January 2025 - 34

MANAGEMENT
silos - must be integrated with one another. Focusing
on management integration is the way to build an
organization that can continuously improve, grow and
overcome challenges.
INTEGRATOR NO. 1: PROCESS MAPPING
AND DOCUMENTATION
It's tempting to view a business through the lens of the
products and services it sells. But your business is really a
collection of processes; dozens - perhaps hundreds - of
processes that are done all day every day by employees,
customers and suppliers. Every inefficient or insufficient
process is inefficient and insufficient multiplied by the
number of times that process is done every day, week,
month and year.
Process management cuts across all nine of the
management disciplines. Not only are there processes
within each discipline, but the outputs of each discipline
also positively and negatively influence the processes in
the other management areas.
The most powerful thing any business can do is map and
document its processes. Process mapping shines a light
on inefficiencies, reveals opportunities for improvements
and automation, and stimulates innovation. Documenting
the correct way to do each process ensures organizational
consistency, which reduces overhead and improves
quality. Process documentation is also a powerful form
of communication that speeds up employee onboarding,
facilitates delegation, and provides a framework for
performance measurement and management. Humble
process documentation facilitates harmonious autonomy
and supports the development of mastery.
INTEGRATOR NO. 2: DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
Most of us who have owned a business for a long time
have great gut instincts ... except when we don't. In the
not-so-long-ago past when anything more than POS data
was largely unavailable to small businesses, small business
owners operated on a level playing field, with guts that
were sometimes correct and sometimes not. The difference
today is that some businesses are using abundant and
affordable data to supplement their guts, making better
decisions and shooting ahead of their competition.
When you implement technology and systems to collect
data, use those systems effectively, aggregate the resulting
data for a single source of truth and analyze that data
for better management decisions, you connect the nine
management disciplines. Then you can combine reliable
data with consistent processes to unleash the elusive
power of key performance indicators (KPIs). This connector
makes it possible to finally measure the right activities
in the right ways, and successfully align processes and
34 JANUARY 2025 GPNMAG.COM
people with business goals. Data-driven decision-making
keeps an organization and all its individual members
aligned with its plans and purpose.
INTEGRATOR NO. 3: INTENTIONAL CULTURE
Every organization has a culture, but whether or not it
is a culture that serves its goals and fulfills its purpose
is directly related to how intentionally the culture was
developed. If your culture arose organically, it likely mirrors
the strongest personalities in the group or is defined by the
subgroups and their relationships with one another.
Business culture defines how a business operates on the
inside and has a direct connection to how the business is
perceived from the outside. If you're struggling to convey
a consistent brand identity, take a look at the role your
internal culture is playing.
Most people understand that culture defines
relationships and behavior, but less understand that
culture can also support - or undermine - your
value proposition, which is the unique benefit that your
company provides its customers. If your value proposition
is based on new product and service innovation, your
culture must support and stimulate creativity, adaptability
and healthy competition. If your value proposition is all
about service, your culture must foster collaboration,
openness and listening. A value proposition of low prices
must culturally prioritize efficiency, cost-consciousness
and aggressive process refinement. All of these cultural
attributes can be positive, but how they are combined,
prioritized and perpetuated touches every discipline
of management, and determines whether or not the
stakeholders perceive alignment between management
and organizational purpose.
In 2009, the dragons were distressed financial markets
and a real estate meltdown. Today, the dragons are
inflation, labor challenges and troubled supply chains.
There will always be dragons. But when you focus on the
synergistic power of process documentation, data-driven
decision-making and intentional culture, you transform
the nine pillars of good management from a collection of
tactics to an integrated and dynamic practice.
The result will be something much more than merely
resilient. The result will be an organization energized and
motivated through autonomy, mastery and purpose. The
result will be epic.
Andrea M. Hill is CEO and founder of Hill Management Group |
The Werx Brands. Andrea has had serial success leading companies
through rapid, profitable growth. Each Werx brand (StrategyWerx,
Werx.Marketing, MentorWerx, ProsperWerx) specializes in a
specific area of business growth planning and execution. You can
reach Andrea at 414.477.1457 or hill-management.com.
http://www.hill-management.com http://www.GPNMAG.COM
January 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2025
