Sustainable Business Model - Quality Business Practices

Creating and maintaining quality business practices is the first step in creating a workplace that is compelling, which in turn creates products and services that are highly valued by the market. These practices include:

Strategy Structure Senior Team Distinctive Capabilities

Strategy

A company strategy is a framework for making decisions about a company's direction. Strategy includes the scope for products and services, the market, and the activities for delivering the products and services to market. Having a clear vision is important to market success. Choosing both a strategy and a vision are important. However the business will not achieve business success without effective implementation in daily activities.

Structure

The structure of the organisation is another determinant of success. The structure will ensure that strategic objectives are fulfilled. The structure creates a framework for relationships, allows for delegating, recognises authority, and ensures the organisation responds to the market. Structure involves creating clear roles and responsibilities for the team to compete effectively.

Senior Team

The senior team is the core of an organisation. One of the keys to organisational success is the suitability of the leadership team, their background, experience, training and credibility. The individuals' knowledge and capabilities will deliver the most value to the business if the group can work as an effective team.

Distinctive Capabilities

Every business has some distinctive capabilities. These are capabilities, which are imbedded in the processes and people in the business. These capabilities are part of what distinguishes one competitor from another. Even if a competitor can identify a specific capability, they often cannot duplicate the combination of resources and experience to reproduce the capability. There are many examples from all over the world of how quality business practices are a key element of success. As most people travel by air, South West airlines is a good case study. Many airlines have tried to copy the capabilities of South West airlines unsuccessfully.

Case Study

Each of the four quality business practices needs to be strong and they need to fit. The following case study illustrates how the structure, distinctive capabilities and senior team must all support the strategy and reinforce each other.

Click here to see the case study.