Speed of Decision
The first is speed of decision. When I go out to companies as a consultant and to survey employees, the number-one frustration of most employees is the decisions their bosses haven’t made. And the reason most bosses haven’t made the decisions is that they don’t know what their focus is. They don’t know what they are actually trying to achieve.
Make your decisions now!
Speed of Execution
You also need speed of execution; this is the other thing that Toyota does so well. The proposed ideas are on the assembly line tomorrow. The decision is made, the execution is made, ideas are implemented immediately, which is why no one can keep up with the rate of improvements Toyota is making.
Execute now!
When you are focused, it causes you to speed up your decision-making process. You are focusing on a few things, not many things.
When you have speed of decision and speed of execution, the best people on the planet will always want to play with you. Because they are already playing faster than anybody else right now.
The Result of Focusing
Let’s talk about Bottom Line Reports. Marty Edelston created it. He produces focus at the level of each individual in the company. Every week they write up two 3 x 5 cards about what they can do in their area to achieve one of two company focuses: increase profit or decrease costs.
Among other things, this company sells books. As Martin Edelston, chairman and CEO of Boardroom, says, "Sometimes the best idea can come from the newest, least experienced person on your staff." Like the hourly-paid shipping clerk who suggested that the company consider trimming the paper size of one of its books in order to get under the four-pound rate and save on postage. The company made the change and save some postage: $500,000 the first year and each year since.
At Bottom Line Reports, Marty Edelston starts out by giving each employee $2 for an idea, and $10 for a great one. All the ideas are recorded. At the end of the year everybody gets a bonus according to his book “I-Power.”
His company has the highest-paid employees in the world. Microsoft pays about $350,000 per employee a year. At Bottom Line Reports, the average is $2 million per employee, all because they keep figuring out how to make the company better.
The secretary said, “I can save about 15 steps, 30 times a day, if we move the file cabinet over here and just move my desk out there.” They did it, and her productivity level increased tenfold.
What is happening is just little incremental kaizen, improvements that are going to make you vastly better.
Can any one of us do it? Yes. You focus on what increases the profit and decreases the cost. And it’s just little things; 5/16 of an inch on three sides!
Focus on a few small things can radically change your profits!
The message is simple: Get focused, get it down to one thing that you are going to be the best at on the planet.