How many of us:

• Use a Smart-phone and still maintain a paper diary?

• Use a Smart-phone and enter contact information manually when we could easily synchronise information from an email client?

• Have boxes full of business cards collected whilst networking and yet do not have a contact database?

Competitive Advantage

In 1972, Southwest Airlines made a business move that has turned into a business legend. Their financial position was perilous. So they took another look at the business plan. The Southwest revelation was to see that time spent loading and unloading aeroplanes was money lost. Making a profit meant keeping aeroplanes in the air. To put the company back on its feet, Southwest developed the famous "Ten-Minute Turn." The Southwest solution was not based on acquiring new systems or equipment. Instead, the company focused on maximising one of its existing assets: the skill of flight and ground crews – in order to maximise the productivity of their most expensive capital assets – the aeroplanes. Southwest "sweated its assets": it made more effective use of the expertise of its people. It also maximised the revenue earning time (as opposed to down-time) of its most costly capital assets – its aeroplanes.

One definition of sweating the assets (and the path chosen by Southwest) is to get as much as possible from what is already present.

Automate

• At a personal level – connect your Smart-phone to your computer and synchronise information. It also makes it easier to protect the information you keep on the ‘phone. Make sure that, as a minimum, your calendar and contacts are synchronised.

• Throughout your business – where you have time consuming manual processes, look at the cost of automation – it may surprise you how little it may cost to eliminate error-prone mundane manual tasks.

Collate

• Look at the data you have collected in your business – and turn it into information.

• Business cards – create a system for capturing the relevant data and making it work for you.

• Customer data – but make sure you are not violating either:

  • The data protection act

  • Good practice and customer courtesy

Exploit

• Look for parts of your business that are costing you money and not adding customer value. Either make these more efficient, or eliminate them. Southwest reduced the turn-round time of its aeroplanes on the ground. At the same time, they created one of the fundamentals of all budget airlines today – keep it moving.

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of Results-Zone. Results-Zone bring extensive knowledge and experience gained in Blue Chip organisations to businesses like yours. They ensure that your business is fully exploiting a well thought through operating plan. They work alongside you and your team – as business results managers. They ensure that your team and your business are elevated to the results-zone. They bring you “hands-on” experience – similar to employing high quality management skills without the risk or costs in recruiting full time employees.

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