Managing a Small Business Requires a Few Linchpins

Whos Job is it Anyway?

Most business hire people for “jobs” and jobs are framed
(typically) into responsibilities and tasks. Why don’t most small businesses don’t
hire people to really think outside of the narrow framework of their job
description?  Because it is scary and
means empowering someone to act upon information that is incomplete and fuzzy
and maybe to take action without checking with you… The Boss.

So in this article,A Strategy for Learning from Mistakes, 8 years worth of customer shipping bags
were ordered. Bad! However was it anyone’s description to go beyond inventory management
and re-ordering? Even the manager was doing his job since inventory was being
taken, orders were being processed and vendors were being communicated with.

People in key positions should be empowered to act when
things just don’t fit neatly into tasks and responsibilities. Rather than just
acting upon information, they need to recognize what the information means and
then make management decisions… Critical Thinking (sometimes referred t as Problem
Solving).

Hire a few Critical Thinkers

Critical Thinking goes beyond recognizing an “auto-reorder”,
knowing that orders fulfill approximately 3 years of the business needs and a
vendor saying something does not seem right. It means recognizing that “something
just does not seem right” and I need to determine what this means.

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business