If culture is the holy grail in business, speed is a pretty close second.
Speed gets you noticed. Speed beats the competition. Speed keeps everyone on their toes. Speed wins you deals. Speed gets you paid.
I’m not talking about the speed of your trucks going up and down the highway, but rather the speed at which you run your business. I am talking about how fast you return phone calls, or your team gets projects completed, or how fast your repair and maintenance facilities get your trucks fixed or how fast your accounting department collects your receivables. This is the speed that gets you to the next level.
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But speed, if done incorrectly, causes chaos.
I know chaos, hell, I like chaos. But when you lead your company with culture, chaos is something that you have to avoid and in this…lies the problem. Can you really have a great culture AND get things done fast?
You better or you will be out of business. Neither can suffer. You need both CULTURE AND SPEED.
I love to move fast. Long before all of the details are figured out, I like to go. I like to figure it out along the way. Sometimes, it causes havoc, but most of the time it causes revenue. Things don’t move fast enough in most businesses and at times, that’s the case in mine too.
Havoc is caused because speed ruffles feathers and interrupts our organization. To be honest, speed sometimes freaks people out. But I can see the full field, I know how the game ends, I see the finished product long before the product is finished, so I’m OK with speed.
But to be honest, I just don’t always know how to play as a team player, so my version of speed is not always correct. I’m working on that, playing like a team player, delegating, creating alignment, empowering others. I’ll eventually get better. But underneath it all, I will choose speed over a perfect strategy 100% of the time.
Tips to Boost Organizational Speed
Tip 1: Map Out Workflow
It’s important for you to map out the work flow.
- How long does it take to change the oil in one of your trucks? Is it 1 hour?
- How long does it take to tow a car if the total mileage of the job is 60 miles?
- How long does it take to haul from you home base to your destination and back?
Once you map out the workflows, you now have a baseline to set expectations and success metrics from.
Tip 2: Set Expectations
Set the expectation. Now that you know how long it takes to complete a project in your company, let everyone know what is expected of them. Next time your shop is doing oil changes, let them know that each oil change should take now more than 1 hour per truck. That means 8 trucks can have the oil changed in 1 day. If your shop has only been getting able to perform 3 oil changes in a day, you can see that speed almost tripled by mapping the workflow and setting the expectation.
Tip 3: Establish Non-Negotiables
What are your non-negotiables? What tasks within your company must, at all times, operate with max speed?
Examples of this would be accounts receivable. Tell your accounting department that you want every invoice collected within 30 days. This simple non-negotiable can literally change your business if you have too many receivables that are too old.
Tip 4: Share the Reasoning
In order to get everyone aligned, you have to share the reasons why speed matters. Get your team involved in the changes you want to see.
Tip 5: Be Reasonable
Before you run off to the races putting your speed spin on all the operations in your transportation business, remember to NOT be a jerk!
You should be open to understanding timelines from the team members who actually perform the work in your organization. Be willing to negotiate specific time frames on projects with your team.
For example, you might want something done in 30 minutes, until you realize that it is impossible to be done in that time. Be reasonable.
And while we’re on the topic of speed…
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As you can see, we’re obsessed with SPEED at CFF, because we believe in serving you better than anybody else in the industry.
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About Commercial Fleet Financing, Inc.:
At Commercial Fleet Financing (CFF), our pros have given smart advice to fleet owners and owner-operators in the transportation, moving, towing or construction industries for more than two decades. With CFF, finding the right financing solutions is a phone call away and most borrowers secure commercial vehicle financing with ease. To talk directly with one of our finance pros and get started with a credit approval in as little as two hours, CFF’s phone number is (469) 281-2962.
