Two Hot Points That Improve Business

If you are an SME and want to be a BSE (Big and Strong), you may wonder what could be your areas for improvement. Indeed, there are always some, and not to say many, as most of medium-sized businesses with high-tech content have the same root causes of their inefficiencies. Chances are that you are not different. Here’s a couple of areas for you to check.

1. Communications.

If your company has grown fast to a few dozen people divided into several teams, there’s a high chance that your internal communications have been lagging behind. Typically, both vertical and horizontal communications could be improved. In fact, you MUST take care of your communications a.s.a.p. If you do not promote and maintain horizontal communications (between departments and teams), you will soon have a silo problem. Poor vertical communications, between managers and their reports, up and down, leads to inefficiencies, as some activities are being jumped upon by multiple people or teams while some less attractive but critical activities may fall through cracks.

2. Organizational Structure.

Related to the last point is the organizational structure and responsibilities that come with the individual position in the orgchart or on a temporary project. Surprisingly enough, quite a few companies are “too busy” growing, so they do not have time to think about their structure. Oftentimes, the orgchart does exist as a document because it was requested for some certification or for financing but it has become outdated. Likewise, a RACI chart could be a great tool, especially if you talk a lot about “lean” or “flat structure” or being Agile. For an organization that is serious about its business efficiency, both documents are a must-have.

Bottom line: You can achieve noticeable improvement in performance just looking into these two areas. By doing it yourself, you have a good opportunity to improve your organizational culture from the inside, and that’s the most sustainable way.

Was I right about the two items? What other hot points do you think about?