Many times I have asked myself, and I am sure that many of the readers also, what have the companies that have been and are successful done differently, that differentiates them from the rest?
Companies that remain leaders in the products and services they provide and some of them with more than a century of existence and operation, such as their evolution processes.
These companies have experienced many difficulties, almost succumb to the crises and instabilities experienced by the markets over time, and have emerged strengthening. What sets them apart from the rest? What are those distinctive, comparative strengths and competencies?
Of course they are not the product of luck and chance, they all have something in common: they have a business model with all its components aligned. The experts agree in affirming that to the extent that the Strategy, Processes, People, Strategy and Technology are aligned towards Customer Satisfaction and the Production of high-quality Products and Services, to the same extent they will be successful.
The raison d'être of the company, its center of gravity must be the Client. Everything must turn and go in the same direction to keep customers satisfied.
Components of Business Alignment
This sense of orientation is well appreciated by customers, and as reciprocity the markets offer practicing companies excellent income and opportunities, translating into the benefit of the companies as a whole, higher profits for their shareholders and better quality of life for their workers.
But what does it mean and how do these components align? Let's take a closer look at each component below.
Structure
Business Structure
In an aligned structure, Senior Management and Middle Management are deeply committed to the Quality of the Products and Services that are produced and to Customer Satisfaction. It recognizes and appreciates the efforts of its people and promotes leadership.
If Management does not feel this commitment to people, the staff will perceive it through their behavior because there will be no coherence between what is said and what is done, nothing more harmful than incoherent leadership, because it sends false signals to the staff, and staff will lose credibility.
The next component is the Processes:
Business processes
The Processes must be designed to produce positive experiences in our clients through use and contact with the distribution channels. These Processes must have the capacity to produce the Products and Services with the highest quality, that is why they must be continuously monitored, measured, controlled and adjusted to obtain the products and services with the quality specifications offered. It is here where the Personnel must be endowed with the authority and knowledge that the structure provides to act on the process and adjust it.
The component below is one of the most complex because it has its own interests, goals and personal dreams which must be in accordance with the interests of the team and the organization.
People - Staff
People and Staff
Definitely a motivated staff produces amazing results, the innovation and creativity of the employees will be continuously stimulated if they feel that they are well compensated and that their effort is recognized. Innovation and creativity is not decreed, it is a self-management process that requires freedom and security to act, of thinking and focused minds. A poorly compensated staff will not have the freedom and focus to innovate because their minds will be invaded by their concerns.
Personnel must be trained and provided with the tools required to carry out their work, they must have a command of the processes and a deep understanding of the Products and services they produce, they must be aware of the role that their gear plays in the whole.
Many companies fail to apply the model because they develop poor recognition and reward programs, spending little or almost nothing to reward and recognize the performance of their staff.
The next component is Technology:
Technological Component
Technology well used and implemented is a fundamental factor for the economy in scale, it allows quantum leaps in Production, quality monitoring, and post-sale monitoring. Technologies must be well selected to provide the greatest coverage of processes and the greatest support for decisions. Let us remember that a good decision must be timely, take place at the required time; reliable, it should be taken with the most information on the subject to reduce uncertainty; it must be consistent, taken on the basis of certain data of good quality.
Technology must be scalable, grow with the growth of the company, Technology is due to processes and decision-making, not itself. Trying to go behind trying to achieve the evolution of technology only brings waste of resources, time and loss of focus. The objective of leveraging business processes through technologies will be reduced to a fair for exposing technologies that have not been exploited in order to improve processes and decisions.
The component below is responsible for listening to and interpreting the voice of the customer and producing the adaptations to the Products and Services according to the wishes of the customers. This component is the Strategy.
Strategy:
Business Strategy
The Markets are subjected to a continuous war by competitors to gain the trust of consumers and customers, many of them with the sole interest of making money, with a short-term vision which are predestined to their early disappearance. Others with the firm interest to position themselves with their brands in the minds of consumers and earn their preference and loyalty in exchange for the production of high-quality Products and Services and the satisfaction of customers and consumers.
But good intentions are not enough, it must be demonstrated over time that your Products and Services maintain and continually improve the quality and satisfaction produced when used.
The Strategies, whatever they are, must have the support of the organization, its structure, its Processes, its People, and the Technology to execute the Projects derived from the objectives pursued by the Strategy. The Strategy must emerge from the Master Plans, they must correspond to the next objective situation towards which the organization wants to move, with its strategic and operational objectives, they must arise from the business analysis.
The implementation of this model requires time, dedication and commitment, but its early start and application will contribute significantly to the achievement of the objectives.
