Posted by: Todd Larsen, CEO of Limitless Technology~Cost Reduction Specialists

Wouldn’t you agree…?

…Most  organizations have wonderful personnel that each and every day go to work giving their absolute best effort to ensure a company is working efficiently.

Whether you agree or not, I believe understanding efficiency is knowing exactly what that word or term means. Let’s look at the dictionary definition:

ef·fi·cien·cy

// Show Spelled [ih-fish–uh                         n-see] Show IPA

noun, plural ef·fi·cien·cies.

1. the state or quality of being efficient; competency in performance

2. accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort: The assembly line increased industry’s efficiency.

3. the ratio of the work done or energy developed by a machine, engine, etc., to the energy supplied to it, usually expressed as a percentage.

4. efficiency apartment.

So now we know what the definition of efficiency is…so let’s look at the most important key to the definition as it is defined, and according to what I will call employed expectation.

Most Companies believe their employees should know near everything about their job function. And while this is an incredible ideal, would you say it is realistic? Most Companies believe their employees have a deep level of knowledge, which in truth, is difficult to obtain or is unavailable to them. In telecom it would be in some areas such as:

• constantly changing pricing
• competitive pricing
• new product and services
• vendor margin modeling
• vendor cost allocations
• affimity discount programs
• vertical discount programs
• taxation differentiations
• tariff rates
• USOC codes
• USF rate charges
• CSR reports
• CDR reports
• Utilization Reports

Then if they made available to them how do they decipher the information, and how long will a Company give the employee to not only learn, but perform this function when they have multiple other job duties which may be considered to have higher priorities. Most often learning of his kind is not in the employees training, mentoring or readily available to them. Yet it is expected by many Companies the employee(s) deliver on an ongoing basis, effective and efficient procured services which are optimized. So wouldn’t this contradict the first belief?

And…often times Companies burden their employees with the fear of failure in these types of disciplines, because the employees feel they should have their “Companies best interest in mind at all times”. What is not realized, is that employees do have best interests in mind. So the struggle remains between levels of expertise, capabilities and what is most important to accomplish that day. This often detracts from an employee being able to provide additional efficiencies and effectiveness for Company’s billings regarding their products or services.

Highlighted above is the key to efficiency ” to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort”. If a capability does not inherently exist within a Company, and is not already a part of the process and being performed in a machine like manner….Wouldn’t it go to say that some services are much better off being outsourced than in-sourced?

Remember…when you are making the decisions that impact the profitability, effectiveness and efficiency within your business unit or for your entire Company, find the expertise that will ensure efficiency in what you are trying to accomplish.

Does a company want profitability for its people or for its shareholders/investors/owners ? Or is it a combination?

Pretty much a no brainer right? Your are in business to make money and profits are the way we measure the amount of money made and shows a scale of success. Profits and losses are indications of whether we’re doing the right things or not. It’s how the people in the marketplace tell a business what is needed and wanted, what should be eliminated, what should be expanded, what needs to be improved, etc. Profits and losses constitute important feedback that improves economic efficiency.

Profits also enable us to grow. If what we’re doing is good, then we need to grow so we can do more good. If we don’t make profits, then there’s something wrong with what we’re doing, and we deserve to go out of business. Businesses rely on profits to buy:

• expand operations and
• new inventory
• finance product development.

Without profit, a business would stagnate and risk losing its market share to other competitors. Large businesses need to raise profits to:

• keep share prices high and
• pay dividends to shareholders.

If a large business does not generate a profit, its share price falls, which means it cannot raise as much money with share sales and cannot borrow from banks as easily. Companies with falling share prices often become the targets of hostile takeovers by rival firms.

So okay…we get it from  business standpoint, but how about from a People standpoint?

I want to keep this one simple. So, like when I was growing up, we used to count the ways. Here are a few of my opinions (and you know what they say about opinions) and ideas…what are yours??

•  we can employ more People.
• we can employ People longer
• we can give People opportunity.
• we can give People more.
• we can give People’s children more.
• we can help change or shape People’s life’s.
• we can give People higher standards of living.
• we can give People better healthcare choices.
• we can improve People’s chances of survival.
• we give people a chance to be more productive.
• productivity usually increases profitability

 And isn’t profitability what we are trying to achieve?

What have I missed?

End of the day…Bottom line Profitability may just be all about People. It may be much more.

What do you think?

Limitless Technology~CRS

Delivering expert results on: telecom auditing, telecom contract management, telecom expense management, and telecom billing optimization services.

www.limitlesstechnology.com