Tag Archives: systems

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SYSTEMology: Create Time, Reduce Errors and Scale Your Profits with Proven Business Systems

It is no secret that the business book market is a “red ocean” of competition where it is almost impossible to create a differentiated product. So, when I come across a business book that I know will make a huge impact to organizations, I always try to share what I have learned from the book with others.

David Jenyns book SYSTEMology is one of those books!

For business veterans, SYSTEMology will be a wake up call for what we should have done or still need to do within our business.

For those new to business leadership, SYSTEMology is a great resource that provides the background and the tools necessary to systematize your business. This systematization will decrease workloads while increasing quality, repeatability, and profitability.

Four Levels of Systematization

Jenyns defines four levels of business systematization as:

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An Introduction to the Rockefeller Habits

In 2002, Verne Harnish published his book “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.” At the time, I was transitioning from “mega-project” management into business management and this book made a huge impact on how I run a business.

I never thought too much about it at the time but now as I reflect on how I have led organizations (businesses and not-for-profits), I constantly leverage all of the ten Rockefeller habits that Harnish outlines in his book.

I find it interesting that the organizations that “bought into” the “Rockefeller system” with me performed well over time even though we may have experienced some tough periods in the market. Conversely, the organizations that just could not get aligned around the system, were not able to experience the same levels of success.

So, what are these intriguing habits?

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9 Warning Signs That Your Business Is In Danger

12 Steps to Business Transformation – Step 10, 11 and 12

Over the last nine weeks, I introduced my Ebook 12 Steps to Business Transformation and I defined the first 9 of the 12 transformational steps. This week we are going to talk about steps 10, 11 and 12.

Steps 10 to 12 in my new Ebook “12 Steps to Business Transformation” deal with the outputs of your business which I call Outcomes. These are the resulting services or products that are created by your business.

  • Step 10 is the actual Outcome. What has your business produced? Is it acceptable, not acceptable, substandard, above standard, on cost, over cost, on schedule, behind schedule, on spec, off spec, etc.
  • Step 11 is the feedback that you are taking from the Outcome and sending back to the business for adjustments to improve the quality of the Outcome
  • Step 12 is simply the ongoing, disciplined operation of your business . . . Basically, repeating Steps 9 to 11
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Who’s Running Your Business?

Most of our businesses are run by systems that we have put into place to ensure consistent delivery of products and services. Sometimes these systems are automated and sometimes the systems are manual. However, in every case, these systems are set up, maintained and operated by our people. So, our businesses are run by systems but our people run the systems.

A few years ago I was attending a monthly meeting of The Executive Committee in Calgary and we were discussing some typical business issues that members of the group were facing. We were extremely focused on fixing the business system side of things and one of the group made this statement and it struck everyone as profound.

“our businesses are run by systems but our people run the systems“