Defining Business Justice
The owner of a company authors the ideology and morals of the company — including the definitions of “good” (acceptable, productive and helpful for the company) and “evil” (what hurts the company).
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Who Deals with the Money?
When an owner personally decides who should get paid and how much, the company’s expansion slows down because this approach creates a bottleneck. One has to create mechanisms, rules, and procedures that would help an executive to efficiently manage finances without losing control. The owner’s job is not so much to manage the company money but to create a model that the accounting department can follow. First, one needs to decide how to treat money, describe procedures and then implement them. Once that’s done, one only has to monitor compliance. In a small company, the owner himself will have to do it; in a larger company, he would usually get help from consultants.
Establishing Your Own Business Methods
Each business has its own “technology”. When it comes to consulting, it is the implementation of management tools in different companies. While in shoe sales, the technology is the method of choosing styles of footwear, purchasing, customer service, etc.
As long as an organization is small, their methods are “at the tip of their fingers”. The owner doesn’t dwell on the details of how everything works – he simply knows that his juniors will ensure a necessary result.
Developing a Business Strategy
Once a business owner has the idea behind his business, it comes the time to work out a strategy and create a business plan. If a company is small, the owner himself is in charge of this job.
The Business Ideology and the Visionary
One of the most important roles as a business owner is the founding the ideology of a company. It’s creating the concept behind a company product: what we are going to produce, for which market and clientele, and in which form will we deliver it? If one thinks that it is enough to define a product only at the time of the company’s inception and only then, they are wrong. The actual truth is that the owner should work constantly on product improvement. Steve Jobs is a great example. He didn’t perform all of the owner’s functions, but when it came to product creation he was absolutely brilliant. And that was far more important than advertising and PR. Naturally, if Jobs wouldn’t make genius presentations and wouldn’t come up with creative advertising concepts, his product would take longer to become publicly known. But the Apple Company would have still become successful, even if it had taken more time.
In most industries, it’s not necessary to update one’s product at the speed and pace as in the technology market. However, it is still necessary to work on product improvement. And the owner has to focus on it – they have to become a real “maniac” in regards to the product, especially if they are managing a large group of creative people. Usually, each of them wants to add something of their own to the product and, they all have tons of great ideas. In this situation, the owner runs into the danger of deviating from the original idea and forgetting what exactly he or she wanted to do. So, it is necessary to constantly reorient the produce update process back onto a specific path.
The Two Captains and the Delegation of Responsibilities
Just like in nature, in business, there are only 2 possible paths for development: growth or decline. The owner will have to face a moment where their company can’t properly expand as it’s managed by one person. if the owner doesn’t delegate the duties, the company’s future is in danger. Which of the duties can an owner turnover and which ones would they never dream to delegate?
IQ Testing while Hiring
Today, I was working on one of the job descriptions for Visotsky Consulting – specifically, focusing on the policy that we apply when hiring new consultants. There is a small part of that policy that has to do with IQ (Intelligence Quotient). I’ve often been asked, “how high should the IQ be?” and “why are some people with a high IQ not necessarily successful in life?” To finally answer those questions, I’m including what I wrote in the job description.
Raising Prices Despite a Bad Economy
When currency exchange rates go down, small businesses often make mistakes in setting prices, which can lead to serious problems. This article contains practical advice on what to do in such a situation. We must think of inflation as an economic condition that will persist for some time and, most likely, get worse. Thus, trying to “wait it out” is a bad strategy.
An initial and common mistake is holding off until the last minute and then jacking up the prices. This will only shock your customers and result in dropped income. The consumer will then look for an alternative among your competition, postpone the purchase, or decide against it completely. The“shock” will also damage the relationship with your clients, which will not be easy to recover.
Loyal customers and your relationship with them is a valuable asset for the company. Especially, in a temperamental economic atmosphere, you should take care to preserve it. The following tips will help get your customers to accept the inevitable increase in price.
Success on the New Job: Avoid being Overlooked and Overwhelmed
In last week’s post, we learned that when one takes on a new job they should approach their new role step by step rather than take things on all at once. We also went over how to become integral to the day to day work. You can read more about it here. Now, we’ll continue the discussion of how to succeed when you start a new job or position.
YOU ARE BEING BYPASSED
Often you will run into the following issue: someone is giving direct orders to your juniors, which interferes with your ability to do your job. There are two possible reasons for that and you need to figure out which applies to your situation and act accordingly.
Success on the New Job: Avoid Initial Mistakes
Most people make the same mistakes when starting a new position. This two-part article will help you avoid the most common ones, so you can enjoy your new job or position and get better results.
A new position means that you will be doing something in an area where you don’t have experience. For example, you’ve been a great salesman but now it’s time for you to head the Sales Department. You have a lot of experience in sales and dealing with clients. However, when you step into an executive position, you have to adopt a totally new approach when managing people. The job of an executive is a whole new set of responsibilities: you will need to hold effective meetings with your salespeople, plan the work of your department, set targets and ensure they get done. So the first thing to realize is that taking on a new position is a completely new start where you have no experience or certainty.
The majority of people can’t achieve significant results only because they are afraid to start with a blank slate. They are afraid to step out of their comfort zone where they know everything; they are afraid to face new challenges and play the part of a newbie. However, there is no other way to achieve outstanding results than to step out of one’s comfort zone. This applies to a single employee, as well as the whole company.