business success

Did you get skip that workout you planned to do today or indulge a little extra at that meal last night?

Did you opt to put off that important customer feedback project that you had been planning to launch?

These are just a few of the many minor decisions we make everyday in our lives and business, and they usually don?t have immediate consequences.? If I choose to skip my exercise today, there probably is not a significant effect on my health.? If I skip the entire week, I am probably just fine. In fact, if I skip a whole month of exercise, there is probably not a consequence except that my pants may fit a little tighter. However, in time, the daily decision to not exercise will catch up with me.? It may be years down the road, but my decisions regarding my health habits will have a compounding effect on my life ? either for better or worse.? My point is not to create guilt or motivate exercise fanatics, but to simply point out an important concept that relates directly to our success in business: we are the sum of decisions.

It has been said that if you want to understand where you are today, then you should examine your daily habits in the past.

If you want to understand your future, then you should examine what your daily habits are today.

These principles apply in our businesses as well as in our personal lives. We are always trying to get a leg up on our competition.? We read books, go to seminars, learn knew skills, work harder and faster ? all to try and inch out our competition in an ultra-competitive global marketplace.?? These are all important parts of building a successful business. ?For entrepreneurs desiring to build successful companies, there is another key ingredient that is often overlooked ? the ?Slight Edge.” ?Jeff Olson, in his book The Slight Edge, points out that the keys to your personal and business success are the things you do every single day, the things that don?t look dramatic or like they matter.? He argues that the little daily decisions not only make a difference ? they make all the difference.? The Slight Edge is simply a commitment to making the right choices day in and day out in your life and business.? It is a philosophy that helps us understand that we make decisions knowing that the results are long term.? We know that in time, if we make the right choices, our lives and businesses will be better off.

Most of us have seen the chart that shows us that if we start investing a few dollars in our early twenties and stick with it, then we will retire with lots of money.? These charts, which are often used by financial planners, illustrate the powerful principle of compound interest. When you look at the chart, it appears that you are making great progress for a number of years, but over time, the true power of compounding becomes evident.? For entrepreneurs, the key is to begin making good daily choices with your time and priorities early. Don?t let everyday distractions deter you away from doing the rights things for your business.? I often see companies ignore basic corporate housekeeping and other similar non-revenue producing activities in order to deal with urgent, but usually unimportant, issues.? While there is no immediate consequence to your business for skipping over these often seemingly mundane details, they can have long term consequences.? Often, when a company gets ready to sell or raise money and the microscope is turned on their business through due diligence, the compounding effect of poor habits in these areas truly come to light.

Most ?overnight? success stories are actually the result of years of hard work and effort.

We became spoiled in the dot-com era of companies starting up and then selling out for millions.? We need to be reminded that companies such as Starbucks, which has over 13,000+ stores in 39 countries, only had 165 stores after being in business 21 years.? The Slight Edge is no ?get-rich-quick? scheme. It is an invaluable philosophy to apply in your business to develop positive daily habits which will help maximize its potential to become a fast growth venture.

Is your organization getting better all the time??

Most business owners would like to think that their business is always improving; however, very few people are willing to actually do the heavy lifting to create an enterprise that is systematically improving on a regular basis. In the world of manufacturing, these concepts have been around for awhile.? American consultant Edward Deming was a pioneer in? quality improvement with Japanese industry post World War II. The Japanese term kaizen has become synonymous with continues improvement and this method was popularized by Masaaki Imai in ?Kaizen: The Key to Japan?s Competitive Success.? In his book which was first published in 1986, Imai introduced the ?LEAN? philosophy to the world and shared the secrets behind the success of Toyota and other Japanese companies.

The core principle of continuous improvement is the ?self reflection? process.? This is essentially a feedback loop that requires a willingness to be brutally honest about your organization. The purpose of this process is the identification, reduction, and elimination of poor processes. Using a commonsense approach, minor improvements are continually made in small, incremental ways in the organization with a strong emphasis on the customer.

As a company successfully embraces continuous improvement then it moves from being a best practice to becoming part of the fabric of the organization. While these concepts may have originated in the manufacturing sector, they are rapidly being adopted by service businesses, particularly in health care and technology.? There is a tremendous opportunity to gain a competitive advantage by committing your company to a path of continuous improvement.

Mississippi entrepreneur Jill Beneke formed Pileum Corporation in 2002, and she has successfully built a management consulting firm by relentlessly focusing on improving her organization. Beneke worked for over twenty years in financial services, and she was Senior Vice President of the Capital Management Group for AmSouth prior to forming Pileum.? Her father was an entrepreneur as well as her husband, so it was a natural shift for Beneke to launch her own venture when the timing was right. Pileum acts as a trusted partner to companies in multiple industries to help with their information technology and their most important asset ? their data management.? Because of this critical role the company plays for its customers, Beneke and her team have to stay ahead of the constant evolution of technology and meet the real time needs of their customers.

While Pileum may not use phrases like kaizen or LEAN to describe their internal process, they are very much committed to the path of continuous improvement.? The management team and staff continually ask the question ?How can we do things better?? According to Beneke, ?our management team gets together frequently, and we are open and honest about trying to improve.? This means that we can?t be afraid to be self-critical.?? Pileum also provides a significant amount of in-house training for its employees and pays for its employees? external training and industry certifications.? Their goal as a company is to be getting better all of the time.? For Pileum, this commitment to continuous improvement has helped separate it in the marketplace and establish the company as a leading technology consulting business.? The company now has over 30 employees and services a large number of clients in the Mid-South.

If your company is not embracing the principles of continuous improvement then time is of the essence because your competition probably will be soon.? As a leader, you can demonstrate a commitment to continual improvement and set the direction of the organization.? In order to be successful, you also need buy-in of the members of your team and for them to embrace this kaizen mindset.? While dramatic changes may not occur overnight, your team will daily be embracing a way of thinking conducive for long term success.

GETTING THE EDGE

If you want to understand your future, then you should examine what your daily habits are today.

Most ?overnight? success stories are actually the result of years of hard work and effort.

ARE YOU CONTINUALLY IMPROVING YOUR BUSINESS?

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