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Nine Ways to Improve Your Company Profits
By Eugene Peterson
I recently returned from meeting one of my
Chicago clients and I am pleased to report
that they have improved
their Year to Date net
profit from an okay
eight percent to an
amazing 26 percent by
implementing huddles
and score cards resulting
in accountability for
improved personal performance
and improved
productivity. Would you like to see similar results for
your company?
Here is how it works:
1. Set individual personal performance
goals for each member of your company and
team. Break them down into small DAILY
accomplishable bites.
2. Choose a unique time for a daily
STAND UP huddle. My favorite time
would be 8:07 a.m. – it is unique enough that
it can easily be remembered.
3. Require ALL team members to be in
attendance. If for some reason they cannot
attend in person, then require that they participate
via a phone conference line.
Conference phone services are free and
readily available simply by doing a web
search. It should be obvious to set up the
conference line in advance and practice
using it so that no one misses the huddle.
4. At the meeting have each person give
two reports. The first is to tell the
team/group what is planned to be accomplished
today. For example, if the person
reporting is doing business development
then it would be appropriate to give the
names of the clients or contacts to be visited
or contacted along with the purpose and
expectation of each visit. The second part is
to report what was accomplished the previous
day.
5. An individual other than the boss, perhaps
the company receptionist, should be
responsible for running the meeting and for
taking notes. A boss could intimidate and
negate the desired results and cause failure.
6. The notes are converted to the score
card and listed under the name of the reporting
individual for next day use. The score
card is then distributed to each team member
prior to the 8:07 a.m. meeting.
7. The meeting should be no longer than
5-10 minutes. I encourage the meeting to be
a stand up meeting because I do not want
people to get comfortable. It is not held to
resolve problems, it is held to make today’s
commitments and to report yesterday’s
accomplishments.
8. The key is in establishing appropriate
individual goals that stretch individual
potential and performance. It does no good
to establish a goal that results in mediocre
action.
9. It is also important to remove from
play the individual that consistently makes
promises and never seems to deliver.
This process is simple, yet very powerful
in creating individual accountability resulting
in direct increased productivity and profitability.
This is how an everyday company
like yours and mine can today report Year to
Date net profits of 26 percent. The process
boils down to getting people to make commitments
for their daily activities and then
holding them accountable to accomplish
what they promise. It is so simple that with
little effort you can implement score cards
and huddles and improve bottom line profits