Your Company Operates With A Lean Staff

Every company has a different philosophy on staffing. The desire to operate as efficiently as possible is consistent, but the allocation of labor resources varies widely.

Although we see staffing levels vary with the stage that a company is in, they also vary with the company’s operating philosophy and profitability.

I’ve already mentioned that labor resources are usually focused on customer acquisition and product/service quality.

In companies that are rapidly growing, there’s typically little choice but to focus labor resources in the areas making the biggest impact. Infrastructure is created to support growth, and optimum operating efficiency isn’t as important as optimum operating performance.

Infrastructure is often engineered from the previous business experiences of the managers and tweaked as needed. Having a lean staff forces the company to manage infrastructure with the philosophy of “good is good enough.”

As long as your company is reaching its targets, it’s all good… right?

I’ve worked with many companies who’ve never gotten around to the deep dive of analyzing their key indirect spend categories. Because they continued to exceed their revenue and profitability targets, it didn’t rise to the top of their key goals list.

As Ray Seabrook shared with me, not checking doesn’t mean indirect expenses (and vendor support) are where they could be.

Anyone can solicit three bids from different vendors. When I say “analyze” an indirect spend category, that’s not what I mean.

My definition of analyze is first having personal experience within the vendor industry that supports the expense category you’re analyzing.

You speak the language of the industry and intimately know the industry’s “secrets.” These secrets include the industry’s cost of goods and true vendor support capabilities.

You’ve sold enough of the industry’s products/services that you know what vendors consider when creating a proposal for a prospective client. You also know when and why vendors’ motivations change throughout the calendar year.

We’ll talk in coming sections about the credentials and experience needed to deliver the highest vendor value (including price, product/service, and vendor support) to your organization.