Is your enterprise set up for success? Or is it falling flat on key measures of competitiveness?
Don’t wait for the latter to become obvious. Even if you’re coasting along on the strength of past successes, you can’t be sure things will continue to go smoothly in the future.
Tilt the odds in your favor by making targeted investments in your enterprise now, while it’s still relatively easy to do so. You don’t know when the next threat will rear its head, throwing you off your strategic game and draining resources from more forward-looking work.
Not sure where to begin? These six investments are as close to sure things as any.
- Enhancing Your Digital Security Practices
You take digital security seriously, or else you wouldn’t have made it this far.
It’s almost certain that you’re not taking it seriously enough, however. Or at least that your actual security posture doesn’t reflect the gravity of the threat landscape.
You needn’t look far for arguments in favor of enhancing your digital security. From small-scale data thefts that affect a few tens or hundreds of customers to much larger, more sophisticated events like the Pandora Papers, Panama Papers, and LuxLeaks, risks abound.
You could wait for a data event to clarify the stakes. And you’ll find solace in the fact that Il Shin and Asiaciti Trust bounced back after the Pandora Papers, or the reality that Home Depot continues to operate profitably despite being the source of a massive information breach. But the successes of Asiaciti Trust and Home Depot came in spite of the odds; your organization might not be so fortunate.
- Automating Your Bookkeeping (to the Extent Possible)
This isn’t to say you don’t need a professional bookkeeper on staff or a third-party provider on call.
It is to say that your bookkeeping processes don’t need to be as labor-intensive as they probably are. You can automate much of the day-to-day work of maintaining accurate financial records using off-the-shelf bookkeeping software. As long as you have a person or team with bookkeeping expertise to avoid “garbage in, garbage out” problems, you’re set up for success.
- Hiring Virtual Assistants for Key Employees
Are your key employees as efficient as possible?
If they don’t have people managing their affairs, the answer is almost certainly no.
This doesn’t mean they need on-premise assistants or a team of sycophants. These days, it’s possible to achieve the same results for less with virtual assistants (VAs) — remote professionals based far from your place of business but just as committed to your success as internal employees.
Make sure a team of virtual assistants is suitable for your firm’s needs by determining how the duties you expect them to perform align with the general expectations that prospective VAs have.
You may find that you need more specialized contractors — people well-versed in website design or bookkeeping, for example. Or you may confirm that a VA is indeed the correct choice.
- Streamlining Your Meeting Flows
Is fewer meetings better?
Not necessarily. What’s important is that any meetings you do host are both necessary and well-run. If you can achieve the same results with an email or asynchronous video exchange, do so. And if you do need to host a meeting, set a tight agenda and don’t deviate from it. Organization is your friend, here.
- “Technifying” HR and Other Noncore Functions
Like bookkeeping, HR management is a formerly labor-intensive business process that’s now decidedly less so thanks to technology. Self-serve HR platforms make it easy for employees to handle basic processes like adjusting their 401(k) contributions and requesting time off without ever interacting with another staffer. Which frees up your core HR team to work on strategy, not tactics.
- Using a Results-Driven Business Process
Does your business have an overarching process philosophy?
It should. A results-driven methodology is the “secret sauce” that unlocks untapped potential in countless enterprises. Whether you prefer Lean Enterprise, Traction, or any other broadly accepted approach, you’ll find it far easier to tackle complex problems while boosting productivity than before.
Your Company’s Future Starts Today. Invest in It.
Some of these investments will be easier to make than others. Streamlining your bookkeeping and HR, for example, might necessitate restructuring and perhaps layoffs.
There’s no guarantee that any will pan out, either. You could find yourself in much the same place a year or two on, at which point you’ll need to determine what additional investments might be required to get your organization back on track.
But as firms as diverse as Asiaciti Trust and Home Depot have learned, failure to invest is not an option.
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