On this day in 1967 Colin Jackson the 100 metre hurdler was born. One thing that always has (and does) strike me about Colin Jackson is that he looks like a fast runner. Even his head seems to be aerodynamically shaped. Colin, if you ever read this, that is meant to be a compliment.
Colin Jackson took part in a BBC programme recently in which he talked about nutrition and how he organised his life around his running – when he was running of course. It struck me then that not only did he look aerodynamic, but his whole life was shaped to meet the objective of going faster. Here was a man that was optimised for speed in every sense of the word.
The same can probably be said of many top athletes of course and it is why they are top of their game. It’s not just about skill, and practice – what they deliver on the sports field is the product of a highly optimised mix of natural ability coupled with years of practice, focussed exercise, good diet and (often surprising how important this is) a mental attitude that is highly attuned to the winning objective.
There is a message here that we can all take on board about focus and optimising our lives or businesses towards the end objective. It is all down to components really: looking at each part, fine tuning it, stripping out the waste, finding a leaner and faster way to do things, then returning some time later and doing it all over again. These are the principles of ‘Lean Manufacturing’ and ‘Continuous Improvement’ of course. Massive amounts of consultancy time and money are still spent on two things that are in principle so simple, they can be explained together in a single sentence.
Can we then make our small businesses highly optimised to meet our business objectives? Yes we can it and it as simple as I have suggested. Look at each part: is your admin is lean at in can be?; are your sales team fully qualifying their visits?; is your project estimating correct?; are all of your fee earning personnel fully utilised? – and so on.
Perhaps you should start with your administration and stripping that down as far as it can go. Proquin can be a huge step forward in this regard, removing huge swathes of paperwork and redundant administrative activity. Find out more at http://www.proquin.co.uk.
