Focus on the System, Not the Product
It seems logical the manager’s total efforts should be focused on the product or service itself; that all energy be directed to the work that must be done, the customers who must be found, and the money that must be made.
And this is the problem! Focus entirely on these tasks without an overall strategy of system-improvement, and dysfunction is imminent. Failure to adopt an outside-and-slightly-elevated perspective is the primary reason only one business out of 100 will survive 15 years.
Here’s good news: The bulk of those one percent survivors are doing very well indeed. Albeit morbid, here’s more good news for you: The vast majority of your new competitors are doomed.
Understand what large successful businesses have in common: The leader is not producing the product or service. He or she is holding court, observing and adjusting the systems that produce and sell the product or service. To accomplish this, the leader insists management documents goals, methodology, and procedures—and ensures employees follow this documentation exactly.
By doing things this way—by providing extraordinary systems and then inspiring everyone to abide by those systems—leadership can employ real people, people who don’t have super powers.
The CEO’s job is not only to create foundational systems that are forthright and sensible, but also to hire managers who see the vision and understand it is their responsibility to oversee sub-systems in the same logical and well-explained way. If you wish to operate a successful business that will have intrinsic value, should your role be any different?
Large successful businesses don’t have documented systems because they are large; they are large because they have documented systems! This is an absolute key point, one that is obvious once the systems-thinking epiphany strikes home.
Learn how to “work the systems” in your own business or department, turn hard work into smart work, and break free of long workweeks and meager pay by registering for a free teleseminar Thursday, August 28, on “Potent Strategies to Auto-Pilot Your Business or Department.” Click here to learn more and register for the free call: www.workthesystem.com/signup
August 26th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Thanks Sam,
You elegantly put into words what I have said to other entrepreneurs for years. What a positive spin too.
Competition should be welcome and help keep us to strive for constant improvement. In the end, the majority of the competition will be the fertilizer of the green pastures of those who do not give up.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Well Said. I used to have an quote I used all the time. “Build System, Not Product”. Referring to software/electronics, where a company will put all it’s effect into a single product, instead of a system that constantly produces great products. To many business now just focus on the product. Products are short term, systems are long term.
Well said