Issue 196 - Working with the Wrong Dumbbells?

Food business owners have a great deal in common with professional weight lifters. They're often called upon to move enormous loads, they definitely experience no-pain/no-gain situations, and when it comes time to invest in equipment and services to strengthen themselves they're often asked to choose between a variety of dumbbells. This week we look at ways to make sure you pick the right dumbbells to work with.

Three business owners join a gym. The first heads to the weight room, picks up a very light weight, breezes through his routine, and heads out. The second picks out a very heavy weight, he strains every muscle just to get through his routine, and limps out. The third picks out a reasonable weight, has push himself to get through his routine, and heads home. Can you predict which business owner will get stronger, which one will not improve, and which one has a good chance of hurting himself and his business?

Knowing which weights will be the right size depends on your goals, I recently rediscovered some advice from Nathan Cracraft I'd like to share with you about setting SMART goals.

Proper goal setting is a critical element of any successful business. Without realistic goals, business owners and employees are often left to follow a vague and winding performance roadmap. A clear set of goals helps a business continuously improve, compete more effectively, and fine tune its operations and processes over time.

For many entrepreneurs, goal setting is not always the easiest endeavour. Most business owners are so focused on their daily operations that they may often confuse tasks with goals. To be clear, goals are used to directly support a strategic objective or business plan. Tasks are short-term activities that keep the business running. Finally, goals consist of a series of actionable tasks to achieve the desired results.

To help in the goal setting process, most successful businesses follow the S.M.A.R.T ("SMART") methodology. This handy acronym helps simplify the process of goal setting and ensures that objectives are defined in the most effective manner possible. When following the SMART process, all goals must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-limited.

Specific - The goal must include more specific and actionable language.
Measurable - The goal must define measurable results.
Achievable - Is this goal achievable, has something similar been done successfully by other companies?
Realistic - Again, using research and industry benchmarks, ask yourself how likely are we to accomplish this goal?
Time-limited - A goal that lingers is not useful. Expectations must be set around when the objective is to be accomplished. Establishing time limits also helps business owners prioritize and plan for goals throughout the year.

I frequently see examples of companies looking at the wrong size dumbbells while working to with food business owners cut operating costs using my people and software products. Too many times, I will get involved with Distributors and Processors who look at systems for their business and are so anxious to improve that they overload their ideal solution with so many capabilities and additional modules. They get the price so high they freeze up and do nothing. Much the same way as a beginning weightlifter might take one look at 300 pounds on the bar and decide that it’s just not worth the effort.

“Don’t order more than you can eat.” is what we tell our children, but we don't always follow our own advice. In the systems world pricing everything you think you might need can lead to indecision or no decision, be SMART about buying systems. Start with the medium weights and get stronger before you move to the heavy ones.

Our Thinking inside the box tells the story of failed systems. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, systems that have all the bells and whistles, the “heavy weights.”

How much should you lift? Compare the dumbbells you are considering with your SMART goals and you should be able to quickly determine which set is to light, which set is too heavy, and which set will strengthen your company.