At Equilibria, we define business infrastructure as the combination of a company’s design and the documented processes and tools that support that design.
Business Infrastructure = Business Design + Business Process
A stable business infrastructure ensures the proper coordination of all human resources, processes and other operational tools necessary to ensure manageable, profitable growth. This is especially important during unexpected growth spurts. Further, business infrastructure provides businesses with:
- a solid foundation,
- a replicable platform,
- a model and a formula that makes each time you do something easier than the time before,
- consistency in your delivery of customer value, and
- economies of scale.
This is definitely a time when size DOES NOT matter!
Every company regardless of size, industry and maturity needs business infrastructure as it answers the following questions:
- What needs to be done?
- Who’s supposed to do it?
- How do we do what needs to be done?
- What is the contingency plan just in case things don’t go accordingly?
- How do we profitably replicate our business model?
Being able to articulate your business in a way that makes sense assures not only your customers but also your staff that you know what you are doing and that you have an organized and efficient way of doing it. This translates into positive customer experiences resulting in increased sales. And increased sales triggers the need for more employees, larger/additional offices, and/or franchising opportunities.
Although every business’ growth looks different, the necessary elements to ensure sustainable, manageable growth are always the same as illustrated in the downloadable diagram below.
Visit the next seven posts, preferably in the order listed, where you can learn how to implement each of the seven elements necessary to build small business infrastructure:
- Job Task Analysis: defines what needs to be done and who will do it
- Organizational Design: defines the management and reporting structure
- Electronic Records Management: defines how information is stored digitally
- Paper Records Management: defines how information is stored physically
- Work Space Planning: defines how workspace is functionally configured
- Service Delivery Process: defines how your core operations work
- Operations Manual: defines how to perform, measure and improve key processes
Click on the video below for a demonstration of how these 7 elements come together to form small business infrastructure:
How has a defined business infrastructure helped stabilize your business? Leave a comment below.
