Structure for Productivity
The structure for most small businesses fills in organically, as needed. This makes sense as you want to have enough capacity to fill each role or risk unnecessary spending that eats away at your profit. Generally, that means employees wearing multiple hats as the business grows while adding more help when work capacity exceeds staffing capability. In a successful small business, staffing levels can grow rather quickly. Before you know it, that two-person team of people wearing multiple hats can turn into twenty people… still wearing multiple hats.
This is the natural outcome of organic growth and almost every successful small business will face this challenge, at some point. While natural, this is often not the most efficient way to maximize the potential of human capital. What’s worse is that it starts to become nearly impossible to break the pattern of, “This is the way we’ve always done things” from the inside. As a result, we often see 75+ employee companies still structured and acting like the five-person start-up it once was. You see, while it may feel efficient to have 75 people wearing multiple hats, it isn’t the best use of time or talent.
The most productive thing to do is to recreate (or create) the structure of your company. While you can try to do this in-house with the assistance of your top executives, there will always be conflicts of interest. This is why it is critical to bring in unbiased, outside help.
At The Strategic Perspective, we include this option as part of our strategic plan and business process consulting. Everything in these three key areas works together, streamlining your business to meet or exceed your goals.