Title:

Developing Leadership in Your Company. By: Vollmer, Diana, American Drycleaner, 00028258, May2014,
Vol. 81, Issue 2
Database:
Business Source Premier
HTML Full Text
Developing Leadership in Your Company
ListenSelect:
American Accent

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
As the owner of a professional fabricare business, making your business thrive is your primary responsibility. Leading
your company to prosperity requires time to think, plan and implement strategies for the good of the entire enterprise.
Developing a strong leadership team to manage your company at all levels is key to freeing your time to work on your
company instead of in it on a day-to-day basis. Developing strong leaders is much easier with a structure and system
in place for managing the company and for developing the team simultaneously.
MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE. Each manager can have multiple responsibilities until organization growth warrants
more staff (either full or part-time). The key at this point is to identify all of the responsibilities necessary for the
company to be successful and to identify who will fulfill each role.
The key functions to fill are: CEO (chief executive officer), who is in charge of the total management of the business
and has the ultimate responsibility for the success of the company and the team.
CFO (chief financial officer), who has responsibility for managing the financial risk of the company and for the record
keeping in the organization.
COO (chief operating officer), who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company and may be
responsible for both production and sales. In most cleaners, the responsibility is focused on the production side of the
business.
CPO (chief promotional officer), who is tasked with the sales and leads the team charged with collecting and
increasing revenues.
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. An effective management system will simplify the leadership and direction of the business
and its various divisions by providing the executive team controls, procedures and benchmarks by which to measure
progress and achieve greater profitability. In the simplest form, the system includes a process by which to "Plan,
Implement, Review, Refine, and Repeat" (PIRRR). That is:
* Plan the action
* Implement the plan
* Review the results
* Refine the plan
* Repeat the process for continued improvement
This approach can be applied and reapplied at every level of the organization to simplify the management of every
division and department. The plans of each division may be compared and contrasted to the overreaching plan of the
company as a whole to confirm that it contributes to the enterprise goal(s).
Matching the sub-plans to the master goal is essential and is often shown not to be the case in reality. For example, a
sales division with the single-minded goal of increasing top-line sales may be incompatible and even
counterproductive with an overall goal of making operations more efficient or increasing the profit margins. An
example would be a "giveaway" sale that brings in so much work that it overwhelms the plant with the sale items and
prevents the quality service that loyal full-price customers expect.
An effective management system provides for individual responsibility and accountability on specific assignments and
projects, specific actions and activities to be accomplished, and a schedule for completion. It also provides for
tracking the results and making refinements to the plan if the expected results are not achieved.
The cycle of plan, implement, review, refine and repeat helps the company continuously improve results. It also trains
managers and associates for future leadership roles with ever-increasing responsibility.
The successful completion (or lack of completion) of small assignments is a low-risk test for determining the
management and leadership potential of your team members.
MANAGEMENT TOOLS. Once the "right people are in the right seats on the bus," and their goals and direction are
set, they need the tools necessary to achieve their goals. There are innumerable management tools available, but
some of the most relevant to fabricare companies are:
1. Benchmarking, which compares results to best practices and performance either inside or outside the industry. It
is used to set performance standards that have been proven to be achievable and to determine if the operation is
optimized.
2. Business Process Re-engineering helps managers revise processes to become more efficient and profitable. It
involves analysis of workflow and process components to determine how to improve.
3. Core Competencies Analysis dissects the performance of individual divisions and offerings to determine the
contribution to the enterprise. This scrutiny helps arrive at an appropriate product and service mix.
4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a model for managing a company's interactions with customers.
Generally, account relationship management is focused on increasing the share of wallet from that individual
account. An example that might differ from that goal is a retailer that is in the position to refer their customers to a
dry cleaner.
5. Customer Segmentation is closely related to CRM but is focused on identifying segments of customers that are
similar to each other in identifiable ways. Customer Segmentation provides a means to determine how to reach
more "clones" of your best customers and more relevant offerings and communications.
6. Downsizing usually refers to a reduction in workforce but can also be applied to number of outlets, products,
services and divisions.
7. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) is a strategy of buying, selling or combining operations for a business
advantage. It's proven profitable due to opportunities for economies of scale.
8. Outsourcing, the practice of contracting processes to a third party, is often more profitable than performing the
process internally.
9. Point of Sale (POS) systems are critical to track the inventory processed and the diverse customer base served.
Integrating the POS system with the accounting and operational record-keeping systems diminishes the
challenges of tracking, managing and improving the progression.
10. Price Optimization Models calculate how demand for a product or service varies at different price levels. The
results are then compared to costs to arrive at optimum pricing.
11. Satisfaction and Loyalty Management is closely related to CRM and Customer Segmentation, but it is more
directly focused on retaining customers and increasing their expenditures with the organization.
12. Social Media Programs are designed to reach out to customer segments through specific electronic media
channels and social networks. The goal is to create appealing content that is shared through the networks and
that will result in additional business and loyalty.
13. Strategic Alliances are focused on aligning with independent business partners to pursue common goals that can
be beneficial to both partner companies. An example would be jointly hosting an event that would commingle
clients with similar lifestyles and who would be inclined to patronize both businesses. 14. Strategic Planning, per
Wikipedia, is "an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating
its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the future direction of the organization, it is necessary
to understand its current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue particular courses of
action." George Friedman in The Next 100 Years summarizes "the fundamental principle of strategic planning:
hope for the best, plan for the worst."
14. Based Budgeting is a good tool to re-evaluate the organization, its structure, processes and operations. It
involves starting from scratch to design a budget to best provide for company needs and goals. It is especially
valuable in keeping the company current as best practices change. Creating a comprehensive management
structure, a sound management system, and providing the tools to complete the responsibilities will make your
life easier and your company prosper.