Just keeping up with everyday activities is a full-time job for the average business person in the pallet and lumber industries. There is little time left for such luxuries as strategic planning or business evaluations. But it is the things that we fail to do that cost us the most in the long run. Every manager needs to have time to ask the big questions. Failure to do so can rob a company of its future while it slowly focuses on the big problems of the moment.
A year ago, I started to set aside time each week to focus on key business issues and long-term planning. Sometimes I do this work from home so that I won’t be distracted by well-meaning co-workers who knock on my door to ask one question or quick favor.
Taking a look at critical business questions and innovation can get dropped if you let it. Smart managers have to learn to schedule time to think about something more than just the latest office fire.
Here are a handful of questions that you should put on your list to consider the next time you make a spare moment.
1.) What do your customers do with your products and how could you improve performance? Many companies simply take orders without learning the processes that take place after they deliver a product to customers. You should seek to know how a customer uses a product and what things you could do to improve their experience with it. This starts by going to customer locations and seeing their process or lack of one in action.
2.) What is your company’s core business strategy? Chances are if you asked a number of employees to sum it up in 35 words or less you would not find two answers that are the same. This is a dirty little secret that many companies ignore. Generic platitudes, such as being profitable and pleasing customers, are not a strategy. How can your employees follow the strategy if even the core managers don’t agree on what it is?
3.) What is your biggest value proposition to your customers? Be aware that any statement that cannot explain why customers should buy your product or service is doomed from the start. Your core value should not be shared by your competitor or else you risk losing business.
4.) What technology, new machine or service could most transform your business and improve profitability over the next 36 months? For us, it has been the Web and our rush to find a way to make it work better for our readers, advertisers and our bottom line.
5.) How can you grow business from current customers and expand into new service areas? Identify specific services, dialogue with staff about how you can meet these needs, and begin a discussion with your customer to develop awareness of your capabilities.
6.) What business am I in? I contend that anyone who answers merely the “pallet” or “lumber” business is missing the point. You have to think beyond just your product or service category.
7.) How will regulations, taxes and public policy change my workforce and the industries that I serve over the next 2-3 years? Regulations, higher taxes, business trends can have a profound impact on any business. In recent years immigrant labor and plant health regulations have impacted the wood products industry.
8.) What type of culture does our company have – open, innovative, hardworking, closed, crafty, can-do, customer first, etc.? Does this culture fit what is needed to preserve your business model?
9.) What is one thing you can do to be a better manager over the next two months?
10.) Would I work for my company if I was not a manager or owner? Why or why not? Be honest with this question. It can be easy to think more highly of our bossing prowess than we should. Start by making a list of what you would want if you were a basic laborer. Than stop to consider how you measure up.
My focused time away over the last year has led to a number of changes for Industrial Reporting Inc., the publisher of the Pallet Enterprise. We are focusing more on new technology and specialized information. This means for our readers better information, faster. Advertisers will experience new ways to promote their products and connect with potential customers.
The whole idea is to help readers make better business and buying decisions while breaking down barriers between readers and valued suppliers. The first leg of this strategy is the new digital edition that we launched earlier in the year.
To subscribe for free go to http://www.palletenterprise.com/digitaledition/index.asp or call 800/805-0263.
