Most times we think we can do it all.
I'm not talking about packing 1,000 activities into one day and only really completing 3 or 4. I'm talking about Core Competencies.
In Law School, Medical School, B-School, and the School of Hard Knocks, we learned all about time management, practice development, economics, etc., just enough so we can understand the "issues".
Well, sorta, kinda. As the saying goes, "A little knowledge is dangerous". That holds true for many C-Level execs, entrepreneurs, homemakers and would-be day-traders who believe they are one-person business machines.
We forget our strengths, our core values, our Core Competencies and what business we are in to begin with.
It takes guts to look in the mirror and say, "I don't know enough about personnel benefits to do it myself". Or how about, "I never wrote a Policies & Procedures manual before". Or try, "I have no clue how to develop a strategic Sales plan". Even "I can't waste time mailing/shipping the marketing literature". Or "there are jobbers out there who can source raw materials for me at a lower cost than I can do it for".
One CEO of a major multi-Billion dollar corporation I performed a Strategic Acquisition Plan for, told me one day that "I make all my decisions by myself and I hire people in my image to execute my vision". This was someone who never delegated authority and responsibility and was always under constant pressure to carry the corporation on his shoulders because he felt he knew it all. And all his people also did it all themselves. Everyone in this company worked 90-hour weeks and his average employee turnover was 12 months!
We are not talking here about delegation - that's a skill one can learn with time and effort. I'm talking about focusing on the Company's (and your) Core Competencies.
A Bakery bakes, an advertising company advertises, an energy company makes it, a web design company designs and a bank lends money. The founders, the visionaries and the people managing the company day-to-day don't do Policies & Procedures manual, they don't assemble Business Plans and they don't have the legal background to be the company's attorneys. They also should not be troubleshooting the company IP network, nor should they attempt to write the company's Sales methodology.
Let's take this one step further!
Is an Insurance Adjustment company also a claims processor? Is a manufacturing company also a Logistics/Transportation company? Is a fashion retailer also a web publisher? Is a Nurse Care company also a Medicare billing company? Is a car service company also a mechanic? The list goes on.
One of the arguments you will hear is that "we are a lean, mean entrepreneurial machine and we do everything ourselves - we don't have the money to outsource". True. However, once you get the Core Competency mindset, you'll recognize these as a part of the cost of doing business. Run your own show and do it in-house for the time being. But when the either the company gets big enough, or the process get too time consuming, when possible, offload non-Core Competencies.
OK - how do I do this?
A Core Competency is defined as "That which is the essence of the company and that defines what you do and is unique and unparalleled and constitutes a singular capability of the founding members, your Team and the company's brand". Or use the Wiktionary definition - "An important special capability or expertise; especially that of a business affording it sustainable competitive advantage".
You need to create a bubble chart with the main, center bubble as your Core Business Premise, with layers of bubbles around it that represent "activities' your company performs today in order to operate. Once you have all the departments and activities your company performs in bubbles, then begin to color in ONLY what is a Core Competency. Before you start playing with crayons, though, make a bunch of copies!
But CHALLENGE every time you use color! Bring in your team and have them start with a non-colored copy and do the same exercise. Have your accountant come in one day and do it with them. Your lawyer too, and the secretary who answers the phone (they will have some real thoughts, contrary to public opinion!). And folks, sometimes a spouse has ideas you'd never have thought of (happened to me - thanks dear!).
Once you have these colored in, the remaining bubbles are activities that can be outsourced, offloaded, sold off and that should be performed by an outside firm that DOES THIS ACTIVITY AS THEIR CORE COMPETENCY. Find them, propose to them your requirements and select the best one for your business model so it becomes a seamless part of your supply chain.
You will (hopefully now, if not, in the near future) through this exercise, have shed numerous cost centers and potentially sinkholes within your company and you will find someone who can perform the same activity at a lower cost than you can do it for today.
Don't let your or the corporate ego get in the way, or "we've always done that ourselves, because we don't trust anyone else with it", or "Hey, this is part of our Core Competency!". Challenge EVERY activity you execute to see if it is really Core.
I have an old saying that I always use, "Don't' do anything that you can get someone else to do, better!". Get someone else who can do it for you better than you can.
The result will be lowering your unit cost and operating expenses, potentially providing better service levels and this will give you much more time to be creative and identify new (Core Competency) revenue streams!
Good Luck, and come back here with Comments!
