Business Continuity Audit » Large Corporations

Quality and Small Business

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:18:05 +0000

For many years, the concept of quality has turned into a matter of consideration by the majority of businesses. Large corporations, thanks to their extensive means, have been working on quality for over 30 years. However, with SMBs, it is more recent and some still don’t give it the importance that it deserves.

The concept of the SMB includes a wide spectrum of organizations, ranging from freelance employers to companies with hundreds of employees and companies with very few employees that manage gigantic businesses, although, this last example is difficult to classify. quality is important for all of them.

Every day it’s more important for SMBs to invest in the concept of quality as this is the way that will help them to be more competitive, reduce costs and be more efficient. The goal should be to eliminate manual, disorganized and disjointed processes, which comprise a cultivating mix for errors, poor production, unsatisfied customers and, definitely less business.

The easiest thing to do is to blame the government and public agencies for all the bad things we complain about. I won’t be the one to defend the government, not only because it doesn’t provide help for businesses, but because we’re its favorite source of revenue, an area where it demonstrates surprising efficiency. However, taking on our problems and confronting them with same enterprising spirit that led each of us to start our businesses should be the goal that permits us to create new opportunities, a future and hope. If we put our focus on optimizing our processes, avoiding repetitive work, decreasing simple manual and low quality work, and taking it to higher levels in order to provide new developmental opportunities for our employees, then we’ll be achieving real efficiency based on an optimized system, free of errors and executed by people who feel part of a common adventure.

Quality, how it’s considered by the auditing and certifying companies, is meant to assure the continuation of the business and guarantee the same level of efficiency and quality, independent of people and circumstances. However, the biggest benefit of quality comes from achieving the maximum optimization we can when we analyze the internal administration of our businesses and, with a critical spirit, we attempt to eliminate unnecessary work, improve procedures and, what’s very important, utilize technology to perform and control repetitive work which usually is the cause of the majority of problems as it is usually performed very frequently and sometimes by people not familiar with it. It’s mainly in this area where information technology can be an invaluable tool for improving the administration of our businesses.

In my case, for many years I’ve put great effort in optimizing our processes, in correctly using the technology that’s available to us today, and I can assure that such effort has produced excellent results.

I have no doubt that the medium-size businessman thinks that the cost of technology is too high and that it’s a luxury that can wait. This idea is erroneous since the cost of technology can quickly pay for itself with the great savings it provides.

From my modest position, I encourage the small and medium size businessmen to dedicate one day, behind closed doors, to analyze their business processes, to try to imagine how they can be optimized and then to look for the technical accessory that will permit them to transform their new ideas into a successful reality.

By: Julio Olivares

New Trends In Business

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:44:09 +0000

Trend watching in business has come a long way from being a trend in itself to being a full time profession. Trend watching helps companies by preparing them to adopt new trends in their field of business. Trends change quickly without limitations, but the lack of knowledge and timing about changing trends can result in disaster if a company tries to make a foray into a business whose time has not yet come. Accurate judgment about a trend’s longevity is important before taking the plunge and investing.

HOT TRENDS IN BUSINESS

How Do You Spot New And Hot Trends?

Don’t restrict yourself to music, sports or the kind of stuff targeted only to the young. A newspaper or a TV commercial will conclusively prove to you whether or not something is trendy. Just by this discussion, you can tell that getting into music retailing is trendy. Buying new cars is a trend with youth of the day.

Outsourcing Business Processes:

Outsourcing of business processes is a big trend among large corporations. Simple but labor-intensive jobs are outsourced for increased production and cheap labor. If someone is looking for opportunities in this field, he has definitely hit a goldmine! Simple things like “voice to text” data conversion, data entry, engineering processes and content development are a few hot trends.

Corporate Restructuring:

The opening of trade barriers and the advent of the WTO (World Trade Organization) has led to a shift in the corporate mindset. Downsizing and relocating are new trends today. Corporations, in their quest to survive and grow (don’t forget, growth is the mantra for survival), are also moving across borders and applying new management systems like Six Sigma for all-round quality improvement. By doing this, many companies have proven that it is indeed possible to save money and improve quality at the same time.

Intellectual Property Rights:

I have chosen this not because this is new but for its longevity. It will live longer as time goes on. One of the major ways of securing your future is by protecting your property, both physical as well as intellectual. With the advent of the Internet, this trend will only get stronger.

Incubation Of Start-Ups:

Who had heard of an incubator for a business some ten years ago? Start-ups that were just armed with great ideas, no money and no experience to get their business up and running were getting the money they needed as venture capitalists arrived on the scene. They invested and incubated small businesses until they grew big enough to fly on their own. The focus was undoubtedly on technology start-ups with an orientation towards product development.

This business trend was started by many current big names. (For example: Google and Sun Microsystems).

Six Sigma For Complete Quality:

The advent of Six Sigma methodology is a sun rising on the quality management horizon. This breakthrough methodology has already saved huge amounts of money for companies and customers by removing defects in every corner of production. Many have achieved what could have not been possible without implementing Six Sigma.

By: Tony Jacowski

Business Startup Success – Why Do So Many New Businesses Fail?

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:04:09 +0000

There’s certainly no shortage of people wanting to start their own business, and even more so in today’s economy. There have always been a certain group of people that wanted to “go out on their own” and be their own boss. In good economic times or bad, this group should be considered the Core Entrepreneur. They have a certain passion and fire in their belly that propels them forward, and for them, owning their own business is the only possible outcome–they simply refuse to work for someone else. In fact, as the saying goes, they work 80 hours per week to avoid a 40-hour per work job.

Interestingly, as the economy worsened, and as the social “contract” with large corporations disappeared, a new class emerged of “reluctant” Entrepreneurs who have been forced to conclude that they now want to own their own business. They might have snubbed their noses at it before, from the comfort and status of their prestigious corporate jobs, but now that they are unemployed with no remaining severance package, they have become more enthusiastic about going out on their own and starting a business.

Well guess what? Starting a new business is awesome! In fact, it’s more than awesome. It could be considered one of the great adventures of a lifetime. Perhaps a part of the American Dream. But just because it’s awesome doesn’t mean it’s easy, and it doesn’t mean the business will succeed. Take it from me–someone who has “been there and done that”–just because you want to be an Entrepreneur and start your own business doesn’t mean you should, and if you do, then there are certain rules that must be obeyed.

One of my favorite sayings is that “Just because you want to be an Entrepreneur doesn’t free you from the laws of business.” You are subject to the same laws of supply and demand, of economics and pricing, etc. as the big companies. It’s funny (not in a laughing sort of way), but I’ve met so many would-be or aspiring Entrepreneurs who believe that because they are so passionate about what they want to do, they simply cannot fail. Many of them have a framed print on their wall that usually depicts some inspiring image like a bald eagle, or a ship at sea, and the caption: “Belief fuels passion, and passion rarely fails.”

Well guess what? Passion does fail. Let me be very clear–passion is a wonderful human emotion: it drives us, and fuels us, and has been the cause of many great accomplishments throughout history. But passion DOES NOT make a business successful. It can be a great catalyst or enabler of business success, but in and of itself, it does not guarantee success. I’ve met many Entrepreneurs who bring the most incredible energy, passion, and enthusiasm to their endeavors. They believe they can overcome any obstacle through the shear strength of their will. All impressive beliefs, but these same Entrepreneurs didn’t last long in business.

So what does make a business successful, and why do so many businesses fail in the first 12 months of existence? While there certainly isn’t one magical thing that you can do to guarantee that your business will succeed, there are many things you could do (or not do) to virtually ensure your business will fail.

The number one thing you can do to ensure that your business has a chance to succeed is to start with a solid strategic framework, or foundation. Many would-be Entrepreneurs believe that I’m talking about a business plan. Sadly, most Entrepreneurs do not have a written (let along well thought out) business plan. And while I believe business plans are critically important, the strategic foundation I’m talking about here should happen BEFORE the business plan. In other words, this work needs to be done FIRST.

So many Entrepreneurs get an exciting idea in their head, and they immediately start executing against this idea. They conclude that because they like their idea, that it must be a great idea, and that everyone will like it and pay for it. But they are skipping the most critical strategic steps in the process–steps that are tried and true and established as the best practices of the biggest and most successful companies in the world. And that is, to evaluate the idea within an established framework that determines:

Who is the Target Customer for this idea? What problem is being solved and what unmet need is being addressed by this idea, specifically for the Target Customer? Testing the idea as a concept with the Target Customer to determine viability of the idea.

For some, just identifying these 3 steps is enough to get them to change their thinking and get them heading in the right direction. Others may need a bit more help and guidance, and I’ll write more about each specific step later. Of course that are many other steps to do, and this short article can’t address them all, but the bottom line is that these steps form the foundation of a strategic framework from which a successful business can be developed that can minimize the risks of failure.

By: John Tree

Online Business Verses Traditional Business

admin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:00:06 +0000

What comes to mind when you think of Traditional Business? For myself I think of things such as large corporations and manufacturing companies with large overhead and many employees. I also think of the industrial age, an age of the last century. In that era you had to have vast amounts of land and big factories with hundreds of employees to be a millionaire such as Henry Ford.

In today’s day and age that we all live in and strive for success Is the information age. This age has brought a complete new set of rules along with standards in doing business. This amazing thing called the internet has brought the whole world within an arm distance to one another. It is easier than ever imagined to do business internationally.

Companies such as Amazon.com and eBay have been growing over the past decade and who is to say that it is going to stop any time soon. I am totally convinced that anything can be bought online with just a simple click of a mouse these days. Is online shopping or online purchasing in general going to become more and more popular as the years go on? Or is this whole Internet thing just a fad that will die like bell bottom jeans? The way that this trend is going proves to be a great time to start a online business of some sort. Statistics show that roughly 90 percent of recent millionaires have made there fortune online, with all age groups accountable. What does this mean? It is time for people to start to change there mindset when it comes to business, take a look at all options before purchasing a business of any sort.

There are many advantages in owning an online marketing or direct sales company. For myself the obvious difference was the start up cost, a couple thousand dollars is usually more than enough with most online companies. Compared to Traditional businesses where an investment of $500,000 is not out of the ordinary. So I must say that the feeling of not going bankrupt, if you don not perform as well as you intended is a relaxing feeling. The next biggest factor would have to be no employees. No more having to worry about them not showing up for work, payroll issues, leaving early, bad performance, and stealing from the company. I am not trying to bad mouth anyone and I know personally that there are many great employees out there, but the fact of the matter is that these are issues that will take place in any traditional business sooner or later. You choose, employees? Or no employees?

In any business I feel that the most important factor when starting out is to have good solid training. You see a lot of the time people start a business and fail because they don not have access to a mentor with the results that they want. To be successful all you need to do is find people with the results that you want and do what they did, repeat what they did every step of the way. I can not stress enough how critical it is to find a company with ongoing support and training in the industry.

The opportunity to create the life of your wildest dreams is no myth with online businesses, more and more people are achieving this everyday. Choosing the proper vehicle is your key for long term success. While doing your research on different companies, just remember to remain patient and do not rush into anything until your fully confident. Research things such as the background of the company and its founders, the products, and the training and support you will receive. Stick to these strategies and you can be living the life of your dreams sooner than you think.

By: Blake Martel

Socially Responsible Business

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:40:47 +0000

The concepts of ethics and social responsibility are closed intertwined in business. To some it conveys the idea of legal responsibility or liability. To others it means socially responsible behavior in an ethical sense. To still others the meaning transmitted is that of ‘responsible for,’ in a casual mode. Many simply equate it with a charitable contribution while some take it to mean social consciousness. Many of those who embrace it almost fervently see it as a mere synonym for ‘legitimacy’ in the context of ‘belonging’ or ‘being proper or valid’. Only a few see it as a sort of fiduciary duty imposing higher standards of behavior on businessmen than on citizens at large. Even the antonyms, socially ‘irresponsible’ and ‘non-responsible,’ are subject to multiple interpretations.

Socially responsible business means different things to different people. In the business sphere, social responsibility is the concern of business for social welfare; especially this concern is demonstrated by managers considering the long range best interests of the company and its relationships to the society within which it operates.

Social responsibility, for both individual business person and the corporation, tends to be defined in terms of the social arrangements and obligations that make up the structure of our society, for example, a pledge to hire the hard-core unemployed.

Ethics concerns the rules by which social responsibilities are carried out. Hiring hard-core unemployed for jobs that management plans to abolish in the near future would be unethical. Thus it is extremely hard to separate the rules of the game from the game itself, to separate ethics from ethical decision making.

Social responsibility is business’ concern for social welfare. Most large corporations feel that social responsibility extends beyond simply earning profits. The power of social opinion seems to be against those firms not taking overt social actions. Social responsibility arises from social power. The business community has extensive social power and must therefore exercise it in a reasonable fashion or be subject to further government regulation.

Social opinion favors the practice of social responsibility by business. But business options are increasingly restricted as a result of the changing climate of opinion on socially permissible conduct, which is reflected by the legislative limits set on decision making by business. Earning adequate return is still considered as the firm’s primary social responsibility.

Meeting social responsibilities requires both planning and organization. In large companies, the consumer affairs department carries out the social responsibilities of the firm. In the past, these departments were little more than consumer complaint departments. Today, consumer affairs departments monitor satisfaction, help develop warranties and guarantees, provide input for improving product safety, often oversees product packaging and labeling and work to improve quality control.

The concepts of social responsibility and consumerism go hand-in-hand. If every organization practiced a high level of social responsibility, the consumer movement might never have begun. Consumerism is a struggle for power between buyers and sellers; specifically it is a social movement seeking to augment the rights and powers of buyers in relation to sellers.

By: Jon Elton