Eliminating Business Bottlenecks

Identify The Limiting Factor

As a business leader, whether you are aware of it or not, there are almost always limiting factors or critical constraints that determine how fast the organisation achieves it objectives. Not only can a constraint slow you right down, if it is continuously ignored it can and often does bring the business to its knees.

Follow The Formula

Constraint analysis is founded on a few simple steps.

First and foremost decide on your specific, measurable, time-bounded goals.

Second ask yourself, “Why have I not achieved this goal already?”.  What is it that is holding you back?  What limiting step are you stuck on?

The Challenge Of Leading Leaders

Developing leaders is hard! Leadership isn’t an add-water-and-stir proposition. It takes a long time, energy, and resources. Here’s why:

Leaders Are Hard To Find

How many people do you know who are really good leaders? They have influence. They make things happen. They see and seize opportunities. And they can attract, enlist, and rally people to perform with excellence. There just aren’t that many people capable of doing that on a consistent basis. Most people are followers.

The Nimble Enterprise

Two challenging scenarios emerge from just about all the leaders with whom I collaborate:

1st Challenge: Cash Flow Followed by EBIT, then Revenue

In running an enterprise, bear in mind that some numbers are more important than others.  For some unknown reason, executives concentrate on the ‘holy grail’ of revenue.  Whilst I agree that selling is of the up most importance, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) together with a positive cash flow take precedence over the notion of revenue.  Here’s why.