Unlocking Growth. A spark business guide

Transcription

1 A spark business guide Unlocking Growth Building and implementing a blueprint for process improvement can translate into innovative operations that align with customer demands, employee aspirations, and your own expectations for your business. Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One

2 Alex & Gary Lapinskiy, co-founders of Ascendtech Inc. How I Unlocked Growth for My Company : Gary Lapinskiy, Ascendtech Inc.: Targeting Quality This electronics firm doesn t stress about immediate profitability, but it always finds a way to get there Ascendtech got its start in a location that was the initial home of many legendary start-ups: the business owner s garage. But physical space wasn t the only thing that the company quickly outgrew. In the beginning, we tried to do everything ourselves, says company president Gary Lapinskiy. My brother (who is my partner) and I pretty much managed the most critical processes: networking, finances, accounting, and purchasing. But in order to grow, we needed to be able to move past that. There s no way for one person to singlehandedly drive the whole process. It has to be a team thing; the entire team has to be on board and aligned with you. Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One

3 Ascendtech repairs and re-markets electronics products to extend their lives and divert them from landfills. We re trying to do a good thing, and growth just comes with that, Lapinskiy says. As a company, first and foremost, we are innovators and engineers. We don t really worry about immediate profitability. We invest in the future, and we invest in the quality of the work. Growth comes with that. So we re not really trying to grow. We re trying to create a quality product. Chasing value before revenue To achieve that goal, the company maintains a focus on process improvement. Every single process is fine-tuned to be efficient, Lapinskiy says. And to strengthen the team s ability to contribute to those initiatives, the company subsidizes continued education opportunities for its engineers and technicians in line not only with company objectives, but also individual employees interests. The approach encourages employees to feel invested in and a part of Ascendtech s process improvement. The result: We ve grown to about $50 million in sales over the course of six years, he says. And during the last five years, we really started fine-tuning our processes. We stopped chasing revenue and started chasing quality and profits. Our revenue has actually declined significantly but our profitability has gone up, and we were able to use that profitability to reinvest in the company and drive further growth. Its emphasis on process quality has paid off in other ways, too. This summer, Ascendtech earned ISO 14001, 18001, and 9001 certification along with R2/ Rios certification, which Lapinskiy notes is extremely difficult to get and awarded to only the most reputable and responsible electronic recyclers. How does the company test the impact improvements have on processes and prospects for driving long-term growth? That s a particular challenge because it can take months sometimes longer to see the results of changes. Testing, therefore, comes down to a mix of intuition and analytics. For example, when engineers make repairs, they re required to log every step they take. We do that not to come up with quotas, but to monitor the process, see emerging trends, and fine-tune our process accordingly, Lapinskiy says. Knowledge is power. The more information you have, the more informed decisions you can make. And that s what we try to focus on. Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One

4 Best Practices Guide: Business Process Best Practices: Achieving Growth by Pursuing Quality To unlock growth for your company, adopt these best practices in business process improvement 1 Introduction: Delivering Quality In a competitive business environment, it s always helpful to find an edge. The search for that edge is driving business owners to pursue everything from branding to social media to digital marketing strategies. But amid all those 21stcentury bells and whistles, companies continue to gain market advantage by delivering that old-fashioned thing known as quality. No matter what else changes in the business world, there will always be value in doing exceptional work in your core business, which is why ISO and other industry standards have gained popularity. Can these certifications propel your company s growth? Not in and of themselves. But by targeting the process Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One

5 best practices that position your business to qualify for certification, you can optimize your company s performance and establish a culture of achievement that promotes sustained growth. 2 Identify Growth Opportunities As a small business owner, you ve already got too much on your plate, and you may think of business process improvement as a huge undertaking one you may not have the bandwidth to do productively. What kind of diagnostics can you do up front to determine which areas of the business present the best opportunities not just for improved processes, but improved profitability? A small business owner has always got to be looking for opportunities for growth and increased profitability A small business owner has always got to be looking for opportunities for growth and increased profitability, says Andrew Miller, president of ACM Consulting and author of Redefining Operational Excellence: New Strategies for Maximizing Performance and Profits Across the Organization (AMACOM 2014). I don t look at this as something to add to their already busy schedule. I look at this as the way to run a successful business. To begin, look for the areas of the business in which process improvement could have the most impact. Try to think in terms of the outcomes you want to achieve rather than the challenges you re trying to address, Miller advises. That s not just a matter of semantics or spin: When we talk problem, then the solution becomes problem resolution. When we talk outcome, the solution becomes growth and innovation. 3 Stay True to Your Core Focus Once you ve completed the impact assessment, consider how well the area you ve targeted aligns with what you want the company to be. An opportunity is worth pursuing only if it makes sense in the context of your company s identity, culture, and path to growth. You have to know what you want to achieve. You have to know who your target customers are and what s valuable to them, Miller says. From a growth and innovation perspective, you ve always got to keep in mind your ultimate objective, and make sure you align whatever tactics you employ with that objective. You ve got to build the process around what you re trying to achieve, not try to achieve what comes out of the process. Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One

6 Process improvement is anything you do that improves the performance of the company Process improvement is anything you do that improves the performance of the company, says Paul Harmon, co-founder and executive editor of Business Process Trends and author of Business Process Change, Third Edition: A Business Process Management Guide for Managers and Process Professionals (Morgan Kaufmann 2014). The goal is to perform better as a company, but the question is what that means for you. In considering the answer to that question, it s important to look beyond your own goals for the business. You also have to consider the impact that the process improvement would have on the company s stakeholders the employees, customers, and vendors whose relationship with the business will be affected by the proposed process improvement. To achieve optimal results, you need to understand their investment in the process, and know how to measure their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the change. This will help you to establish meaningful metrics for assessing the process improvement s performance and its ability to contribute to sustainable profitability and growth. 4 Outcomes and Impact To get a sense of how this works in practice, consider a process improvement that focuses on the success of your sales and marketing meetings. To ensure that those meetings make the best use of your time, consider whether you re doing a good job of meeting with the right types of prospects. Could you improve the processes you use to qualify prospects? Could you enhance your understanding of their needs and, by extension, your ability to pitch the right products or services to them? A shift in your perspective on these meetings for example, from landing the highest volume of new accounts to launching long-term client relationships can support your growth and profitability objectives. Consider whether you re doing a good job of meeting with the right types of prospects. By improving the percentage of sales meetings you have with the right potential customers, you can maximize the time you have available to provide those prospects with the information and attention they need. This can shorten the sales cycle and customer acquisition process, accelerate the rate at which you bring new customers on, increase your sales employees sense of engagement and achievement, and free more time to devote to qualifying more prospects and delivering service to existing clients. The process improvement Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One

7 will strengthen your conversion rate, enhance your productivity, and as a consequence, contribute to your bottom-line performance. Sometimes, it ll be small changes. There are small enhancements you can make right away that will already get you one step closer to where you want to be Of course, to achieve these results, you need to consider whether your organization is capable of implementing the process changes that you envision. The sales and marketing process improvement outlined above will produce results only if you consider their impact on the rest of your organization, from order fulfillment to customer support. When you re developing a process improvement strategy, it s essential to build scalability into your plans so that the entire organization is equipped to handle the growth generated by the initiative. Similarly, your approach to process improvement has to be fluid enough to allow for continual adjustment and refinement as required to keep you on track to achieve your objectives. Sometimes, it ll be small changes. There are small enhancements you can make right away that will already get you one step closer to where you want to be, Miller says. As that outcome or objective changes, you need to go back and look at things. Does what we re doing now still apply? 5 From Improvement to Innovation To find the best answers to those questions, it s essential to involve employees in planning and implementation. Their participation affords you the advantage of access to first-hand experiences and insights that you may not have as the business owner. In addition, it lets employees know that you value their input and want them to feel empowered in, and not just responsible to, the business. By engaging everyone in the organization, you create a company mindset and culture that encourage every member of your team to think constantly about opportunities to improve business processes and, beyond that, to achieve new and profitable levels of innovation. For the same reasons, you ll want to solicit vendor and customer feedback on what you can do to make it easier to do business with your company. In that respect, you can think of business process improvement as essentially customer experience improvement. This, again, will keep you focused on outcomes that support your performance goals. Once all these components come together, you ll have a blueprint not only for process improvement, but for a strategic approach to effective, innovative operations that align with customer demands, employee aspirations, and your Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One

8 own expectations for the business. By building a company that delivers in each of these areas, you ll establish a strong foundation for driving sustainable success and continued growth. Looking to unlock growth for your company? Let a Spark Business SM card from Capital One help. Whether you re looking for unlimited 2% cash back or double miles, there s a Spark Business SM credit card that helps make growing a small business rewarding. To learn more, visit business-credit-cards Unlocking Growth Sponsored Content Spark Business from Capital One