How Fast can you Turn Your Boat?

Several years ago, the company I worked for at the time went through a series of seminars designed to institute a system of continuous process improvement. Various areas that were covered included leadership, facilitation of teams, empowering employees, and impacting sales. This variation of TQM (Total Quality Management) was specifically designed for our industry, beverage wholesaling but could easily be applied to any type of business. One of the fundamental concepts was change. Old paradigms had to be eliminated and people needed to begin to think "outside the box" to keep up with the fast paced changes in the market that every industry was facing.

One of the first analogies the presenting consultant used to explain the way we would be able to change was to compare the size of the company to the size of a boat. He compared large corporations to the Queen Mary in that because of the ship's size, it takes a fair amount of time to actually turn around. Corporations can not change overnight as new concepts need time to work their way into their culture. Small business on the other hand (for the sake of discussion a small business was described as having 200 employees or less) was compared to a speed boat that should be able to make turns rather quickly.

The greatest influence on change comes from the top down. Just like the Captain decides which direction the boat should go, a company's Senior Management needs to be the driving force behind any meaningful attempt at improving their company's performance. If all they do is talk about the need for change, but do not completely buy into the concept that it is a vital part of growing a business, all they will be doing is paying lip service to the idea and nothing will improve.

As an owner you have the ability to commit yourself, and thus your company to continuous improvement. This involves being willing to change what is not working and explore better ways to try and achieve your objectives. Too many companies fail to recognize this need out of fear, complacency, and/or not having the proper tools.

Once you make this commitment, you need to get the rest of your employees involved. In order to quickly institute the necessary changes to take advantage of a changing market you need complete buy in from those whom can make it happen. Think of your company as a sail boat that has a number of deck hands, all working together to quickly turn the boat in the proper direction to take advantage of the changing wind. Remember, no matter what the size of the boat, it takes someones decision to turn it. The timing of these decisions often mean the difference between sailing into calm waters or stormy seas.