𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐦𝐚 - 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬?

All business leaders face the same dilemma: where should they be focusing their time, energy, and resources, to ensure their businesses are sustainable and, more importantly, growing?

When most people think of business growth, they immediately think of the financials, like top- or bottom-line growth. But few consider that growing a business also means adding additional staff.

In fact, growing the financial side of a business largely depends on the quality of the people employed, the profitability of products or services, and the efficiency of processes within the business.

Similarly, growing the staff count depends on how people perceive the business, the quality of the management team, and whether there is enough profit to pay additional staff and support for the HR processes within the business.

Both types of growth come with challenges and complexities that require a business leader’s attention. This causes a dilemma for the business leader on where exactly they should be focusing their time and energy—or, put another way, how they should be prioritizing their attention between People, Profit and Process.

There are many examples of successful businesses that have good people, that are making solid profits, and that have optimized processes, allowing them to out-compete their peers. 

Conversely, there are also many businesses who don’t have the correct focus on these key areas and experience the ramifications—struggling to grow, receding from prior heights, or stagnating and becoming uncompetitive.

So, let’s first dig a little deeper into each of the key areas.

People 

People covers everything that affects the human resources of an organization. 

When a business leader who is focused on People is faced with a decision, their first thought is, “How will this affect my employees?”.  Most of their time and energy goes to the development and well-being of their employees.

Things that impact People include organizational structure, quality of the management team, HR policies, clear job descriptions, recognition, motivation, company values/vision, and business processes, just to name a few. If employees are not looked after, the challenges that arise can have a significant, negative impact on the growth of the company.

On the other hand, focusing too much on keeping employees happy can cause an organization to lack the revenue or profit to grow. It may also find that its processes are not as mature as they need to be to handle existing or future volumes of business. 

Profit 

Profit covers everything that affects the organization's revenue and profitability. 

When a business leader who is focused on Profit is faced with a decision, their first thought is, “How will this affect the company’s profitability?”. Most of their time and energy goes to the activities that generate revenue and increase profits. 

Things that impact Profit include the quality of the Sales team, input costs to build products and services, profit margin, vendor relationships, the marketplace, and competitors. 

If focused too much on Profit, business leaders may find that they have disengaged employees, poor quality products or services, and inefficiencies due to lack of process. 

Process 

Process covers everything that affects the manual and automated processes and systems used by the organization. 

When a business leader who is focused on Process is faced with a decision, their first thought is, “How will this affect the day-to-day processes and the scalability of my business?”. Most of their time and energy goes to developing, refining, and testing processes and systems.

Things that impact Process include the quality of IT staff and systems, IT budget, the maturity and understanding of business process management, the tools used to automate processes, and staff buy-in to developing and optimizing processes.

If focused too much on Process, business leaders may find that their organization lacks the revenue or profit to grow, or that their people feel overlooked and are unproductive.

Prioritizing the People, Profit and Process

It’s clear that each of these key areas is important all the time; they are all inter-related and impact business growth. But how does a business leader prioritize among them? 

Think of having multiple children. All are important, but your focus changes based on the child’s age and needs. Just because a newborn needs a lot of attention does not mean the older children are not valued. A teenager may require more energy than a 10-year-old. All the children are equally important, but there are times where one child requires more attention and focus.

Keep in mind that most business leaders have a natural focus—a personal preference for one of the key areas. This area may be the one that comes easiest to them or is based on fundamental beliefs of how a good business operates. While some leaders have been gifted with a talent for operations, others are skilled at engaging their people, and still others find prospecting and winning work to be second nature for them. 

It is important that the business leader recognizes the need to adjust personal preferences toward People, Profit, or Process based on what the organization requires at the time.

So, what determines what is required at a certain time? This may come as a bit of a surprise, but it’s the number of people in the organization. The number of people determines the complexity of the organization, and as the number of staff increases, so the priority shifts between the key areas.

Organizational ReWilding, based on 30 plus years of research, helps business leaders identify which Stage of Growth their business is in and then prescribes the ideal priority between People, Profit and Process, helping them navigate the challenges they are facing.

What is your company’s Stage of Growth? There’s a quick and easy way to find out (even better, it’s free!). Go to the Stage Calculator and get not only your Stage but also access to a wealth of information that will help you make decisions that correctly prioritize People, Profit, and Process.