Carol Bartlett is a senior level executive with broad experience in the oil & gas and transportation industries who manages more than $200M in annual sales. Using a combination of proven techniques, Ms. Bartlett focuses on growth results. She bridges theoretical business principles and philosophies to strategic actions that give profitable results. By deploying integrated proven strategies, she adds value to companies that want to grow sales and increase profits.

Jol Hunter has spent a large portion of his career as a partner with the national firm of chartered accountants and business advisors. In the past few years, with three other gentlemen, he has owned a substantial Atlantic Canadian business and so he is experiencing the joys and challenges of the ownership and operation of a medium-sized business.

Chris Spurvey spearheaded the growth of Plato Consulting to the point that it was acquired by KPMG, one of the largest management consulting firms in the world. In his time there, he sold more than $300 million in consulting services. After the acquisition, Chris changed his focus to helping other "non-sales sellers" find a way to grow revenue in a consistent, stress-free manner. He published It's Time to Sell: Cultivating the Sales Mindset, founded Make Sales a Habit University, and became a growth advisor to business owners and their management teams throughout the world.

 

In this episode, we talk about the importance of processes and how to identify and implement them in your business.

 

Business Processes in a Fortune 500 Company

When you grow up in a Fortune 500 company, everything is driven by process and discipline. It's recorded, and there are metrics, and you live and die by the quarter.

The oil & gas industry does this superbly. But process is one of the things that every organization looks at and struggles with. Even Fortune 500 companies struggle to make themselves more efficient or more profitable. But when you translate that and step out—as Carol did—from a publicly traded company to a private company, it changes a little.

I think private companies have the most opportunity to grow in this area. Putting into place strong processes and getting people to buy into those process is, ultimately, where we're going to see profits grow.

 

Carol's Definition of a Process

Process, to me, is where you say what you're going to do and then you do that.

If you can record that and do it systematically, it becomes a really good communication tool. But process isn't so much about being able to respond on the fly or be responsive to the industry's needs. It's more a communication tool that enables everyone to know what one another is doing and makes task progress measurable. And things that are measured get done.

 

Identifying Your Processes

You already have processes. You may not have thought of the things you do in terms of a process, but you are doing things. You're doing things this week that are similar to the things you'll do next week. The question is: Are you doing things in the most organized, efficient way? Can you streamline and focus what you're doing, eliminating tasks that aren't adding value or helping your business to perform and adding or expanding tasks that are more important to your business?

 

To learn more about these topics, please listen to the episode.

 

Mentions

Grit by Angela Duckworth (book)

High Performance Through Process Excellence by Mathias Kirchmer (book)