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Focus on Process for Business Success says Bruce Croxon
“Process is a lot of work… It doesn’t just happen,” says Bruce Croxon, investor, entrepreneur, founder of Lavalife and current Dragon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den. But it is essential for business success.
Key Process-Building Elements
You need a blend of things to create and maintain successful processes.
1. Shared Vision
One of the most important up-front things you need to do is create a simple, strong vision of what your company is trying to achieve, and make sure that all your staff buy in to it. To get that staff buy-in, make sure that everyone, from the receptionist on up understands how they play a part in making that vision happen. Every team member matters!
2. What’s Needed to Achieve the Vision?
Think through all of your processes, and how they link together and affect each other. Does each help deliver the product and service your customers want? Or does it detract?
When I worked at the National Bank of Canada, our headquarters was in Quebec (French-speaking region) but I was the marketing manager of team doing a major expansion into Ontario (English-speaking region). At the time, there was a lot of hostility between the French-speakers in Quebec and the Anglos in Ontario. So you can imagine how thrilled our Ontario-based customers were when head office sent them a brochure in French only! We had great customer service staff in our Ontario branches, but nothing they could say made their customers happy about this gaffe.
From the headquarters perspective, they didn’t understand why the Ontarians were so angry. They had run out of the English-language brochures, and surely it was better to send a French version than nothing at all?!
3. Monitor, Measure & Pivot as Needed
Which brings me to the third point. You need to constantly monitor to make sure your processes are having the desired outcome. (e.g. Keeping customers happily informed.)
If they aren’t, you need to make changes to the process.
But before you make changes, think through the implications of those changes throughout your organization and for your customers. (Will printing more English language brochures slow down the process of contacting our core Quebec-based customers? Will the damage from that slowdown be offset by the greater satisfaction from the new English-language customers?)
The answers are not always obvious, but they are always crucial.
Audio or Video?
I like listening to podcasts, because I can do that while I’m on the road, or when I’m just too tired to keep my eyes open any more. But a lot of folks prefer video, so here’s the video version of my interview with Bruce Croxon. Enjoy! (And please share it if you like it!)
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By Tema Frank“Process is a lot of work… It doesn’t just happen,” says Bruce Croxon, investor, entrepreneur, founder of Lavalife and current Dragon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den. But it is essential for business success.
Key Process-Building Elements
You need a blend of things to create and maintain successful processes.
1. Shared Vision
One of the most important up-front things you need to do is create a simple, strong vision of what your company is trying to achieve, and make sure that all your staff buy in to it. To get that staff buy-in, make sure that everyone, from the receptionist on up understands how they play a part in making that vision happen. Every team member matters!
2. What’s Needed to Achieve the Vision?
Think through all of your processes, and how they link together and affect each other. Does each help deliver the product and service your customers want? Or does it detract?
When I worked at the National Bank of Canada, our headquarters was in Quebec (French-speaking region) but I was the marketing manager of team doing a major expansion into Ontario (English-speaking region). At the time, there was a lot of hostility between the French-speakers in Quebec and the Anglos in Ontario. So you can imagine how thrilled our Ontario-based customers were when head office sent them a brochure in French only! We had great customer service staff in our Ontario branches, but nothing they could say made their customers happy about this gaffe.
From the headquarters perspective, they didn’t understand why the Ontarians were so angry. They had run out of the English-language brochures, and surely it was better to send a French version than nothing at all?!
3. Monitor, Measure & Pivot as Needed
Which brings me to the third point. You need to constantly monitor to make sure your processes are having the desired outcome. (e.g. Keeping customers happily informed.)
If they aren’t, you need to make changes to the process.
But before you make changes, think through the implications of those changes throughout your organization and for your customers. (Will printing more English language brochures slow down the process of contacting our core Quebec-based customers? Will the damage from that slowdown be offset by the greater satisfaction from the new English-language customers?)
The answers are not always obvious, but they are always crucial.
Audio or Video?
I like listening to podcasts, because I can do that while I’m on the road, or when I’m just too tired to keep my eyes open any more. But a lot of folks prefer video, so here’s the video version of my interview with Bruce Croxon. Enjoy! (And please share it if you like it!)