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If you took over a company...

Connemara

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...what would be some of your off-the-bat initiatives, generally speaking? I am genuinely curious, and I know we have some management guys here.

I realize this is a very broad question, but surely there are some must-dos regardless of what industry you are in.
 

thekunk07

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thinking of taking over the local panera and running a match.com brick and mortar out of it? ******* genius.
 

ter1413

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bring in a good money prson person and find out where/if there i waste....
 

Connemara

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Originally Posted by thekunk07
thinking of taking over the local panera and running a match.com brick and mortar out of it? ******* genius.
I'm on the road to billionairedom.
 

willpower

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Quiet room for 20 minute naps.

Buy coffee in bulk from Costco.

Invest in data backup storage
 

Matt

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Originally Posted by ter1413
bring in a good money prson person and find out where/if there i waste....
ya, this is good advice.

My mother's husband (some day I will get used to the idea that I have a 'stepfather') is such a guy. He and a long term business partner acquired a small family owned cleaning firm a few years back, and this was step 1.

Step 2 was working out where to invest the waste. In their case it was in a business development team and more modern equipment.

It has gone from being a team of like 10 to a team of well over 100, and when last we discussed it, had been asked to get involved in forensic cleanup.

Pretty impressive, that has all happened in less than two years, and because it was 'waste invested' - no pun intended - was almost completely self funded.
 

pebblegrain

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check incentives alignment.

people do what they get rewarded for.
 

Matt

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interestingly, apparently that is not really true.

I posted this in another thread the other week, but this video is fascinating (and brilliantly done):

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WoodyStylee

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Originally Posted by ter1413
bring in a good money prson person and find out where/if there i waste....

Agreed. I read a book a while back about a guy (name escapes me) who has a consulting firm that goes in to businesses and makes them run as efficiently as possible. Pretty interesting book; lot of instances where they have fired leeching family members in family-run businesses, and completely crumbled family relationships, but made the company 2x more profitable as a result.
 

Douglas

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^ I think that video is overrated and something of an oversimplification. The format is neat though.

This is not necessarily a strategy to implement, but the first thing I'd do anywhere I started would be to spend the first 2 months of my employment, maybe longer, "working on the line" so to speak. I started on the ground floor where I am today, and I know a lot more about what we do and how we do it, where the rubber meets the road, than I would otherwise. It also holds me in good stead with the rank-and-file.
 

uNiCoRnPriNcEsSx

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first, do an industry analysis. then look at your own company and identify core competencies / competitive advantages. make moves to secure these advantages. next analyze cost mechanisms. analyze what inefficiencies exist that is incurring unnecessary cost and eliminate it. once everything is lean, look at how to increase revenue stream. this could mean eliminating product lines / services that aren't doing as well as expected, and or introducing new product lines. look to increase organic growth as much as possible. when utility per dollar in investment no longer makes sense, and you're in a financially stable position (like aapl where u hav no debt), look into artificial growth via acquisitions
 

whiteslashasian

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Originally Posted by uNiCoRnPriNcEsSx
first, do an industry analysis. then look at your own company and identify core competencies / competitive advantages. make moves to secure these advantages. next analyze cost mechanisms. analyze what inefficiencies exist that is incurring unnecessary cost and eliminate it. once everything is lean, look at how to increase revenue stream. this could mean eliminating product lines / services that aren't doing as well as expected, and or introducing new product lines. look to increase organic growth as much as possible. when utility per dollar in investment no longer makes sense, and you're in a financially stable position (like aapl where u hav no debt), look into artificial growth via acquisitions

Let me guess, you just took an Intro to Business Management course.
 

uNiCoRnPriNcEsSx

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just skimmed vault consulting guides and regurgitated the important parts. and made some parts up. op sounds like he wanted a basic high-levl overview
 

Matt

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Originally Posted by Douglas
^ I think that video is overrated and something of an oversimplification. The format is neat though.
which part of it would you dispute?
 

globetrotter

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hmmm.

I'd do a couple of things in parallel - like D said, I start doing the line jobs to get a feel for what was going on. I'd meet with the main customers, suppliers and distributors, I'd spend some time on the road with the top sales people, I'd have somebody I trusted go over the books and the outflow of money. I'd eat every day with a different group of people at lunch.

I would also start thinking about the more strategic issues - why does the company exist? what are the advantages and disadvantages? why do people buy the product/service? what are the most expensive parts of the processes - both in making the product/service and the selling. what are the most/least profitable parts? what can be outsourced, what can't, at any cost, be outsourced. who are the most valuable members of the team

one thing that I would do is fire anybody I think that I might have to fire. I have taken over teams several times, and each time I have tried to avoid firing people that I thought that I would have to fire. in each case, the people didn't last very long, and it was painful all around not to have fireed them in the beginning .
 

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