(Time to read this Blog is about 5 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “Effective leaders don’t solve problems.  They work with their team to fix the causes of those problems.  The problems are only symptoms of the real causes.”    
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   You can’t grow your business without growing your people.
    
   We want our staff to help us get what we want in the business.  So, we should help then get what they want.
    
   Sit with each of your reporting points and chat with them about where they’d like to be in their career and in their life in the next year…and discuss how you can help them to achieve that.  Then, create a ‘Development / Support Plan’ for each person. 
    
3. The end of an era. The Famer’s Almanac, founded in 1818, will cease publication after 208 years.  This folksy, annual publication became one of America’s best-selling publications, offering planting guidance for farmers and gardeners (e.g. ‘plant your peas when the daffodils bloom’), fishing tips, weather forecasts, astronomical charts and age-old practical advice.
    
4. Fun fact: Most international internet content is still transmitted by undersea cable.  Amazon’s new deep-sea fiber-optic internet cable, running from the USA to County Cork, Ireland,  will move 320 terabits of data per second.  That’s the equivalent of streaming 12.5 million HD movies simultaneously.
    
5. Tom Brady cloned his dog. The retired quarterback stated recently that his new dog was created from the DNA of a family pet who died in 2023.  He’s the latest celebrity to clone an animal.
    
   Want to clone your pet?  The cost is $50,000 to clone a dog or cat and $85,000 for a duplicate horse.
    
6. I can be helpful. If your company, Industry Association or local Business Group has a Conference coming up in 2025, and you need an insightful, bottom-line management speaker who will inform, focus, challenge and inspire you, perhaps we should chat about possibilities.  I’m easy to find at donald@donaldcooper.com.

Now, to this week’s important topic:

How to create world-class operating efficiency….now!

In the reality of today’s job-market, you’re going to be paying more to attract and retain top performers.   

Then, you’ll pay more for parts and raw materials…and you’ll wait longer to receive them.  If you’re a retailer, you’ll pay more for finished product. Taxes, occupancy costs, utilities and insurance will also increase. So, your ‘Cost of Goods Sold’ and your operating expenses are increasing dramatically.

But your customers still demand that you ‘deliver’…on time…no excuses.  And they’ll fight your price increases.  So, how will you still make a decent profit, or any profit, in this situation?  

1. First off, if you’ve done the work to create compelling customer value and experiences that ‘grab’ your target customers, clearly differentiate you from your competitors and make you ‘famous’, you probably have some ‘pricing power’ that allows you to increase prices when your costs increase.
     
   For years I’ve been flogging the importance of clearly differentiating yourself by creating and delivering compelling value and experiences.   Mediocrity is no longer an option!  So, what’s your clear and compelling value and customer experience that really matters to your target customers?
     
2. The 2^nd way to deal with rising costs and still make a decent profit is by creating world-class operating efficiency in every part of your business. 

Here are Cooper’s 11 Tips to create world-class operating efficiency:

1. Along with all your other roles, you need to become the ‘Chief Efficiency Officer’ in your business or department, starting immediately.  Look for ways to work smarter with more clarity and a greater sense of urgency.  Eliminate wasted time and materials and make better decisions.  
2. Reallocate your time. Stop working ‘IN’ the business and spend more time working ‘ON’ it.  Do the important work that you’re paid to do, not the easy work that you’re comfortable doing.  I just had a conversation with a biz owner who has 25 people reporting directly to him.  That’s not efficient.  It simply cannot work…and it isn’t working.  He can’t effectively coach, challenge, direct, support and follow up with 25 people. 
3. Create a culture of clarity, commitment, urgency and accountability. Efficiency starts with ‘clarity’. To download my updated Biz Tool #A-4, ‘Your 1st Job Is Clarity’ and calculate a ‘Clarity Score’ for your business, Click Here.
    
   After ‘clarity’ comes commitment, urgency and accountability.  Stop talking about ‘goals, targets, aims and objectives’ and talk about ‘commitments’. Then, every time you assign a task or project, ask the magic 10-word question that changes everything, “By when can agree that this will be completed?”  Negotiate a commitment, document it and follow up. The world is run by those who follow up.  I’ve been flogging this ‘culture of commitment’ insight for years too, but only because it’s so important and most business aren’t doing it yet.  Those that do are transformed.
4. Get rid of toxic, lazy or stupid people, no matter how short-staffed you are.  They’re poison.  Your Team will love and respect you for it.   Failure to deal with non-performance or toxic employees is one of the biggest problems in many businesses today.
5. Work with your Team to set efficiency commitments for each department. and measure performance and efficiency…and benchmark efficiency to industry standards. Your Industry Association should have industry stats on such things…and it’s probably free. Delegate responsibility for specific efficiency initiatives and follow up.
6. Get your entire Team looking for ways to operate more efficiently.  Create 3 ‘Idea Fests’ each year where every Team member must bring at least one idea on how to operate more efficiently. Your front-line people know stuff and they hate it when you don’t ask.  After everyone states their idea, the Team votes on who gets the $50 prize…or restaurant Gift Certificate…or whatever prize you’ve chosen.
     
   You’ll be amazed at what your people come up with.  Below are a few examples:
   • Costco switched from round jars to square jars for their Kirkland Brand cashew nuts. This simple change allowed them to pack 50% more jars per pallet, saving them 600 tractor trailer loads of shipping cost.
   • Marriott Hotels saved $2 million per year by switching to bacon of uneven lengths.
   • An independent Pizza shop spent $40 on plastic bins and zip-lock bags to control cheese waste…and increased profits by 24%, while delivering a more consistent product.
       
7. Implement the systems & processes and install the equipment required to make world-class operating efficiency happen.  What does that look like in your business?
     
8. Maybe it’s not just a matter of improving current processes. Maybe it’s a matter of inventing entirely new processes that increase efficiency and give you a competitive edge.  I recently read about a Chinese construction company that built a 57-story skyscraper in just 19 days by perfecting a new process for creating modular components in an offsite location and installing them, on-site, at the rate of 3 storeys a day.  What’s the ‘next best’ way of doing what you do?  Will you create ‘the next’…or be the victim of what’s next?
     
   What new equipment will increase efficiency dramatically? Quebec-based Goodfellow Lumber’s new Hundegger K2i machine from Germany…
   1. Has doubled their factory capacity,
   2. Creates faster delivery…and,
   3. Can process larger pieces.
       
      So, what equipment, processes, systems, technology or skills would give you an ‘efficiency edge’ in each part of your business? 

8. Constantly train, coach and encourage…and then empower.
    
9. Know when it’s time to get outside help. A few years ago, I worked with an extraordinary cabinetry manufacturing business in Kansas.  Their factory was so expertly laid out with world-class machinery, technology, processes and people.  I was blown away! Wood is a hugely variable and frustrating raw material and yet they had found ways to automate ‘craftmanship’ in a way that I thought was impossible.
    
   They have a commitment to be world-class, they listen to their staff and they’ve created an culture of continuous improvement.  But they do one additional thing.  Every two years they bring the world‘s two sharpest production consultants in their industry, all the way from Germany, to their small town in Kansas, for two weeks, to advise on how to do it even better.
    
10. Hire top-performers and then effectively onboard new staff so that they quickly understand the company, its history, purpose, values, culture and commitments.  Explain why what you do as a company matters and why the job they’ll be doing matters….and why a sense of urgency, combined with a commitment to excellence is key to the Team’s  success in a super-competitive market.
     
11. ‘Thank’, reward and celebrate successes.  Create a culture of celebration!  A big part of ‘efficiency’ comes through Staff Engagement. Engaged Team members are committed to making a difference in the business.
     
    A recent global survey by research company Gallup shows that, on average, only 36% of employees are truly engaged, 51% are not engaged and 13% are ‘actively disengaged’ which means they’re trying to sabotage the company for which they work.
     
    What will you do to make it fun, rewarding and energizing to work on your Team?  Are you personally energized, organized and encouraging?  Or, are you overwhelmed or burned out?  Remember, the best people have to work for someone…it’s just that you have to deserve them.

So, there are Cooper’s 11 Tips to increase operating efficiency in your business or department., Which of these will you start implementing immediately?  If you’d like to chat about how I can help make your business more efficient, effective and profitable, I’m easy to find at donald@donaldcooper.com.

That’s it for this week…

Live brilliantly and be kind to each other!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.