PrintEmail

One of the most basic things that people in business lose sight of is the expected result of everything they do. This starts right from the time they enter into business and perpetuates in the day-to-day decisions that are made. In this article we raise some questions about the expectation of results and offer comments about a way of thinking differently about what you do in your business.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines \"result\" as \"a consequence, issue or outcome of something\". If we take this very basic meaning and apply it to our business decision-making we can see what possible outcomes might arise.

What do you want to achieve?

What was the result you were expecting when you first went into business? Many will say \"independence\", \"be my own boss\", \"make money\", \"do my own thing\", \"sell the business at a profit\", etc.  Why?  While all of these may be true, do they really answer the whole question? In our minds, the reason for going into business is to build a profitable economic enterprise that can work without you so you can gain the freedom to pursue what really interests you in life. The result is freedom to choose.

What about advertising? What is the expected result you hope to achieve from undertaking this activity? Surely, the result is to acquire long-term profitable customers from your target market that will not only give you repeat business, but also refer others to your business. However, for this to happen, you need to have a thorough understanding of the needs of prospective customers and how they think, so you can place the messages in your advertising output that gets into the minds of your target.

Staffing is always an interesting topic. Comments abound about how businesses can\'t get the right staff, and how staff never does what is required and aren\'t motivated. Why does this happen? Again, it comes back to an expectation of a result. What result for the business is achieved by employing a person in a position in your business? If you don\'t understand, or haven\'t defined how any position in your business contributes to the result delivered to your customers, how can the person who occupies the position be expected to know? Everyone in an organisation must contribute to the expected result, from the person who sweeps the floors to the person who occupies the top position. They must understand the result they are expected to achieve, to whom and for what they are accountable, the work to be undertaken to achieve the expected result, the standards by which it must be done, and when and how it will be reviewed. It is the job of the manager to provide the resources and training to allow the job to be done as defined. When people understand what is expected of them and agree to be accountable for producing the result, they gain their motivation from doing the job well and knowing that their work makes a difference.

By asking the question \"What is the result expected from doing/employing/buying/… in relation to meeting customer or business needs?\" you open the door to a much more focused approach to doing business. Running a business is a thinking game first, then moving on to defining the best way of doing things that will achieve the desired results.