A QuestionIn our own sector, Atlas Business, are ‘taking part’ voluntarily or involuntarily in stamina and ability taxing triathlons; regardless of whether we think we’re swimming the red ocean of deadly competition, or the open ‘blue oceans’ leg at present … … … we’re ‘in the swim’.
And in the cycling stage? What is it that sees (a few) business riders keep their wheels turning, quickly, smoothly, purposefully and effectively … … … keeping the rubber in intimate contact with the ‘road’, of customers, work, profit … … … whilst many others suffer frequent punctures, slow-downs skids and injury – even when apparently evenly matched with equals?
A Pointed Direct Question for You in Your BusinessDo you believe you’ve got all your ‘wheels’ turning to maximum effectiveness and success results right now? … … … or are some of them merely spinning, or worse, prone to coming off the business wagon?
If ‘yes I have’ is your answer to this, congratulations – you’re one of the minority to achieve such great productivity … … … that or else you are maybe being a bit ‘gentle’ on your team’s potential!
Your Business Wheels, and the Way You See ThemWhat is the central axis, or hub around which your business principally moves and operates? Wheels, too, are like this, rotating around the axle at the hub centre. Hubs, spokes, rim and rubber are all part of the wheel but the
hub is the obvious central focal point of the action; it is where most of the mass, pedal power, management and directional forces get applied.
Obvious but wrong! In businesses which under-perform their potential, managements often become hypnotised by their own proximity to the centre, to the beauty of the engineering gears, the perfect symmetry of the spokes and the inside-out view of what’s important in life.
High performing businesses know that the hub and the spokes are only a means to an end for support and power transmission; that the hub only rotates because the rims contact the race hill-climb up which the business must succeed.
Putting the enhancement of effectiveness of the ‘rims’ of your business, which is where all the movement and muddy ‘contact’ interfaces, work, frictions, grip and slips occur between men, machines, customers, suppliers etc., is as much a cultural strategic issue as it is systemic, processes, informational, or communications based.
Taking Atlas RACS into your Business as Your RACSAtlas ‘RACS’ provides a software and knowledge-base framework based on modern products and tools-set capabilities that provides a suite of powerful business functions which you can embrace, take into, and deploy across the whole of your business under you own special unique ‘imprimatur’ comprising your ‘crown jewels’, knowledge, processes, branding needs.
They can just as easily and equally validly be used to enable at a very specific level the rapid roll-out of a new transactional or quality process, as they can to encourage corporate-wide cohesion, identity and communications effectiveness in widely dispersed or newly acquired businesses.
RACS deployment will deliver the greatest benefits when coupled with critical and genuine re-examination of opportunities for rebalancing some of the ‘centres of gravity’ in the actions, accountability, authority practices in your business because there is a natural tendency for ‘aggregation of mass and power’ at the centre, and so to the progressive emasculation of rims into useless myopia, poor sight and even more spectacular crashes in the future!
Is ‘RACS’ right to take you off the Rack?The Atlas product, toolset and consultancy services suite comprising ‘RACS’ is particularly needed by businesses in one or other of the following contexts:
- Fast-growing smaller businesses where the informal, short-linkages insights and knowledge of the core business ‘seniors’ is being increasingly diluted and stretched as new hires arrive and perimeters expand.
- In mid-sized businesses which are experiencing overload or breakdown situations in product or service quality, communications misunderstandings, or operating cost inefficiencies because they have continued to operate with only small changes in business practice and cultures from ‘Founders Days’ times gone by.
R A C S
rims accelerators cultural strategies and systems
About the author:
John Butler, Managing Director of Atlas Business - a systems integration company and strategic development centre for Access Accounts Dimensions – was formerly involved in systems consultancy for KPMG and GE Information Services.
About the product:
RACS is a browser-based umbrella that can organise information from any SQL database and is utilised by Atlas to co-ordinate Accounts, Payroll, HR, CRM etc. into a coherent, customised company hub in harmony with a company’s specific processes and unique business culture.
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