We believe a good way to assess how we are doing as an enterprise is to answer questions about the Three M’s: Markets, Materials and Manpower.
In general, if conditions are positive for each M, business will be good and positive. Our experience runs counter to that though.
We usually see one of the M’s isn’t going well. Sometimes two of the M’s are off. Two M’s being off isn’t usually a good thing.
The good news about our enterprise is that we have a good bit of diversity. We sell to customers from a wide variety of industries in a number of geographic areas.
Thus, we can be experiencing a number of different stories at the same time. We can have ample sales in Maine while sales are slow in Wisconsin. So, it’s hard to tell a story that captures our complex company in one sentence, but if you’re an area that you work, considering markets, materials and manpower can give you greater insight into what is causing our results at a particular point and time.
Considering these M’s is a good way to create improvements. There are always ways to get better in each of them.
Obviously, our sales team is important to our efforts with Markets. Our sales professionals work hard to determine what the customer wants and needs. They facilitate the process of assuring we all each understand those needs. Then, we work to make sure we can fulfill them.
Our goal is to be better than the competition at meeting needs. We also gain an edge when we come up with new ways to have an edge.
You can break Markets down into really small components. Every person in our organization has a customer. We exist to provide a service or product to someone.
Who is your customer?
What does the customer expect from you?
How satisfied is your customer with the service you perform or product you provide?
