World class was once the domain of large multi-national and corporatised businesses. There was also a considerable cost in achieving world class business systems. But how things change. Today, world class is attainable by any business, whether it has one person or a thousand. The key is in understanding how to get there.
World class is a way of thinking and doing. It is embedded in the organisational culture. It is a driver of behaviour and performance. Businesses that achieve this level of being, align systems, process, people and information and standardise where appropriate.
World class businesses require leadership – situational leadership, everyone in the organisational plays a leadership role. This allows the Executive and Management teams to focus on planning, directing and continuous innovation and improvement.
Today, any business can implement world class information systems thanks to the internet, cloud based applications and subscription based pricing. Efficient and effective operational processes can be driven by the chosen business software used by the business, or can be designed and implemented by using one of the many business process tools that are available at relatively low cost.
Driving world class people behaviour and performance is the tricky part. For this, most people need a framework or roadmap to follow. People need to know how to behave, what to minimise and maximise, what to strive for, what to prioritise, what to fix, what to drop, when to make a decision and when to escalate and most importantly where to focus their effort.
So there you have it – some of the things that your business needs to achieve world class performance.
