Key Business Factors Steven Thorne

OverviewWhat are Key Business FactorsUnderstanding Key Business FactorsGeorge SteinerJapanese ApproachExamples in real world

IntroductionKey Business Factors ?Measures or indicators that are significantly related to the business success of a particular firm.

Understanding Key Business Factors If you dont know where youre going, you probably will not get there. (Yogi Bera)Contribute to the overall improvement of a firms business results.Each firm is unique

Understanding KBFsFactors that all firms must address from the beginning.Good Products and Good Service Marketing SatisfactionMinimization of costsManaging of AssetsCash FlowEtc.

Understanding KBFsExampleA key business Factor for an organization may be getting the deliveries out fast and reliably

Cross-Functional TeamsTeams that enlist people from a variety of Functional groups within the firm (Dr. Thomas Foster)

ExerciseForm Groups of four to six peopleShould include a secretary (note-taker)Brainstorm some key business factors that would be relative for a financial firm or institute

George Steiner Study on the Strategic Factors of BusinessSurvey to 700 executives, treasures, planners, and others of many Financial InstitutesProvided a list of FactorsAsked to rank the importance of each 1-5, 5 being of most importance

George SteinerFactors for Todays PerformanceMost important factor was to Raise Short-term Capital2nd was to Raise debt at low costRaise equity at low costGet High quality Top Management

George SteinerFactors For Future ImportanceThe most important factor for the future was to Get High Quality Management Others includedManagerial Drive for ProfitsTrain future Domestic ManagersBetter Long-range Planning

George SteinerTop 10 factors listed by Chief Executive OfficersGet High Quality top managementManagerial drive for profitsTrain future domestic managersVigor in sales organizationService to customers

Georger Steiner

Top ten ContdBetter employee relationsBetter overall controlBetter long-range planningCompetitive stockholder returnMaximize stockholder return

Japanese ApproachUse three variables to determine Key business FactorsBusiness ResultsEmployees moraleCorporate Flexibility

Business ResultsRanking of the top 5 Business factors contributing to Business ResultsRatio of R&D expenditure to salesRatio of new equipmentNew-product ratioChannel of distributionEmployee Morale

Employee MoraleTop 5 Business factors contributing to Employee MoraleWage LevelsLevel of basic researchComputerizationHuman Resource Development for rank and file employeesLevel of applied research

Corporate FlexibilityTop 5 business factors positively contributing to Company flexibilityEmployee MoraleRatio of R&D expenditure to salesOverseas strategiesPresidents TypeBusiness Goals (3 years ago)

Solaris WirelessKey Business Factors

Retaining Existing CustomersCost Efficient and Rapid Delivery of services24X7Grow With Your Business

United States ArmyKey business factorsRate of deterioration of our infrastructurePolitical Support for studies and projectsDemand for products and services in our areas of expertiseReputation of the District for delivering quality products and services, on time, within budget

U.S. Army KBFs ContdSafety Record on corps projectsFunding availability and authoritiesEnvironmental consciousness of the public and the Corps

Summary Key Business Factors are not easily defined, they often involve team decisions and non bias goals for an organization. The overall objective for identifying Key Business Factors is to improve business results. These results will improve the companies profitability and market share.

BibliographyShimizu, Ryuei. Success Factors. Tokyo: Chikuro Shobo, 1989.Steiner, George. Strategic Factors in Business. New york: Financial Executives Research Foundation, 1969.Resnik, Paul. The Small Business Bible. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1988.

Bibliography contdwww.mvs.usace.army.mil/stra_plan.pdf. 15 February 2001.www.sun.com/solaris/ds/ds-solariswireless. 13 February 2001.

Key Business Factors - Measures or indicators that are significantly related to the business success of a particular firm.- These Factors contribute to the overall improvement of business results.Yogi Bera (Baseball Philosopher) Quoted. Each firm is Unique There are many key business factors that an individual company must decide for itself, though there are some factors that all firms must address next slide.Good Products and Service Without good products and especially service, your company will lack market share and respectability.Marketing Whether to the public or to individual service and product providers, Marketing is key, word of mouth is not completely acceptable.Satisfaction Every company strives to satisfy its customer!Minimization of Costs You may spend thousands of dollars producing a product but it may turn out that its costing you money due to a poor production process. Managing of Assets Having too many assets for example may increase costs and drive opportunity up, for example inventory or empty buildings not in use.Cash Flow Cash flow is a must for any business anywhere, money either in transit or receivables needs to be a visible to maximize profit Information found in The Business Bible by Paul ResnickThese key business factors can be decided by anyone in a company, the best way to establish and determine the key business factors for a company is in a meeting involving associates from many areas of the company. This type of meeting has been classified as a cross-functional team by Dr. Thomas Foster. Next slideDr. Thomas Foster - Managing QualityGeorge Steiner Strategic Factors in Business SuccessGeorge Steiner Strategic Factors in Business SuccessGeorge Steiner Strategic Factors in Business SuccessGeorge Steiner Strategic Factors in Business SuccessGeorge Steiner Strategic Factors in Business SuccessThe Japanese Business Success Factors by RYUEI SHIMIZUBusiness results are used as a variable due to the fact that in a capitalist society a company must keep expanding its sales volume, accumulating profits, and increasing the scale of operations while securing profitab

Morale will help enhance human creativity to the fullestMorale is not achieved by high wages and employee arrangement, it must be in an environment where corporate culture allows flexible thinkingThis can be associated with Demings 14 pointsCorporate flexibility and employee morale work together because without one you couldnt have the other. Corporate flexibility I would relate to Quality management and again Deming Retaining Existing Customers This not only includes the growth rate of the customer base, but also customers must adopt outsourced services, Solaris does this by building customer confidence in the reliability, scalability, quality, and security of the services they offerCost-Efficient and Rapid Delivery - Products and services must be built quickly. Time to market is critical to maintain competitive advantage.24X7 Todays customer demand is 24 hours a day seven days a week, CPU downtime can cost companies thousands or even millions of dollarsGrow with your Business Building a foundation that can grow to meet your needs, have to also be able to keep up with customer demand(This information is found on the following website www.sun.com/solaris/ds/ds-solariswireless)This information can be found at the following web site - www.mvs.usace.army.mil/stra_plan.pdf