How to Take Your Company to the Next Level

The only way to change an outcome is to change the input. Sports teams face this challenge all the time. They may be on a winning streak and then they get into a rut. The only way to change the performance of the team is to make changes. Find a new head coach or other assistant coaches. Change up the players. Work up new plays. Some of the changes may be successful and others won’t, but something needs to change, and in many cases you will need to change several things.

Before making any personnel changes, your first task is to decide what your culture, vision, and long term goals of the company are first. You can’t build the right structure for the team until you first decide what kind of team you want to be and identify your long and short term goals.

Once that vision is set, one obvious place to consider making changes is in the leadership team. Conditions change and the leadership team that was right for your company at an earlier time may not be the right one to face today’s challenges. This is especially true now, as technology and market conditions have changed so dramatically.

Once you make the necessary changes to your leadership team, you then have to look at your existing management and employees, from vice presidents, to directors, to managers, to supervisors, to staff members.

Do a full assessment of what the company structure needs to be in order to achieve the vision and goals of the company. What are the roles and responsibilities of each of those positions? Once that is decided, then the goal is to match the right employees with the right roles.

Each person needs to be the right SOS FIT People Alignment for each job, as developed by Surmani Business Coaching. Specifically, they must be:

F – Focused on the job
I – Impassioned about the job
T – Technically skilled for the job

Once you have the right leadership team, management and staff in place, you need to ensure all employees are clear on what the company vision, focus, long and short-term goals are and how they fit into the overall plan. Each employee should have their own goals and targets for every quarter of the year, which in turn tie in with the company’s overall goals for those quarters.

Now that the right team is in place, you need to look at your market and product offerings. Are you trying to service the market that is the best fit for your company and products? If not, you are wasting a lot of time and money? Do what you do best and serve the market most likely to purchase your products.

Finally, look to see if you are delivering the right products to that market. If you aren’t, discontinue the lower performing products and develop products that better align with that market. Jack Welch, the former CEO of G.E. always felt that if their company couldn’t be #1 or #2 in any particular business they were involved in, then they should just get out of that particular business.

Set your vision, focus, long and short-term goals for your company. Build the right team. Focus on the right market
with the right products and be at the top of the markets you operate in. Then you will be on your way taking your
company to the next level.