37. Be Process-Oriented.

World-class organizations are built on a foundation of highly effective, repeatable systems and processes. Work to create processes for every aspect of your role, and then turn those processes into habits to achieve efficient and consistent results.

Marc's Message:

Wholesale distributors like Famous must be growth oriented in order to have the return on investments that are necessary to build our business.  We are in a capital intensive industry with high fixed costs and growing variable expenses due to the increased cost of doing business.  So how do we grow each and every year while containing our costs?  One of the ways world class organizations achieve this objective is by scaling their business.  This means they are able to leverage their growth.  One of the key areas that allows companies like Famous to meet this goal is by being process oriented.

Therefore we must continue to develop systems and processes for everything we do.  This does not mean becoming a bureaucratic, policy only and rules based organization.  It does mean collaborating with other associates and functional teams and coming up with common sense solutions so as we grow, we have highly effective and repeatable systems.

Doing this efficiently and effectively will help us not only achieve consistent results but increase our earnings as well.  As you know we invest our profits back into the company so we can serve our customers to the best of our ability and we also share in our success with you.  Some of our key associates who excel at having a process driven mentality are Bryan Huntley, Jeanie Cuda, Chris Wiersma, Chad Miller, Gary Rakes, Oscar Robinson, Nathan Puchajda, Michelle Gresh, Lexi Elliott, Angie Johnson, Tara Mitchell, Jennica Messmore, and Emily Yakubik.  These individuals spend the proper time on the front end when evaluating an issue and think deeply about what we can do not only to solve it, but prevent it from occurring again.  For many people, including me, implementing a new process doesn’t always fit our skill set.  Therefore it’s incumbent upon us to be open-minded when others are developing a new process that can help us and also reaching out to others at Famous who are good at these types of initiatives.  Working with them and supporting them is important and it allows more efficient processes to be put in place to increase our profitable growth.

Think about companies like Southwest Airlines, UPS, Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart or other large organizations.  They have mastered the challenge of being process oriented and are always striving to improve.  As we continue to grow Famous also needs that same mindset.  I’m confident we have the right team of associates with the skill sets required to make even more progress in this critical area of our business.