Market penetration of Business Excellence in the huge SME / SMB sector of the global economy is less than about 1 percent. It’s time to change that.
We need to change the way we implement business excellence in Small and Medium Businesses. SMEs / SMBs are NOT just small versions of big businesses. They require a simpler, faster and lower cost way of implementing excellence.
The standard big business approach of engaging a team of consultants to facilitate comprehensive implementation is not financially feasible for most SMEs / SMBs. Largely as a result, approx. 99% of them are missing out on the benefits of full business excellence. This represents a huge opportunity cost for any national economy.
Proven Net Benefits
We know that when implemented well, the benefits of implementing business excellence are immense. Documented case studies since the 1950s confirm that net benefits over 5 years add up to at least 22.5% of this year’s Sales. Even in Year 1, ‘quick win’ improvements generate net benefits greater than 1.5% of Sales.
These massive net benefits ought to be a major incentive for any SME / SMB to get started.
Widespread CEO Resistance to date
However, in spite of these proven net benefits, the CEOs of SMEs / SMBs frequently cite several reasons for why they are NOT currently pursuing excellence in a holistic, structured manner…
- “I don’t really understand what would be involved”
- “I thought it was more for big companies like GE, IBM or Toyota”
- “We can’t afford the substantial consulting assistance required”
- “We don’t have sufficient staff resources (e.g. IT; HR) to help drive the implementation”
The Solution to achieving Business Excellence
So, what can be done to overcome these perceived major perceived ‘barriers to entry’ for SMEs / SMBs?
Answer: Develop and market an entirely new way of implementing full business excellence that redresses all the above significant barriers perceived by the CEOs.
Challenging Performance Brief
To be successful, that new way should satisfy all the following stringent performance criteria…
- Be consistent with the proven international frameworks and criteria for business excellence
- NOT involve prohibitive amounts of external consulting assistance
- NOT need a comprehensive up-front assessment of the business before real implementation starts
- Be well understood and led from the top
- Use simple, common language that everyone can understand
- Generate quick wins
- Do the right things right and in the right sequence
- Provide detailed step-by-step instructions for the entire journey
- Integrate every aspect of the implementation as it proceeds
- Involve all employees
- Ensure accountability for individual and collective critical actions
- Visually track the resultant business impacts every month via the right strategic KPIs plus operational KPIs
- Quantify the net benefits of completed improvement projects
- Be applicable to any SME / SMB in any service industry
- Be accessible via the Internet at low cost
The good news
Such a simple, integrated and carefully sequenced approach designed exclusively for SMEs / SMBs is now available. It has been developed by the My Business Excellence (MBE) team based on 37 years of management consulting assistance provided to over 1,000 clients implementing various aspects of business excellence. Details of this approach can be accessed here.
This pragmatic approach to excellence is a proven way to build a high performing SME / SMB business.