Challenging The Status Quo: A Good Thing
We have all heard the old wise saying of: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. In some instances, it can be beneficial; however, you should not allow it to get in the way of continual improvement and challenging yourself and your company. It is healthy to constantly evaluate your processes and continue to make yourself better. If you don’t, you run the risk of plateauing, and soon your competitors will blow right by you.
In previous blogs, I have written about staying true to your strategy and your core competencies. It is dangerous for companies to bounce from one strategy to the next, year after year. This is not what I am speaking to regarding challenging the status quo. What I am talking about, while staying within your core competency, is never be satisfied; there is always room to improve.
At Insta-Pro it is important we stay true to our strategy of providing optimized extrusion solutions to our customers. But, I want to see our R&D team continuing to advance our process solutions, our Engineering team advancing our equipment solutions, our Marketing team continually providing better communication materials and capturing quality leads, and our Sales team to better utilize our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software so we timely reach out to our prospects and customers helping to progress their project or businesses.
These are just small samples of how Insta-Pro continues to improve from within, but what about you?
- Are you maximizing quality?
- Can you do a better job of evaluating and tracking quality?
- Are you maximizing the performance of your equipment with proper maintenance?
- Can you better reach out to your customers and prospects by developing a better website?
- Can your Sales team do a better job of finding prospects through creative new techniques such as a free customer training event supported by your vendors?
- Are there markets that you are not reaching that would better diversify your revenue streams?
- Are you maximizing on the price of your product by properly defining the value in your product?
I could go on and on, but you get my point. All of our businesses, every department, and each individual in our company can continue to improve every single year.
When you attempt to challenge yourself and your company, don’t feel you are alone in this effort. Pull in others to assist. Utilize your Board of Directors, and if you don’t have one, set up a Board of Advisors, to bring an outside perspective. Compare notes and approaches with other like businesses. Network with colleagues in your field to learn what works for them. And finally, look to your vendor partners to bring new thinking to your company and challenge your processes to continually reach to be the best. Never be satisfied, always challenge the status quo. It is a good thing to do.
