Attention to quality will pay rewards
by Kelly Schwedland
Improving the quality of life requires us as business owners to focus our attention on our business. Before you wad this up and file it, let me explain.
I am suggesting that a higher quality of life starts with a more enjoyable place for customers to spend their money, as well as for employees to work. The quality of life is about time and where people spend it, the establishments they frequent, the companies where they work and the places they do business. A higher quality of life involves fewer frustrations, more free time and more enjoyment.
Quality of life is something we build into our business, with attention paid to every detail. We need to create an extraordinary place that people will look at and say, "How do they do that?"
If we are spending all of our time doing the tactical work (selling, making, shipping, cleaning), we don’t have the time to do the strategic work required to build a business that does anything extraordinarily well.
Focus on details
Creating such a business requires us to have two very critical items: intention and attention. Nothing of any significance is going to happen in our business without it.
None of it will happen by accident. We have to make the time, pay attention and ask questions such as:
- What does this business need to be (in the minds of our customers, employees, suppliers, and lenders) for it to be seen as an amazing place?
- What is it going to take to make people choose my business over all the other businesses out there?
- What will make them come hundreds or thousands of miles out of their way to do business with me?
Every truly successful company has done it. Walt Disney with Disneyland, Ray Kroc with McDonald’s, Fred Smith with Federal Express and Tom Watson with IBM, all had stunning intention. Each was nothing more than a small business that performed extraordinarily well. Regardless of what you think of these companies today, the intention of the original owners is shown in the amazing results they achieved.
It starts with owners
However, it is not enough for business owners to assume that money or taxes for public infrastructure is sufficient to change the quality of life. Owners must create an environment that will foster efficiency and quality. This means a more productive environment for our employees and the ability to continually develop our people.
So what is the message? To improve the quality of life, we have to focus our attention and intention on our business. It does not start "out there" or with better employees. It starts with us. We need to make our business work by paying attention to the details. It’s not going to happen any other way!
Kelly Schwedland is president of American Business Dynamics, a small business consulting firm focused on issues related to growing companies.