5 Steps to Managing Anything. Part 5

Shaun Pearce — 1205989200

Some things may appear trifling and lightweight at first glance, but when their real impact becomes known, it can have devesting consequences. This last step in the series is probably the most important (and overlooked).

Step 5: Safeguard.

In modern vernacular language, you could call this step "covering your ass" because it means making sure things you do, don't have nasty ramifications for you further down the road. You need to get your priorities in order and take care of the most important tasks first, even if they sound trivial.

For example: Let's say you run a bakery, and a salesman from a new flour mill calls by offering you a great deal on some new flour. Your flour stocks are running low because a flooded basement has ruined several sacks, so you need to make a decision quickly. This new flour costs about half as much as the flour you're currently buying. You decide that flour is flour, and the cheaper price means you'll be able to make a bigger profit. The salesman tells you he has a few sacks out on his truck which he can let you have right away, so you decide to take him up on his offer.

So far so good.

Yet, if cheaper flour means your bread doesn't taste as good as it did before, people will stop buying it and you'll lose more money than you're saving. Even if you go back to your previous supplier, many of your old customers will never return because the last loaf of bread they bought from you (literally) left a bad taste in their mouths. Readers of a certain age will remember "New Coke" and what happened there!

The best thing to do in this scenario would be to get a sample of the flour, bake a few test loaves, and make sure the bread tasted good, before putting in a large order -- even if this meant having to order more of the expensive flour in the meantime.

As the whole point of having a bakery is to bake bread that people want to buy (for money), THAT takes priority over everything else. To safeguard that task, you'll have to stick with what works until you can prove something else does the job better, inconvenient though it may be.

One thing to bear in mind about this vital element is it changes (or at least it may change) as a business develops. The trick is to think ahead several steps, look at the worst case scenario that could develop as a result of your actions, and plan accordingly. Ask yourself: Is this worth the risk? What's the worst thing that could happen? Use the analysis techniques I talked about in part one of this series to help you make an informed decision.

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5 Steps to Managing Anything. Part 5