The real knack of sustained business growth is the ability to blend process and systems with the freedom to be proactive. The top level leaders within an organisation need to recognise when efficiencies are required and when expansion is needed and more particularly how and where to deliver the two when necessary.
Efficiencies in terms of resource and cheaper process are but one way to increase margin and are an essential part of business operations. An organisation that is performing at its optimum level will always strive for continuous improvement and doing things in a better way. But an organisation that runs solely on being more and more efficient pinches and squeezes itself to a place where there is little more to refine without substantial investment. This is when more modern, hungry and innovative organisations learn from and quickly better their working practices to outperform the competition. This situation becomes even more dangerous if an organisation that relies solely on its efficiency is struggling to make the ends meet. This is when the cycle of cuts and efficiencies can lead to an organisation almost bleeding to death as once there is no more fat to take and the spiral of cuts becomes a terminal decline.
Ambitious organisations need to know when to seize opportunities for growth whilst they are striving for efficiency. When it is time to invest in growth and what additional revenue that growth will bring. Well planned efficient growth underlined by a philosophy of continuous improvement is without doubt the way to create organisational longevity.
In business system recognition is the mixing of process efficiencies with the freedom to seize opportunities to invest and grow appropriately.