Upon graduating from college, I landed a Manufacturing Engineering position with a privately-held aerospace company in sunny Southern California. At the ripe old age of 27, I was granted the opportunity to build, develop and lead what ended up being one of the most profitable divisions within the group. Over the course of my 20-year career with this great company, I learned many valuable business principles and lessons from the owners. Their three-part business philosophy is the foundation of what I believe to be their formula for world-class success.
1. People First
2. Obtain Capital Equipment
3. Secure Long Term Contracts
By keeping with this simple business philosophy, I witnessed and participated in the growth of the entire group from roughly $25 million in revenue to over $500 million over the course of those 20 years.
Recently, it was recommended that I watch a show on CNBC called “Profit.” If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s about a self-made entrepreneur who is invited in by the owners of struggling or failing businesses. He invests his own time and money, and typically, he buys a controlling share of the company; thus, enabling him to usher in the needed change. He assesses these companies based on his own simple three-part business belief system. I found that his three categorical philosophies paralleled those of the successful, privately-held aerospace company I was a part of. This Entrepreneur breaks down his system into what I refer to as his “3 P’s That = Success”:
1. People
2. Process
3. Product
When companies are struggling, it is usually a result of a breakdown in one of these three core areas. As a OneAccord Principal, I’ve had the opportunity to examine a number of small to mid-size businesses. By asking the right questions, in a very short time you can quickly get a sense of which area(s) the company is struggling with and then put a plan in place to remedy the situation.
In the coming weeks, I will dive into each one of these three business facets of People, Process and Product, and give you a few questions to ask about your company to determine how you are measuring up in building a world-class, profitable organization.