How healthy is Your Business?

Health is a word that covers so many areas.  We only have to look at the national budget spent on health each year to realise how significant a factor it is in all of our lives.

Health covers a huge range of areas and as a management consultant I deal in health in an even broader sense of the word.  The health of a business is my perspective. 

The health of a business is often measured by the profits it makes, it’s market share and its growth.

These days though businesses are beginning to look at a wider set of metrics.  These measures don’t only look at the health of the business itself but also at its place in the community, the connectedness of its people and its broader purpose with regard to its widening range of stakeholders.

This is the big shift in thinking within business in the 21st century.  It began quite a number of years ago when greed brought many businesses unstuck in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.  The ‘greed is good’ catch cry just wasn’t sustainable.

Good businesses or perhaps I should say healthy businesses are now realising they need to take a more sophisticated approach if they are to enjoy real sustainability. 

They need to recognise and satisfy a greater set of needs both internally and externally.

They now have a wider set of metrics that show how balanced they are as an organisation.  We all know that balance is the key to good health and measuring what drives a business to success rather than only measuring the outcomes is fast becoming the norm. So what are these extra measures or needs that must be catered to? Some include (in no particular order):-

• Significance – sincerely recognising the efforts of others.  This includes staff, suppliers and those who help keep the community (the market) strong.
• Contribution – adding value to others because you can, not just to make a profit.  Being a proactive corporate citizen.
• Growth and variety – The industrial age is finished, we can no longer get away with treating our people as simply part of the machinery of business.  We must provide stimulating work and better career paths.
• Connection – making sure everyone feels part of the  vision and purpose and feel valued for their contributions.  Quality communication is a key part of this factor.
• Certainty – ensuring that we are prudent in the way we administer our organisation in order to stay fiscally strong.  This breeds credibility within our team and the market.

Although some of these factors may appear to be soft and hard to measure, they are now increasingly more common within successful organisations.  Further, these are increasingly important considerations by the broader market in terms of business value.
 
After all it makes good business sense.  Those companies who had customer, supplier, staff and shareholder loyalty during the scare of the so called GFC are in much better shape to capitalise on the new opportunities now presenting themselves than those who failed to build trust and loyalty when they had the chance.

I spend a lot of time with clients help them identify their health right now.  This means where they are well and where there are warning signs of potential trouble.  From there building a program for ensuring they stay well is easy.  These are the businesses that will be around for the long term. 

Of course most businesses don’t follow such advice.  Businesses, like so many individuals, only seek diagnoses after the symptoms become obvious and sometimes that is simply too late.  Which type of business is yours?

Complete our business diagnostic report to recieve a free report on how healthy your business is. Click here to proceed.