Systems, Growth and Strategy

Chers Amis/Dear Friends,

Many businesses who are ready to scale forget one thing: will our operating system able to cope and support our growth? This is such an important question that is far too often overlooked. This can cause a business to fail or generate very costly corrections further down the line.

Growth needs to be enabled

One thing that I have noticed in my strategy consulting/coaching career is that many SMEs who wish to grow do not have the right operational system to enable revenue growth. Growth is indeed disruptive to the business as it has to respond, adjust, adapt, hire well and be able to support and direct the growth. However what is often missing is having the right operational systems that enable scaling. Far too often, SMEs still use basic operating systems, or a multitude of e-platforms and sometimes even still just Excel or Google Sheet. And as they start to grow, operations are becoming heavier, more labour intensive, non effective, unproductive, more mistakes are made in orders and deliveries (if they are manufactured goods), customer service receives more complaints and so on and so forth.

Business and Customer Data

Having the right operational system to enable growth must also include business analytics so that key business & customer data can be collected. Knowing your customers, knowing your market data and your business performance are must haves as the company scales.

This is why when I work with my CEO clients on their strategy, I always spend some time understanding their operations and what system(s) they use. Part of the strategy work is to develop management systems that will support and enable the growth choices made as well as measure the performance of the strategy. Without the right data, that is pretty hard to do.

Whenever relevant, I personally always recommend Zoho One as a fully integrated operating system because it is cost effective, easy to use and fully customisable. There are over 50 apps within Zoho One that run all your business operations from sales, marketing, inventory, projects, data analytics, HR, social media, automation, AI integration.

If you need any advice on Zoho suite of apps and the various options it offers, please do get in touch with me, I can help you and even get you some discounts when you sign up as I am a Zoho Affiliate. You can check their website for more information: www.zoho.com

Conclusion

Before you seriously want to grow your business, make sure you have the correct operating system to enable scaling up. This is an essential piece to your success that is often overlooked and cause a company to fail further down the line.

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‘Hervé works with CEOs at key moments in the company’s future: facing growth challenges, scaling, going international’.

Lead with Strategy.