The Kynection One System TQM Series
There is one little thing that every millennial child with an Instagram account knows about running a successful business today. Would you like to know what it is? It’s actually quite simple. A successful business is a business that provides something to somebody in exchange for money!
Sounds like a marvelous idea, right? And it sounds so simple, easy, and pain-free. It sounds like something you can do from a pool chair while sipping on a nice long drink and enjoying the sun. It’s an aspiration for half a billion kids, so why shouldn’t it be the same for business owners?
Well, the short answer is skills, systems, and separating from your competition by striving to continuously improve!
In this closing article of our “KIM ONE SYSTEM ISO Series” we will address competition through the lens of Clauses 9 and 10 of the ISO Standard 9001:2015 (Performance Evaluation and Improvement), and show you how you can win the competition game while letting your swimwear dry out in the sun.
Competing to stand out is one of our natural survival instincts as a human species, and in the business world it has been with us since our early ancestors mastered the arts of trade and exchange over 40,000 years ago. Wherever there was a monopoly, there was a fight for choice, and wherever there was choice there was competition. Have you ever asked yourself what makes you opt for one shop over another? We did, and we came to one simple conclusion: performance.
Every business function can be assessed through a certain criteria of performance. This includes:
- Customer service
- Product quality
- Product cost
- Delivery time
- Sales and Marketing
- Working conditions
- Research and development and more.
The better your performance is in these sectors, the higher you rank and the longer you last. In other words – benchmarking is key! And if you say benchmarking – You say KIM One System!
It is not unusual for us to hear nostalgic stories from new customers about how different things used to be in the past.
“There is so much red tape… things are so complex and regulated… and there is just so much more paperwork today!”
Does this sound familiar to you?
The changes you see are driven by the business, trade, and tech evolution, and evolution is driven by competition. The increased availability of choice brought by the first industrial revolution in 1760 led to a great industrial standardisation wave sparked by the second industrial revolution in 1870. As the knowledge increased, competition and international trade evolved, as did the expected performance criteria, and in 1947 the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) was born!
But with so many different performance expectations in the statement we made earlier, where a successful business is a business that provides something of value to somebody in exchange for money, does your business have the necessary additional ISO ingredients to make money?
At Kynection, focusing on how we make money is a strategic initiative for our executive teams and we believe that as long as you also set and follow a criteria of performance to stay ahead of competition your business will stand the test of time. And the secret is to continuously improve!
The ISO 9001 Standard talks about a few things you can do to evaluate and continuously improve your performance. These include:
- Monitoring, measuring and analysing the performance of your management system in a way which is best applicable to your organisation
- Monitoring and evaluating your customer satisfaction
- Undertaking internal Audits
- Undertaking management review meetings
- Reviewing the inputs and outputs of your management review meetings
- Managing any nonconformities
- Proactively looking for ways to continuously improve your business, and more
Because providing something to somebody in exchange for money is what is happening on the surface, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
The operations hiding “under the water” can include:
- Market Research
- Product or Service Advertising
- Procurement
- Onboarding, induction and training of staff
- Customer support
- Project management
- Strategic and financial planning
- Risk and Incident Management
- Business governance controls and more.
And to successfully run your business you have to evaluate, monitor, analyse and continuously improve your performance in ALL of the areas that come into the equation, allowing you to sell your products and services for money.
Continuously improve to keep your business ahead of the curve.
As much as it may sound easy to do, many businesses fail to properly measure and evaluate their performance and as a result, do not get a true picture of their profits and losses. They may be selling their products and services for money, but they under-quote, under-estimate, and have no track of any losses that they face through poorly handled HR, inventory, assets, equipment, product, projects and more. This results in their business being on edge, where it could in fact grow, thrive and prosper.
Make yourself a long drink, pat yourself on the back for actually being in business and finding a niche where you get paid money, and call us now to hear about how you can manage, evaluate, and improve your performance, and rank high in all of your business areas using KIM One System. The one system for your business. And the sit back bit is a fact because it can all be done from your mobile phone!
© 2022 Autolync Pty Ltd, trading as Kynection