At Via Technology, we've seen firsthand how easy it is for business owners to get caught up in the day-to-day operations, blurring the line between being an owner and an operator.
However, we’re also sold on the potential of effective systemisation to transform this dynamic for the better, empowering owners to lead strategically and drive growth.
In this article we’ll explore a selection of ways in which systems, when well considered, communicated, and executed, can keep owners out of the weeds of operations and play the big picture game in growing their business.*
*We’ll also throw in some things to think about from a practical perspective for good measure!
By Delegating Routine Tasks
It’s been proven repeatedly across a diverse portfolio of projects that we’ve delivered, that implementing systemisation allows businesses to delegate routine tasks much more efficiently than more ad-hoc approaches.
By automating repetitive processes, from customer inquiries or inventory management all the way through to certain customer communications and administrative tasks, owners can reclaim valuable time to focus on innovation and business development.
LET’S GET PRACTICAL: Start by identifying one repetitive task that can be automated or streamlined this month. Document the process and explore tools or software that can simplify its execution.
By Ensuring Consistency and Quality
Consistency is key to building trust and loyalty with customers, both of which are known to be key factors in bolstering their all-important lifetime value to a business.
Through systemisation, organisations can standardise operations across all touchpoints - from service delivery to product quality - ensuring a consistently exceptional customer experience and an uplift in advocacy for a product, service or brand.
LET’S GET PRACTICAL: Conduct a review of your current quality control processes. Establish clear standards and create checklists or protocols that ensure every interaction with customers meets these standards.
Relying heavily on key personnel for critical tasks can pose significant risks to business continuity
By Reducing Key-Person Risk
Relying heavily on key personnel for critical tasks can pose significant risks to business continuity when conditions or circumstances diverge from what’s considered typical, particularly when accumulated experience and expertise isn’t routinely shared with, or even understood by, others in a team.
By systemising operations and documenting workflows, businesses can reduce dependency on individuals and facilitate smoother transitions during personnel changes, which can happen with little warning, for a variety of reasons, and en masse in some extreme circumstances.
LET’S GET PRACTICAL: Document key processes that are currently managed by specific individuals. Cross-train team members to ensure multiple individuals are proficient in these critical tasks.
By Improving Insight-Driven
Decision-Making
Access to timely and accurate data is crucial for informed decision-making. Systemisation enables businesses to capture and analyse data across various functions, providing owners with valuable insights to make strategic decisions swiftly.
Well planned and managed processes and platforms also allow the impacts of these decisions to be visible to the right people, in the right places, at the right times, so collaborative optimisation can take place.
LET’S GET PRACTICAL: Identify one key metric or KPI that you currently track manually. Implement a system or tool that automates data collection and reporting for this metric, enabling real-time monitoring and informed decision-making.
When curated to balance the pressing needs of multiple stakeholders, systemisation is likely the single most valuable item in the transformation toolkit for business owners seeking to transcend daily operations and focus on strategic leadership. By delegating routine tasks, ensuring consistency and quality, reducing key-person risk, and improving decision-making through data-driven insights, businesses can pave the way for growth which is not only consistent but also resilient to the kind of novel challenges and technology change which are unavoidable parts of running a business in 2024.
Ready to shift gears from managing tasks to driving growth? Drop us a line to learn more about how we’re thinking about the intersection of people and technology in business transformation.
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