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Conduct a S.W.O.T. Analysis Before You Need a S.W.A.T. Team!

Conduct a S.W.O.T. Analysis Before You Need a S.W.A.T. Team!

Posted on by MDSadmin

You have the ability to take your business wherever you can imagine. The first step in any journey is planning. The old mantra goes, plan your work and work your plan. Those are great keys to success. Develop a plan and then focus and stick to it. Not that it won’t need tweaking and adjusting along the way, but as long as you can stay focused and true to your mission and goals, you can accomplish anything in life and in business.

The first part of planning any journey is to decide where you’re at currently. I was raised back in the day of paper maps. Every summer my grandparents would take us on vacation and I would be the navigator. About a week before we left my grandfather would sit down with me and a map and we would not only map out our primary route but we would also have a secondary route as well. The very first step of this process every year would be pointing to the reference of Fort Worth, Texas on the map and he would say “this is where were starting from”.

Current Location                                                 

It’s the same way with business. You have to know where you’re at before you can develop a great plan leading to your desired goals. That is the beauty of the S.W.O.T. analysis or Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis. It’s a great process to perform in order to start the planning process and create your roadmap or strategic plan for success. This analysis works well for evaluation of products, departments, strategies, or an entire company.

The first part of the analysis, the S.W. (or strengths and weaknesses) portion, is an internal view of the product, department, or company. You are looking for and listing strengths and weaknesses of the target you’re evaluating. It can vary depending upon what you’re evaluating, but here are a few examples.

Strengths could include:

  • What does your organization do best?
  • What’s unique about you product, staff, company, or etc.
  • To what resources do you have access?

Weaknesses could include:

  • Employees not trained
  • Substandard customer service
  • Sales process too complicated

The second part of the analysis, or the O.T. are the opportunities and threats you see, which is a view of the external. These are the opportunities and threats created by or posed by outside forces to your product, department, company or whatever you are evaluating. Again, this will depend upon what you’re evaluating, but here are a few examples.

Opportunities could include:

  • New trends
  • New markets
  • Organic growth possibilities

Threats could include:

  • Existing competition
  • New competition
  • Competitors’ use of new technology

Planning Tool

While this was a very condensed overview of a S.W.O.T. analysis, you can see the value in performing one before beginning your strategic planning for 2015. It is also important to get buy-in for those who will be participating. It is advised to reach outside of your executive team and chose employees to participate from different departments and levels in the company. To ensure open and honest dialogue, employees will need to feel the environment is safe and they may speak freely.

Schedule a series of meetings over the course of a few weeks instead of one long session. This will help keep everyone focused on the task at hand and not worrying about day to day activities. Make sure there are no cell phones and only interruptions for true emergencies.

Keeping the sessions positive is a MUST. Even though you may uncover some things in which you were unaware or are troubling, look at this as an opportunity. Had you not conducted the S.W.O.T. analysis you might not have discovered challenges until it was too late. Draw on the message in my last blog about balance, when things seem out of control, there are still opportunities to be had.

I would enjoy working with you and your professional team to help you conduct both a S.W.O.T. analysis and a business wellness checkup, as well as moderating your strategic planning sessions. These two tools will be a great way to kick off and jump start your 2015 strategic planning process.

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

The Elusive Balance of Life and Business

The Elusive Balance of Life and Business

Posted on by MDSadmin

If you’re like me you’re constantly searching for the optimal balance in life. I do a lot of reading and try to find tips and pointers that work for me. I think one point to stress at the outset is there are many great ideas and theories available, but you have to study and incorporate the ones that are right for you and your situation. The key to balance will be somewhat different for everyone and will change from time to time over the years.

I just read an article by Terri Trespicio entitled “How to Find Balance” at WholeLiving.com. It’s a great article and worth the read. She talks about myths of a balanced life and the truth behind them. As I already stated, this may not be for everyone, but it struck a chord with me. As I studied and reflected on these more, I could see an instant parallel to running a community, a business, or a corporation.

Ms. Trespicio makes a couple of great observations. First is that she references scales and the parallel of “a balanced life is not symmetrical, still, or neutral, but always changing. Secondly, she points out that, as with anything we do repeatedly and put the effort into, it becomes easier over time and as you gain “momentum”.

So here is my take on how this can apply to you and your business. The myths and truths are directly from Ms. Trespicio article, the commentary is mine.

Myth: You Must Be Even-Tempered
Truth: Balance Encompasses the Full Range of Emotions

There are those days when we will be angry, frustrated, and at the end of our rope with someone or everyone. It’s not about suppressing these feelings, it’s about the way we respond to them and communicate with others. If you hold these emotions in they will eat you up from the inside out and the root cause will never be addressed. It’s more about how we deal with them. Take a deep breath and make sure your response is measured and appropriate. Most of the time in an emotional situation we will respond much differently after the passage of time and thinking the situation through.

Myth: Balance is Effortless
Truth: Balance is Efficient

When things are in balance, life seems so much easier and fluid, you can just feel it. When your team at work are accomplishing goals and making good progress, life is not only better for everyone, but seems effortless. This is where creativity resides and we are able to accomplish more seemingly effortlessly.

Myth: You Must Be In Control
Truth: Real Balance Means Being In Flux

Control is such an illusion. When you have clients and people working for you there is no way you are in control. We have to learn to manage many different moving parts. We have to be accepting of change and know it’s a part of life. We can try, but really we can’t stop it. What you can control to some extent are the processes and procedures, but even those need to be flexible to meet certain situations. Ms. Trespicio makes a great point in the example of a circus tightrope walker. Their “skill resides not in their ability to defy gravity, but in making the hundreds of subtle, incremental readjustments to account for imbalance”.

Myth: A Balanced Person Is Good At Everything
Truth: Balance Requires Prioritizing

While you or your organization might be good at a lot of things, should you really be spending the time and money to do them? The 80/20 rule has great application here, 80% of our results come from 20% of our effort. Concentrate on what makes you or your company successful. Go through you and your employee’s task and reevaluate what is truly important to the success of your business. Then you can either quit or reduce unnecessary tasks and outsource those you can. Also remember to DELEGATE when possible.

Myth: Imbalance Will Result in Disaster
Truth: Imbalance is Opportunity

This is probably my favorite myth. This ties in very nicely to strategic planning. When you feel your team, community, or business getting unbalanced, and if you’re in tune with what going on around you, you will notice, it’s time for strategic evaluation. Don’t try to ignore it or it will just get worse and probably take longer and be more costly to find a new balance.

Take this as an opportunity to learn and grow. This is a great opportunity to reevaluate processes and procedures, how you apply your labor force, people and positions they fill, products and services. An important part of this evaluation is to know where you are today. As our last blog suggested, an operational review coupled with a SWOT analysis are great places to start.

I hope Ms. Trespicio’s article can be of some help to you find personal balance in your life.  Hopefully you can also take some of these theories and apply them to your business and professional life and environment as well.  I would imagine we are all a lot closer to balanced than we originally thought and give ourselves credit for.

Remember balance is not a static place.  It is constantly moving and changing and like the tightrope walker, we have to learn to make a lot of slight adjustments to remain in balance.  We can’t control everything around us, but we can control our reaction and response.  Its perfectly alright to feel a wide range of emotion, but the higher the emotion, the more we should think our response through carefully.  Lastly, in those times of imbalance, look for opportunities, they do exist.

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

Where Do I Start?

Where Do I Start?

Posted on by MDSadmin

As you start your strategic planning for 2015 you might ask yourself “where do I start?” You have a lot of areas that you would like to tweak and improve as you start into the new year. Two great starting points are a financial wellness checkup and a SWOT analysis (SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

The financial wellness checkup will give you a great base to start thinking about areas where you could sharpen your focus to improve your operational and financial health. A SWOT analysis will give you an opportunity to look at your departments, community, or company’s current strengths and weaknesses in order to develop strategies to take advantage of new opportunities and to defend against threats. In this blog I cover the financial wellness checkup and I will discuss the SWOT analysis in a future blog.

Benchmarking

It follows the old adage and answers that question where do I start? Of course, from the beginning! But where is the beginning really? There are so many different moving parts to your organization and there are so many different areas that you would like to change as you move forward. This is why it’s important to establish a baseline of where you are at today. This is where financial benchmarking comes in. Financial benchmarking has become a priority with senior managers in the senior living industry to determine where they are today and more importantly to chart a path of where they would like to be next year and in the future beyond.

It’s like going to your family doctor for a checkup and finding out your blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar levels. Once you know what these levels are then you can begin developing a plan to make the desired changes in things like your lifestyle and/or diet in order to achieve optimal levels prescribed for you.

It’s much the same way with the financial wellness check and benchmarking. You look at your revenues and expenses based on different line items and departments, then compare them against generally accepted industry benchmarks. This boils down your complex operations to a few high-level numbers that are more easily managed. It is also recommended that you convert your revenue and expenses into a per resident day (PRD) basis this allows for a much easier comparison. You will want to be aware of the variance between your current year budget and your current actual spent year-to-date. It is also recommended that you look back over the last 3-5 years at changes in budget and variance year over year.

Making Needed Changes

Once you have compared your actual operating financials to the benchmarks the areas that need the most attention will come to light. This will provide you with a roadmap of where the most impact can be made in adjusting your operating budget, if necessary. Then you can dig in with further analysis of areas in which you would like to improve or change. This would be a great opportunity to use the SWOT analysis to help facilitate change and direction.

Another drain on a community’s financial health that we often see in the senior living industry is “cost creep”. This is basically the uncompensated care provided to the residents of your community. It is important to stay on top of resident care plan and evaluations to ensure your revenue for resident care matches the expenditure for actual care provided. MDS has a couple of templates that allow us to take a high level look at the minutes of direct care staff you are providing to your community and see how it compares to expected care provided and revenue based on current resident acuity.

Kick-off 2015 Strong

As you can see, conducting a financial wellness check is a great way to kick off your strategic planning for 2015. It will give you a snapshot of where you are today and also provide valuable information to incorporate when planning for the future. I would appreciation the opportunity to work with you and your professional team in conducting this financial wellness check, providing assistance with a SWOT analysis, and help moderate your 2015 strategic planning sessions. Let’s get you on the calendar today before too much time slips away.

MDS also offers a “shared executive” retainer program. As a retainer client, we can help monitor your operation metrics, provide important commentary on the industry and your business, and become a strategic partner in the success of your operation throughout the year. This has become a very popular program with our existing clients because of the tremendous value added through MDS’ staffs’ many years of experience in the industry delivered to you at a fraction of the cost. I would be happy to discuss your individual situation and develop a customized “shared executive” plan to suit your needs.

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

What Does Your Customer Service Say about Your Community’s Culture?

What Does Your Customer Service Say about Your Community’s Culture?

Posted on by MDSadmin

Does your senior living community, including your staff, express a can-do spirit? Do they have a mindset that is resident focused? Are they able to see the positive and not growl about everything? Do they work on fixing what’s wrong instead of griping about it? How much thought do you really put into personnel placement and training? These are a few questions to examine with regards to how you express your company’s culture to your residents, those who work within your company, and those outside of your walls.

I recently read a blog on LinkedIn  which garnered a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons, but it had a good message. The blog described the advice a venture capitalist had for the young twenty something in whose startup he was investing $150 million. To paraphrase the conversation, the venture capitalist advised, “Don’t mess up the company culture, that’s what I’m investing in.”

Unintended Culture Shift

Unfortunately, it tends to happen in most industries. As companies grow and hire more and more people, they tend to drift away from the core values and culture that made them a success. It takes a lot of effort to stay the course to retain your company culture. You have to hire the right people, develop a successful orientation process as well as an ongoing training program, monitor your employees’ actions and outcomes, and adjust as the need arises.

And as the old saying goes, the commitment to a positive company culture starts at the very top. I don’t mean just knowing about it, reading about it, preaching about it, I mean really LIVING IT 31! (For those of you out of the loop on the newest lingo, 31 is the old 24/7, just 24+7. And if you’re wondering, no I‘m not that cool, I was recently schooled by my younger, hipper nephews).

Personnel Assignments

Did you ever stop to think about how that particular person got into that particular job? Sometimes it’s the person that has been around the longest or has the lowest in seniority. Maybe the employee asked for the job, or maybe they were the first applicant that could pass a background check. There are many examples of employees that just ended up in a job and no thought was given to whether they were a good fit and exemplified your community culture to its fullest.

It would be easy to write a novel on employee placement and training, which covers all the different positions in a senior living community. However, I would like to focus on those employees you have put in a position of initial contact with your potential residents and their families. I’m specifically talking about those employees who answer your phones or greet your prospective residents and their families at the front door as well as those who tour campuses with them. There is no more appropriate expression in this situation as “you never get a second chance to make a great first impression.”

What’s The Goal?

It’s important to make sure we put the right employees in the jobs that best fit them. In addition, we must also train these employees and go over contingency plans for certain situations that are bound to present themselves. We need to go that extra mile to make sure they not only understand but are able to live and express that culture you in which you want your community to be known. From the local Mexican food restaurant that I frequent to Senior Living communities that I visit, it appears that some management isn’t doing a good enough job of choosing the right person for the position or communicating desired outcomes to employees.

It’s important to stress to these employees how much they’re being counted on to acquire new customers and keep current customers happy. It’s amazing how much damage one misplaced or ill-trained employee can do to an organization, and often no one even realizes it until it’s too late.

Give me a call and let’s get started analyzing your front line, first contact team, policies, and procedures and developing a suitable solutions for your community. Today it’s more important than ever to have a plan and a backup plan in place to facilitate prospect inquiries. This can range from information on a phone to those wanting to tour your community. Let’s make sure your team is asking the right questions and offering the appropriate information to each and every prospect. With the proper plan in place you will see your close rates increase and resident acquisition cost decrease.

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

MDS Would Like To Say Thanks To Loyal Readers With Complimentary Book Chapter and Special Offer

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As our way of saying thank you to our blog subscribers we are offering A COMPLIMENTARY CHAPTER from Jim Moore’s “Independent Living and CCRCs, Survival, Success & Profitable Strategies for Not-For-Profit Sponsors and For-Profit Owner/Operators”, a must-read sequel to his previous BEST SELLING book “Assisted Living Strategies for Changing Markets”.   Current subscribers, please email roybarker@m-d-s.com and he will gladly forward your complimentary chapter.  If you are not yet a subscriber, simply subscribe to our blog TODAY by placing your email address in the sign up box on the far left hand side of this page and your chapter will automatically be sent to you.

As an added BONUS for our loyal followers (both new and old) we are offering this wonderful work of writing at a PROMOTIONAL RATE! Remember to sign up for our blog (if you haven’t already) and just click the link below to receive your own copy for the special promotional rate of ONLY $40 (shipping and handling included).   This book retails for over $60 with shipping and handling.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG TODAY and take advantage of this special promotional price! (For a limited time while supplies last.)

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Don’t Learn the Hard Way: Doing Business in a Foreign Country

Don’t Learn the Hard Way: Doing Business in a Foreign Country

Posted on by MDSadmin

There are certainly many obstacles to doing business in a foreign country. Some of these obstacles include the language barrier, different customs, different laws, and overzealous contractors or agents operating thousands of miles away from you. I was reminded of the latter when I recently came across two similar stories in two different industries.

The first story I saw had to do with an oil company doing business in a foreign country. In this instance, the oil company got a contract with the help of a local agent. The agent became a partner with the company. The country held a national election, which resulted in a change of leadership. The new leadership was not happy with the contract. Allegations of bribery soon followed, which resulted in an investigation under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

While the story didn’t go so far as to say whether or not there was a finding by a legal authority of bribery, the damage to the company was already done. The company was not only distracted, but spent time and money during the investigation. In addition, the company suffered a huge loss of value, tangible assets, and trust the U.S. financial markets, the people and government of the foreign company.

I then read an article in the Wall Street Journal about a couple that was arrested and convicted of purchasing private information of Chinese citizens as part of a due diligence project for GlaxoSmithKline PLC. While it sounds like the pair was involved in something illegal, it’s a reminder that oversight and compliance are critical for doing business overseas. Choosing the wrong associate can have huge implications for you and your company.

These events highlight the importance of choosing your business partners carefully. It’s critical to select an experienced partner dedicated to keeping your company in compliance with foreign rules and regulations. If you have projects foreign or domestic, contact MDS to put its more than 40 years of experience to work for you.

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

Where Has 2014 Gone?

Where Has 2014 Gone?

Posted on by MDSadmin

By Roy Barker

I woke up this morning like any normal morning. Stumbled to the coffee pot, ran out and got the paper (yes I still have one thrown), checked some emails as I looked out the window at another beautiful sunny 81 degree morning. For those of you that have not spent a lot of time in Texas, any August morning below 90 degrees is a winner!

So I’m looking at my schedule wondering how it got so messed up that I’m in Texas during this time of year and not enjoying the beautiful Massachusetts coast right now, but that’s another discussion. As I am contemplating this dilemma, I get a calendar tickler about setting some January 2015 communication goals. Really! 2015! Where has 2014 gone?   It was just last week I was relating how there is still time to make changes, which can have a positive effect by the end of 2014. Now I am writing to say, oh by the way, we also need to start thinking about 2015, if not NOW, at least very shortly.

So let’s talk a little about planning for 2015. Strategic Planning can eliminate stress and surprises by setting clearly defined goals for your company and/or community and communicating them to your employees. It can ignite creativity with your staff and stoke efforts for positive changes.

It’s beneficial to create a sound plan so you can allocate your resources, both financial and human, to accomplish your main goals. Strategic Planning can provide a guidepost to measure progress and indicate where changes need to be made. With everyone on the same organized page, you can expect to see goals accomplished, greater productivity, and a happier workforce.

Here are a couple things you will need to keep in mind while getting ready to start your Strategic Planning process.

  • You will need to perform a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats). There is a lot of documentation out there on this process. Remember the Strengths and Weakness are internal and the Opportunities and Threats are external. I think this is such a great opportunity for every company to really see who they are and where they are at today. You have to know where you are in order to find the most appropriate path to where you want to be.
  • Involve your team. This should be a combination of those from your management team, positive and creative individuals within your company, and leaders in the workforce. Start early enough to where you can poll all employees with a problem solution proposition. It’s important to find out what road blocks front line employees are encountering in providing excellent customer service. It’s important to get employee buy-in to changes that need to be made.
  • Strategic planning is not a onetime event. Have a few shorter meetings rather than trying to cram everything into a onetime event. This will help reduce interruptions and also give those involved time to really think about the items in play and how best to proceed.
  • Start early. Give yourself and your team time. I know there are some of you that already have this on the calendar for December 31st at 3pm. While I applaud you for your forward thinking, you may want to build in a little more of a time cushion. Give your team time to prepare, send out some general topics for them to start reflecting on.
  • No interruptions. This is another good reason why scheduling a few shorter sessions is better than one long one. Make sure phones are off and subordinates are aware that there are to be no interruptions except for true emergencies. I will go out on a limb here and say that NO, a change in tee time, while disturbing, should not be considered as a true emergency. To help combat normal business interruptions it is recommended holding these meetings at an off-site location
  • Don’t let this turn into a gripe session. This is most important for the functionality of the time committed but also the attitude the group takes on going forward. This is not the time to talk about the water cooler that is warm or replacing a worn out printer. Those are normal maintenance issues that already have a channel for resolution. While we have to talk about what we want to change and why, focus on positive. What can we accomplish? What are our solution options?
  • Cost of solutions/changes. We must take into account the cost of changes or solutions to issues. It is important to have someone with knowledge of your company’s actual budget on the strategic planning team. Are making the changes realistic? Can you find the money to do it? While you may have to push the budget envelop in order to get real changes made, it is always better to be able to plan within your budget parameters. This also gets back to starting early. If you do have some costly items to address, it gives you and your team time to incorporate them into the 2015 budget.
  • Work with a knowledgeable facilitator. It’s always good to have someone from the outside present in these meetings. It’s an even bigger benefit to have a facilitator that is familiar with the industry as well as strategic planning. A good facilitator will help keep the meetings moving and productive, keep the group on task, and provide insight into the process where necessary, and be the impartial voice of reason where cooler heads prevail if/when discussions get heated.
  • Make the process fun! I know this can be difficult, but it is important to get everyone to rally behind the fact change will be good. This should be a light air of collaboration. Even though there may be some hierarchical challenges in the room, it’s imperative to rid this process of intimidation if you want the best ideas and eventual buy-in.
  • Buy-in at the top. You can’t fake this. Well you can, but it’s very easy to spot someone going through the motions that is not completely sold on the process or its results. Give your staff credit, they are smart enough to know the difference and they don’t even have to be on the same campus as you. Believe me when I tell you, it will show through many, many miles away.

I know it may seem crazy to start thinking about 2015 while we’re still in the Dog Days of Summer, but it will be here before you know it. School will be starting soon and then we will be into the Holiday Season before we know it. Give some thought as to who in your organization would be a positive influence on this process. What are some things you would like to see changed? More importantly, what are some things your prospects, customers, clients, resident, vendors, staff, and partners want to see changed? If you don’t know what these are, now would be a great time to conduct surveys or focus groups to find out.

Don’t wait much longer to get the process of Strategic Planning for 2015 underway! Give me a call and let’s put MDS’ 40+ years of experience to work for you and your team mapping out a great plan for 2015!