The Tribune

By Simon Cooper

Res Socius

WATER can be a power for good, provided it doesn’t turn into a tsunami.

The Prophet Jonah was filled with ideas while sitting in a whale surrounded by it. A visionary turned water into wine and became quite famous. And a store manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car increased customer returns radically, by handing out free bottles of chilled water. Should any of these visionaries have approached a corporate headquarters first, I very much doubt they would have made it beyond first base. I can just imagine put-downs as imaginative as: It won’t work; we tried that one before; not everybody likes wine; whales are a touchy subject; what happens if there’s a bad bottle?

Routines are the basic building blocks of all activities, as opposed to corporate strategies that mark the other end. The Harvard Business Review recently expounded on why simple routines either let us down, or become wildly successful instead. The point it makes is that – having set overall targets for success – winning companies like IKEA, Danaher and Enterprise Rent-A-Car leave their front line managers free to achieve them, in the way that they see best. This works well in industry, where it is often sufficient to say ‘redesign the product so we can fit 25
per cent more on a pallet’, or ‘find a way to install the component in ten minutes less’. That’s because both are isolated activities within a bigger picture, and the goals can be achieved in isolation without rocking other boats. It’s much harder to achieve the same in modern service industries, because we’ve allowed things to become horribly complex. The interconnection of business systems almost inevitably end up killing many good ideas. The challenge the Harvard Business Review puts out is for business owners to recognise that the ‘owners’ of those small routines invariably know how best to resolve the obstacles they face. The Harvard Business Review concludes with three recommendations: Empower owners with simple targets – if you want that component installed in ten minutes less, isolate the routine and let the front line get on with it. Make sure they know what their reward will be when they get
it right (which they likely will in double-quick time). Upend the paradigm – Stop accepting that ‘headquarters is the boss the branches follow’. Say ‘headquarters sets macro-goals and facilitates’ instead. Document successes, then circulate them as non-mandatory ideas. Break down boundaries – encourage managers and employees from different branches to meet, brainstorm and cross-pollinate best practices. Replace formal training with mentoring sessions. Let good ideas flow like water. They can do a power of good for your business too.

NB: Simon Cooper is a founding partner of Res Socius, a business brokerage firm and businesses for sale directory service. Res Socius is authorised by the Bahamas Investment Authority to facilitate the sale and purchase of businesses and provide consultancy services. Contact 376-1256 or visit www.ressocius.com.