Welcome to the Bottom Line Top Line Podcast with Carol Bartlett, Jol Hunter, and Chris Spurvey.
In this episode, we talk about the importance of processes and how to identify and implement them in your business.
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Business Processes in a Fortune 500 Company
When you grow up in a Fortune 500 company,everything is driven by process and discipline. It’s recorded, and there are metrics,and you live and die by the quarter.
The oil & gas industry does this superbly. But process is one of the things that every organization looks at and struggles with. Even Fortune 500 companies struggle to make themselves more efficient or more profitable. But when you translate that and step out—as Carol did—from a publicly traded company to a private company, it changes a little.
I think private companies have the most opportunity to grow in this area. Putting into place strong processes and getting people to buy into those process is, ultimately, where we’re going to see profits grow.
Carol’s Definition of a Process
Process, to me, is where you say whatyou’re going to do and then you do that.
If you can record that and do it systematically, it becomes a really good communication tool. But process isn’t so much about being able to respond on the fly or be responsive to the industry’s needs. It’s more a communication tool that enables everyone to know what one another is doing and makes task progress measurable. And things that are measured get done.
Identifying Your Processes
You already have processes. You may not have thought of the things you do in terms of a process, but you are doing things. You’re doing things this week that are similar to the things you’ll do next week. The question is: Are you doing things in the most organized, efficient way? Can you streamline and focus what you’re doing, eliminating tasks that aren’t adding value or helping your business to perform and adding or expanding tasks that are more important to your business?
To learn more about these topics, please listen to the episode.
Mentions
Connect with Carol, Jol and Chris on LinkedIn.
Grit by Angela Duckworth (book)
High Performance Through Process Excellence by Mathias Kirchmer (book)