The other night eating dinner we had an interesting experience which relates to running a business (it does….I promise).

My youngest son is usually pretty slow in eating - generally he’s the last to finish his evening meal. 

But the other night, things were different.  We were talking about what we did during the day etc, and didn’t notice how quickly he was eating.  He finished before the rest of us had half eaten our meals.

And the second he finished, he picked up the stopwatch that was sitting on the table next to him, stopped it, and announced that it had only taken him 7 minutes and 22 seconds to finish his tea.  Up to that point, we hadn’t noticed the stopwatch and hadn’t noticed how well he was eating.

When I was doing the MBA one of the phrases I learnt was ‘what gets measured gets done’.  It’s true and my son proved it.  You see, he’s a numbers freak.  He’s just started school and can do maths that kids a few years older would struggle with.  He gets motivated by timing himself.  If I want him to have a quick bath, I’ll let him know I’m timing him.  If we want him to get dressed quickly, we’ll time him. 

For my son, time is a measure that motivates him.

In business, there are measures that can lead to success.  In a service business there are certain activities you do that can lead to certain desirable outcomes.  An activity could be something like a phone call or writing a proposal.

One thing I learnt many years ago is that you can’t completely control the outcomes of your activities, but you can control the activity that you do.  In the financial planning business, we’re measuring things like the number of calls we make, new client referrals, number of financial plans we produce etc.  I know that if we’re doing the right activities, the results will follow.

I know that if we measure these figures weekly, I’m more motivated to make sure they happen, and less likely to put them off.  And I know that each of these figures has an impact on the other.  If we’re not calling people we don’t get enough appointments.  If we’re not doing enough appointments, we’re not writing financial plans.  And if we’re not producing financial plans, we’re not making money.

So what are the things in your business that need to be measured? In the blogging world you may measure the number of posts you produce, the number of comments you make on other blogs, the number of pillar articles you write etc.  These are all activities that you can control.  You can then measure the outcomes of those activities i.e. new subscribers or visitors to your site.  Over time you’ll begin to see how the various components influence each other, and you’ll have a better idea of what you need to do to achieve your business goals.

Have a think about your business.  What are the things you need to measure that lead to success?  Let us know what the relevant things are for your business.

Photo credit wwarby

Seth had a few comments in a post titled “What To Do About Detroit”.  In it, he talks about the concept of having hundreds of car manufacturers, leading to increased competition and innovation.  Bob had a post where he talked about the similarities between Detroit and the music industry.

Alan Weiss had a podcast where he talked about the problems with GM.  In it he makes the point that GM needs to get rid of all its senior management and get some new people in.  But he says GM needs “great leadership, not auto smarts.”  He makes a great point.  Companies like GM have their management full of car people – people who have years of experience in the auto industry.  The problem is that this may not be the right thing.

People who grow up in the one industry will be closed to the innovation happening in other industries.  Alan believes that GM needs to find the best, most innovative people from other industries so they can apply that knowledge to the car industry. 

It makes sense, doesn’t it.  Sometimes the best ideas come from outside your area of expertise and from people who you may think would know nothing about your business.

It’s got me thinking.

Through the financial planning business, I belong to a peer group.  We’re a group of planners who meet three times a year to discuss issues we’re facing and to share ideas.  There’s tremendous power in the sharing and collaboration, and I come away with some good ideas (and hope that I’ve also contributed some good ideas).  But we’re still all just financial planners with a financial planning focus.

I’m looking to create an advisory board to my business.  On it I’d find people who have business skills or knowledge, but not from the financial planning industry.  I’m interested in the ideas they can come up with for my business.  Maybe because they’ll know so little about the specifics of my industry, they’ll come up with ideas and thoughts that we’d never have thought of ourselves, or would have discounted straight away.

So how is it in your business.  Where do your ideas come from?  Do you have a method or process to get ideas from other people who are not as close to your business as you are.

One of the visions I have for the Better Service Blog is to open an online forum where we can experience the same degree of collaboration I’ve seen in my peer group, but on a global basis across a range of service business.  Imagine an accountant from Africa giving marketing suggestions to a lawyer in the US!

What do you think?  What are the best ways you know of to get feedback and creative ideas?  How do you stop your business becoming so insular that you become like GM?