Just like the flash of a light year 2018 has come to and we are now in year 2019. What naturally resonates in our mind at this time is the phrase “how time flies“. But wait a minute does time really fly. The truth is, it does not; time always runs its normal course. “How time flies “is just a figment of our imagination and a response to how eventful the year has been for as many that had the year filled with many activities and now the year has come to an end with so much activities you could not attend to.
Similarly, for some people they just could not wait for the year to come to an end perhaps because things were not too good for them .
I don’t know which divide you are at this moment, the truth is year 2018 has gone and we are now in year 2019 . what is crucial as a business executive or owner is having a sincere overview of your performance in 2018 and using same to develop a pragmatic strategy to make good of 2019.
I will therefore like to start this year with sharing with you a few steps to get this done very quickly before the pressure of business expectations begin to take its toll on you
This is an excellent structure many organizations have used over the years that has proved to be quite successful
This structure will help you begin to have certain records that will be of long term value to your organization.
The truth is business processes are faster than ever before and making and keeping records of some strategic information that are instrumental to your business success will go along way to guarantee future success for your business.
This activity must be done in writing and the structure is very simple. You merely need to make a list under the following heading
WHAT REALLY WENT WELL FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Here , you are making a list of your major achievements during the year. As a commercial printing company – you want to take note of the print jobs that gave you the best margins , or as a Printing solution provider , you want to make a list of solutions , machines and service contracts that you handled in the course of the year that brought you the best revenue .
Please as you do this also take note some of key success factors -things
that were responsible for your success
WHAT DID NOT GO WELL FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
Here you want to make a list of failed bids for some printing jobs, also
print jobs or contracts that came through but were poorly handled and you
lost revenues . List of clients who used to patronize your products and
service and shifted their patronage to other providers or print shops .
Business activities that did not produce the right return on investment
(ROI) . Please also take note of the things that were responsible for some
of your shortcomings and failures , your mistakes and disappointments
WHAT MUST I PAY ATTENTION TO IN THE NEW YEAR
Here you want to take cursory look at your entire business process , your
products and your staff . You also need to take a look at your current
strength – things that made you successful during the year that just
passed and begin to make a list of those you have to keep . You have to
identity ways of sustaining and enhancing them
And for your weakness – make a list things that were responsible for your
failures – look out for ways to work on them for improvement in the new
year . Things you have to do away with . For example some staff may have
to be replaced why other may have to be trained for better performance .
CONCLUSION
Now , if you can honestly and intentionally carry out the above exercise
in the space of about a week , you will be amazed how much you can come up
with to do better in this new year
You can also go further with this exercise by asking various strategic
business units or departments in your organization to carry out this
exercise for their units and then you can set a few days for unit or
department heads to holistically review the list from each department or
unit and them finally making a global list for the entire organization.
The exercise may be time consuming and painstaking , but I want to assure
you that if you make some sacrifice and create time to conduct this
exercise within the first few weeks of this new year , it will go along
way in helping your organization position itself for greater achievement
in the new year .
I wish all our highly esteemed readers, all executives and owners of
business in the Nigeria printing industry a more profitable 2019.
See you at the top
