As a company grows it’s important to review each project and critical process to see if those events, projects and processes are still providing desired outcomes and value. It’s also important to recognize there comes a point where the company outgrows the ability of a founder or CEO without a strong team, to keep their finder in all aspects of the organization. The leader can no longer count on being able to catch problems before they occur and can no longer count on making all the decisions. The company has outgrown the ability of one or just a few people to manage it, and processes must become the leader’s best friend as the company grows.
As there are more clients, there are more projects and more people and that leads to more complexity. So, there must be more master processes to help work to the outcomes desired. When the company had fewer employees, allocating resources to a project was easy. As the company gets bigger, the lack of processes that helps the company be efficient has the leadership now possibly throwing bodies at the problems. Overhead ramps up, and if the leaders are not paying attention, profitability begins to erode.
Most projects, by definition are temporary and have start and end dates attached to them. Also, scope and resources must be pre-determined. A project is unique in that it isn’t a routine operation, but a set of operations specifically designed to accomplish a singular goal. All projects should be expertly managed to deliver on-time and on-budget results plus the learning and integration the organization needs to be both effective and efficient.
Processes must become a leader’s best friend as the company grows
Project management is the application of tools, skills, knowledge and techniques to deliver the project successfully. It involves planning and the application of a company’s resources, which include personnel, finances, technology and intellectual property. The challenge of project management and resource coordination addresses the need for companies to recognize the importance for developing project management processes, templates and forms to make planning effective, efficient and repeatable.
How well are you managing resources in your company on a regular basis? How much profitability is leaking out of loose areas of resource allocation that should be tightened up?
Other critical questions on processes:
Are processes captured, written down and reviewed regularly?
Are these processes being utilized and followed?
If processes are in place, are they working well? Or do they need work?
Has the company identified key success indicators and/or KPIs and are they being tracked and measured?
Are there forms and templates to make processes and projects easy to set up and manage to avoid re-inventing the wheel every time?
Remember, effectiveness and efficiencies equal better profitability. The sooner a business puts critical processes in place and trains people on the use of those systems, the more money that company is able to make. When processes are in place, people feel more confident the activity they are performing will yield the same or better results as it did before. When processes and project management is missing, people lose confidence, they become less effective and in addition, inefficiencies create tension and the entire company can feel like it’s stretching a rubber band waiting for it to snap or worse, break.
Solving this challenge is all about figuring out how to standardize critical processes and projects to improve the workflow, stabilize the company rhythm and increase the company’s ability to sustain its profitability.
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