Success in business – comes from making it happen

This the third of our articles looks at what you need to make work, for your business to be successful. The passion in this piece is in the word make; many organisations allow things to happen, or worse deal with what has happened. Real success comes from making things happen.

Our model (fig. 1) of what successful organisations and people make happen is the basis for much of our work with organisations across the UK. Taking these one at a time and looking briefly at each this article is about how asking better questions around these 5 factors can develop your performance and increase your success.







Make it happen procedurally, are you driving your processes or are they driving you? Successful organisations create processes that work for them and support their objectives. They review their processes on a regular basis and ask questions about the impact, value, and function of how things happen. One of the least likely phrases to be heard would be “well we’ve always done it like this”. A successful organisation would know why it is done like this and would be prepared to review this. Maintaining and improving performance in today’s environment means you cannot be over precious about what you do, even if you had the idea or it is your baby! There could be a better way.

Make it happen financially, do the things you do add value to you organisation or are they incurring cost? The financials are not just the accounts although these are crucial; it is a way of viewing your performance throughout your organisation. This can work whether you are a small business a large PLC or the public sector. If you wish to test the value base in your organisation try this; when someone does something as part of your service (answering an enquiry, taking a call, processing a piece of work) ask yourself if you would pay for it? Imagine having to get twenty pounds out of your wallet or purse and giving it to the person, would you? Or would you want some change or even a refund! I find that this can engage everyone in the financials and help answer the question of how things add value.

Make it happen for the market is the outward focus of your organisation. Questions around this challenge whether you are market led or market leading. In today’s environment it is so much more than customer service that is needed, successful organisations need to create leadership in what they do. Loyalty is something you earn, to do this you need to question your customer focus, do your delivery processes help your customer, is your paperwork accessible or hieroglyphic? Making it happen for the market is also about telling people what you can do; the responsibility for education lays with us not the customer. Talking to your market often refers to the operational activity of what you do (did it arrive etc); try talking about what they need, where are their difficulties, how can you be a better (not necessarily bigger) supplier. One creative company increased sales to a client by 15% by asking the right questions, they discovered that their current packaging was too bulky for the client and this was limiting usage, a quick review led to a happier client, increased sales as well as lower costs.

Make it happen for the people is about how you engage your team and key partners. This includes external key partners such as critical suppliers, the accountant or even the bank. Successful organisations engage their people; their suppliers add value to the outcome. An example of this can be asking your key suppliers how you could be a better customer; I rarely receive poor service, because I work at getting good service. Internally this can be about creating commitment and leading your people. However if you want committed people you need to give them something to commit to, either a vision of the future or clear values that people can engage with. Successful organisations create both these things and as a result have environments where people want to deliver and contribute. Imagine driving a bus with no destination on the front, how many people would get on and how many would you disappoint if you went a way they didn’t expect.

Make it happen for you, the final aspect of the model is key to the success of any organisation. If you are not getting what you need as the leader then chances are you are not giving your best in any of the other four aspects. An area often overlooked is your own support, development and drive. If your performance declines so will that of your organisation, as a leader your people look to you to inspire them, this does not just happen by magic, it requires investment. John F Kennedy said “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”, when was the last time you invested in yourself? Do you have all the answers all the time?

Success comes from balancing the five aspects and being conscious of how you are performing across them. It requires you the leader to make things happen just not react to what happened.