Increasing Profitability

7. Continous Improvement

7.1 A simple planning cycle vastly enhances your ability to make continuous improvements.

• Base your plans on accurate information.
• Consult, to improve the quality of your information and to involve employees or other key people in your decisions.
• Set measurable, time-limited targets.
• Monitor the effectiveness with which your plans are implemented.
• Review what you have achieved.

7.2 Learn from experience and make continuous improvements.

• Keep improving underlying systems and the planning process itself.
• Be ready to alter your strategy if necessary.

7.3 Apply lessons company-wide.

• Set up systems that encourage communication.
• Benchmarking different parts of the business against each other can be a useful way of sharing best practice. (See Benchmarking.)
• Improve communications with your customers and suppliers. Your customers will be aware of any problems and can tell you what you need to improve. Avoiding customers you know have problems may simply make matters worse. Your expertise may help them solve a problem they did not even know existed.