This week’s tip: There are 6 Key Business System Categories you need to deploy in your business to drive growth and operate with excellence.

To create a solid foundation to put these systems, you’ll want to deploy a system that addresses the 7th system category but more on this shortly.

First, here are the 6 key business system categories:

– Enterprise Management
– Financial Management
– Information Management
– Customer Development
– Administration
– Operations Management

Before I break each one of those down, the 7th Key Business System Category I mentioned earlier, that not only increases impact to culture and profitability but sustainability is Continuous Improvement. This is more than an initiative, it’s a mindset that’s adopted company wide and supports Planning, People, Process, and (sometimes) Technology.

It’s important to note that depending on your business structure, there may be some overlap between these key system categories and the various subsystems within them.

I wouldn’t worry about that, what’s more important is understanding if you have these systems in place and how you can implement or optimize them to drive growth and operate with excellence.

Enterprise Management

These systems help you with your overall business strategy.

Think:

– Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP
– Supply Chain Management or SCM
– Disaster Recovery & Continuity
– Succession & Exit
– Facility Closures & Relocations

Financial Management

These systems help you with your accounting and financial transactions.

Think:

– ERP or Desktop Accounting Solution (QuickBooks, Zoho, etc.)
– Income/Expense Management
– Asset Management
– Cost Accounting or Job Costing

Information Management

These systems help you with your Information Technology or IT infrastructure.

Think:

– Computer Workstations
– Storage Devices
– Security Protocols
– Internet or Intranet Access

Customer Development

These systems help you with your customer journey.

Think:

– Marketing
– Sales
– Customer Relationship Management or CRM

Administration

These systems help you with your team.

Think:

– Qualify, Hire, and Onboard
– Training
– Human Resource Management or HRM

Operations Management

These systems help you with the production and delivery of your products and services.

Think:

– Manufacturing or Production
– Order Fulfillment
– Supplier Management
– Product Development
– Facilities Management
– Maintenance Management
– Safety Management
– Quality Management
– Inventory Management

Continuous Improvement

This system helps you develop a culture of continuous improvement.

Think:

– Facilitation
– Leadership Commitment
– Leadership Goals
– Leadership Support
– Employee Involvement
– Available Resources
– Tools to Implement

Action Step: Evaluate your organization to understand:

1. Do you have systems in place to address the systems and sub systems listed
2. How can you implement or optimize them to drive growth and operate with excellence

That’s all for today.

See you all again next week.