| clocks for websites |
Article
Profit in a Page
April 1, 2008 By: Ben Markens Paperboard PackagingLet's Close the Gaps to Success
Asurefire way to make progress meeting your organization's goals is to identify and close gaps. This month, I'll show you a fairly simple way to identify and prioritize gaps.
 Ben Markens |
First, look at your business in a few basic areas. The following list probably works for most converting businesses. You can customize it to your particular business situation.
- 1. Sales and Marketing
- 2. Leadership and Management
- 3. Human Resource Management
- 4. Pre-production
- 5. Production
- 6. Shipping and Logistics
- 7. Data and Information
When I became certified in Balanced Scorecard, they taught us about three kinds of gaps: competencies, technologies, and culture. Competencies refer to human capital — people skills or knowledge. Look at each of the seven areas and ask yourself "are we missing the people part?"
If under production your organization is committed to lean, but you don't have a lean champion, that is a competency gap. At this point, don't worry about how to fix it. For now, just identify the gap and add it to the list. We recommend that you use a screening tool that looks like the exhibit on the facing page.
After you review each functional area for competencies, move on to technology. I like to call this "stuff:" equipment, hardware or software, website, building, or facility. Look at each functional area, identify the technology gaps, and list them on the screening tool.
For instance, under sales and marketing, you might not have a customer relationship management system (and you feel that you should). Because it is something you can buy, as opposed to someone you can hire (which would be a competency), this is a technology gap.
Sometimes it's hard to decide whether the gap is competency, technology, or both. For instance, if your cutting department is very unproductive, it could be people — lack of training or lack of a pre-makeready person. And it could also be technology — lack of a key make
ready tool, a broken side guide or a 75-year-old machine that is just not competitive in your marketplace today.
Culture refers to the climate for change in the company. In previous articles I wrote about WIIFM (pronounced whiff-em), which stands for "what's in it for me." The "me" is each of your employees. When thinking about culture, consider whether you have clear WIIFMs for your people. If not, that's a gap.
Also, consider accountability and follow-through. Are there well-defined job expectations and performance evaluation criteria? If not, this is definitely a culture gap. Many managers want to dismiss this culture section because they don't want to do the hard work associated with closing the culture gap — where:
- 1. All employees know what is expected of them in specific terms.
- 2. All employees receive regular formal feedback — both positive and negative — about their work performance.
- 3. Compensation and job progression is tied to performance.
- 4. People (especially leaders) say what they will do and then do it.
If you have trouble with culture specifically or any area in general, drop me a line and I will try to help you think through it.
Once you have the list complete, look at each line item and rank it A, B or C. "A" means it must be closed urgently (within 60 to 90 days). "B" means within six to 12 months. "C" means sometime after a year. Sort the list by this column within each category (competency, technology and culture).
Now look at the As and Bs and rank them in order of importance: 1, 2, 3 ... where 1 is the most important; 2, next most important, etc.
At this point, there is no need to rank the Cs — but you may if you feel you want to. Re-sort the list so A1 is first in the As, B1 is at the top of the Bs, etc.
The rest is pretty easy to do — at least filling out the form is easy. Assign a champion and a due date. Add comments if appropriate.
The hard part is getting it all done. Meet regularly and update the list with progress. It won't take long for these gaps to get closed.
Update the list at least twice a year. You'll know that you're making progress when it becomes harder and harder to identify quick-win gaps to close.
I am happy to send you an Excel copy of these exhibit; just email me at ben@markens.com.
Ben Markens is president of The Markens Group Inc., a boutique consulting guiding business toward excellence. He also is director of the PPC Financial Executives Institute. He can be reached at 413-562-8405 or ben@markens.com. Sign up to hear his weekly audio tips about business at www.markens.com/tipoftheweek.php.
