Organization "Bulletproof"

In a prescient article “Contingency Plan Key to Surviving Economic Downturns,” Jayme Broudy makes a compelling case about the importance of standardizing operations and streamlining business processes as a means to survive economic downturns. He talks about the importance of “investing” in long-term survival and asks:

“So what does ‘invest to insure long-term survival’ really mean? It means spending manpower in two major areas: Creating a bulletproof infrastructure for your business that insures that you are the most efficient operator, and formulating detailed contingency plans to use when the slump hits.”
 

When times are good, standardizing operations might seem like a “nice-to-have,” but in times like we are facing today it’s a survival tool.
 

Broudy goes on to show that the secret to being “bulletproof” is to be Efficient and Productive:
 

“The key to productivity is producing consistent, high quality results through the use of formalized systems and processes (rather than depending on people to get it right). This means [that] everyone [is] using the same playbooks that contains the specific standards, operating procedures, job duties and performance criteria, and that an organization chart and detailed job descriptions specify who is responsible for what.
 

How does this make you the most productive? When the intelligence of your business is captured in systems and processes (instead of in somebody’s head), your results are more consistent and predictable and you can achieve them with lower level employees. . . . Employees become more interchangeable, training becomes simpler, and mistakes fewer. It also means that the business’s most critical resource (that would be you, the owner) is able to let the business operate without continual supervision. You can instead focus on strategic issues that keep you ahead of your competitors.”
 

This is what the COMPROSE Operations Mapping approach and Zavanta software is all about: being efficient and productive, standardizing operations through good systems, optimizing the effectiveness of corporate training, and making the best use of staff resources.
 

Want to make your organization “bulletproof”? Start by taking a long hard look at your “systems.”