I want to welcome you back to our 10-part series on core business processes. So far, we've covered customer strategy and relationships. We've covered employee development and satisfaction; quality process improvement and change management; financial analysis; reporting and capital management. This blog is on core business process number five: management responsibility. I want you to think through what we're going after here. What we are talking about is under the category of “why are these important”? Why do you need to be core competent in these things -- at least in seven, if not all of them. Why is it critical to the success of your business and the success of how you interact with large companies? I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this one because this one not only sets you up for success with big companies, it sets you up for success in general. Let's talk about management responsibility. And in this case, really and truly, we're talking a
This blog is covering number four of the Ten Core Business Practices. There are three in one here: Financial Analysis is one, Reporting is two and Capital Management is number three. I’ll start this with a story. The first time I went into an executive position, it was for a dot.com and I had been promoted from a sales position. I was an officer in the company. If you don't know exactly what an officer of the company means, it's pretty much what you're doing as a small business owner. It means that you primarily have responsibility for a huge portion of the business; that you are the one that's being held accountable. And if you own the company, then you, by definition, are an officer of or principal as evidenced by your name on all of the legal documents according to your articles of incorporation. My boss at the time had a lot of confidence in me. But one of the things that he was always a stickler about was “did I know my numbers”? And you know, being a person that