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| Marketing: Protecting Your Core |
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| Written by Brad Dawson |
| Sunday, 01 November 2009 00:00 |
 Unfortunately, the methods to achieve profitability have left large gashes in the organizational landscape. Front-line employees are required to complete many ancillary tasks that used to be done for them by administrative personnel. Increasing health insurance costs, normally borne by the company, have shifted to the employee, resulting in panic as individuals wonder how to pay these costs with their diminished take-home pay. With all these changes, it is the core business—the reason your company is in operation—that will ultimately pay the price. In these periods of economic chaos, how can you protect your core? Outsource FASM Every organization is composed of three primary functions: sales and marketing, operations and production, and finance and administration. The operations and production activities comprise your core business. It is your competitive differentiation. It is your business purpose. The remaining functions, referred to as FASM (finance, administration, sales and marketing), constitute a business’ non-core activities. These functions are necessary for the conduct of your business, but they are replicated in some form in every business setting. It is in the best interest of firms seeking to reduce their indirect costs to find outsourcing solutions for these functions, relying on professionals who are adept at the keener points of running these types of programs. As the saying goes, “payroll is payroll.” The benefits of outsourcing are significant: lower costs to operate these services, higher levels of functionality, and most important, non-core functions remain part of your corporate solution. In an environment that is deleting many of these supporting functions, outsourcing provides an avenue to continued existence. Integrate everyday life In the proverbial good old days, most homes boasted a single wage earner, leaving a spouse at home to tend to the various housekeeping and child-rearing responsibilities. Today, although most households have two wage earners, the same at-home responsibilities remain. Businesses that advocate a separation between work and personal activities catch individuals in a quandary as they seek to balance their lives. Many employees must act as part-time workers and part-time parents, a situation in which neither the business nor the home-life wins. Google and other forward-thinking firms have adopted programs that allow employees to effectively mesh their home and work lives. On-site child-care centers mean less-stressed employees; concierge services mean mundane tasks such as visits to the dry cleaner and car maintenance are handled while the employee works. The goal is to erase distractions that can impede the effectiveness of an employee’s work effort. These programs allow employees to focus on accomplishing the core mission of the company. Add innovation For most businesses, the end of the day is marked with a great exodus out the door. Employees stop their productive activities in response to the time on a clock, even when those activities remain in an unfinished state. The hope is that the employee will be able to pick up where they left off the next day, ensuring a productive flow of thoughts and content. Of course, the intervening activities between quitting time and their arrival tomorrow guarantee that some momentum will be lost. A large data-storage firm, noticing that a significant percentage of their employees were single, hit upon an idea to slow down the exodus at quitting time. Once a week, the company provided free on-site dinner to any employee who was still working at 7:00 pm. For most employees that meant staying for another hour or so, a reasonable trade-off for a hot meal. The dinner program was a rousing success. Not only was the company able to eke out another productive hour during the week, they found that many of the employees continued to work after being fed. In time, the dinner program was expanded to the entire week, generating both good will and far more productive employees. The cobbler’s child Many businesses have opted to maintain the status quo with regard to employee tools. The business mantra is that no new tools will be purchased until the company has righted itself. As a result, employees are encouraged to make do with their current computers and various other workplace tools—a scenario reminiscent of the cobbler’s child who had no shoes. A leading technology company put a stop on the purchase of any new hardware and software and asked their employees to do the best they could with their current configurations. Sales teams armed with enthusiasm hit the market selling the innovative new technology wares of the company—on antiquated machines. After a particularly intense pitch presentation, there was only one question that the sales team could not answer: “Why should we buy your technology solution when your own firm doesn’t use it as part of their business solution?” Needless to say, the deal died there. The recession has changed the focus of nearly every business. The visionaries are gone, replaced by bean counters who look for any penny to save, regardless of the impact of the decision. As a result, core business functions have been decimated by the indirect erosion of the supporting functions. Employees are asked to do more with less, crippling their ability to deliver superior results. This chaotic economic environment is precisely the time to think clearly about how best to support the core functions—to exalt while your competitors crumble. Brad Dawson is an internationally recognized business strategist and growth-oriented financial management consultant. He is a frequent speaker at business events and serves as a contributing writer to several international management and leadership publications. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . |