Three Strategies...... About Company Profit

Then where should we start? Which values should we raise first? Is it more effective to concentrate all your efforts on improving one value or to work on all of them simultaneously?

In our experience there are several effective strategies that can be employed to utilize values as a springboard for rapid growth and doubling profitability. Three different approaches are outlined below. Any company can double its profits in 12 to 24 months using one of these three approaches.

1. Raise performance on every corporate value by 5 to 10%
The most powerful way to grow a company is to develop each component and element in a balanced manner. Focusing on the development of many values simultaneously ensures the greatest balance and harmony and generates the maximum results. However, it is also the most difficult strategy to execute, because it requires concentration on many things at once. Incremental progress on many values does not seem as dramatic or significant as sizable progress in one or a few areas, but this strategy generates the maximum results.

2. Implement one value to the highest possible level that it can go
This approach has the advantage of being very clearly focused on a single goal. Focusing on one value is easier and more dramatic. But raising performance on any value throughout the company requires improving performance on many others as well, so the focus is not as narrow as it may seem. The power of this strategy comes from applying the one chosen value comprehensively in every major and minor activity and raising it to the highest conceivable level in all these areas. If you are working on only one value, it is best to chose one that is centrally related to your business and which is rated weakest of the important values.

3. Implement three values to double their present level
This strategy is our favorite. It has some of the advantages of both of the others. It is more balanced than focusing on one value and easier to execute than focusing on 30. We recommend selecting three values which are relatively weak and, therefore, possess the greatest potential for improvement. Preferably, one value should be chosen from each of the three categories-physical, organizational and psychological-listed in Chapter Seven When we say double the level of their implementation, we are speaking figuratively. Doubling refers to something mid-way between a 10% increase referred to in the first strategy and the highest possible level referred to in the second. For example, if you have scored the company 60% on a value across the boards, doubling would be raising it to 80%.

In order to facilitate implementation of this strategy, we recommend that the initial effort to improve each of the three values be started three months apart, i.e. start on one value now, another three months later and the third six months later. But once you have started improving a value, it is important to maintain and continue making improvements during successive periods when you are also working on the other values.


* The real power of values come from implementing them in every corporate activity.
* The implementation of values can be institutionalized in a company by a five step process: making a real commitment to the values, setting clear quantifiable standards, assigning responsibility for achieving the values, creating the right systems for achieving and monitoring performance on them, and training for all the necessary skills and attitudes.