Your Business System

Think of a Book of Knowledge (BoK) as a company’s owner’s manual. It should lay down company values, objectives and strategy and contain, for each business function/department identified in the organisational structure, every policy, procedure, form, document, training video, and other material needed to run the operational processes. A BoK should be so complete that a company’s day-to-day operations no longer depend any specific employee. Instead, all ongoing operations are aligned to strategic objectives and run according to company values and well-documented processes that are managed by well trained and easily promoted (or replaced) employees.

W. Edwards Deming, an eminent quality guru, showed how over 90% of performance problems can be attributed to how an organization is designed and managed - its business system. Organizations without values, a strategy and well-documented processes typically suffer from employee problems, quality issues, customer dissatisfaction issues, and an inability to unlock their real profit potential. Ironically, by the time most managers realize they need to get better organized and document their business model they are so over-worked and overwhelmed with "fire-fighting" that they do not have the time to work on their business. They are too busy working in it, as Michael Gerber recognised in his book "The E-Myth".

A well-prepared BoK is essential for efficient and effective operation of your business in today's business environment, giving your business new vigour and new value:
• enabling growth without sacrificing product or service quality,
• helping transition your business from a start-up to a going-concern,
• helping to create a positive team-culture based upon best-practices,
• promoting cross-training and multi-skilling,
• freeing your best employees for promotion,
• freeing your time to build your business and enjoy your life.

I will involve your entire team in capturing the know-how related to the roles they perform. Your employees should be eager to help once they realize they cannot advance in your organization if the roles they perform are too dependent on them. Like you, if they want to maximize their opportunity they will want to free themselves from their “job traps” so they can assume new responsibilities and grow with your organization as it grows.

Ultimately your objective should be to document your organizations roles and
processes so thoroughly that your employees can easily learn new jobs and
advance with your organization when opportunities arise.