Ingredients for a great business?

Do you have the right ingredients?

Less in the style of the “Great British Bake off” (a UK TV programme with siblings around the world) This is mainly about the ingredients rather than executing the recipe. When it comes to business, execution is almost everything. But....What are the ingredients that make a great business?

Size

Size is important … Stop sniggering at the back. It is. I have worked in very large businesses – FT100 plc sized ones, global-leader sized ones… and although it takes a while to realise it they are not always that much fun… as politics and unwieldy scale take their toll. Unless you subdivide them into (approx.) 50-person businesses/units – because that is the ideal size – where spontaneity lives, imperfection survives – where everyone knows each other. Beyond that the boss struggles to remember everyone’s names as churn increases. At this size, the team feels like the business belongs to them (even if they don’t own it) and therefore they care and feel part of the business. At this scale, communication is easier, natural and personal.

People focussed

People first, second & third. Great businesses are defined by their people. Successful Business should be great places to work where people can grow and loyalty is a two way street. Let people share in the success of the business.

Happy people; happy customers; happy shareholders – in that order.

Customer centric

Great businesses put the customer at the centre of what you do. They passionately care about service. They go the extra mile to deliver it. They connect with them endlessly and they know that happy customers are one of the key tenets of long-term success for a business. Fantastic businesses live, eat and breath making customers happy – it is the only long-term business objective.

Long-term focus

In some ways Family or private businesses have an advantage in that they are able to focus on the long term and don’t always have short term earnings announcements to support the share price and buoy investor sentiment. But even then…. In some sense it’s a size thing – whatever the ownership, the bigger the business becomes it slowly starts to focus on making shareholders happy – then the short term becomes more important than the long term and focus changes. Ask yourself what your long term objective is; and then see if you are really managing the business to achieve it.

Mission

A business needs an energising raison d’être – a mission that all its people can passionately believe in; a compelling proposition that can be delivered with belief. A differentiator that makes you attractive to customers. Me-too businesses can survive and even do well ... sure. But...Passionate businesses (that 100% believe in what they are offering because it's different and relevant to customers)…. Thrive.

Leadership

With the above in place, a business probably already has great leadership - a person or a team that embodies these principles, instills belief in the mission of the organisation and allows people to simply "do great stuff". Great leaders bring humility and a passion to serve the business (not their own interests). People are willing to run through walls for great leaders.

Everything else......

Businesses need funds,  process, systems …. and the rest. I don’t undervalue these at all. They are all vital to allow a business to function well. However, I deliberately put them last on my list, less as an after-though, but because they alone do not make a business great. If these are first things on the management agenda, then slowly the whole business turns towards hitting KPI's, adhering to budgets, and the accountants and functionaries start to lead the agenda. Vital processes, but no-one ever runs through brick walls for the Finance guys! (sorry chaps). Show me a business that puts the key ingredients first and I can point to one hell of a cake being baked  ….. Everything else will follow.