Ten
Critical Factors for Achieving Long Term
and Sustained
Business Success
To download the file, please click
here for the Microsoft Word document.
Prepared for seminar with University of Delaware Entrepreneurial
Studies students
Roger Ralph – Nov. 11, 2011*
10. The business should be “upstream”
• Horse drawn carriage
versus Model T
• Kodak versus Canon
• HAC versus Bally
9. The strategy makes sense
for the present and likely future market and incorporates
more than "making money".
• GM’s purchase
of Hummer from AM General in 1992 versus production of
the Volt hybrid.
• HAC’s strategy includes making ever increasing
and significant contributions to the community.
8. Clear philosophical underpinning
for the business- what do we want to do; for whom; why;
and how.
• Be a model for the industry:
Café credit; bundling; strategic giving;
• Focus equally on customer goals and staff growth.
7. Sufficient financial resources
exist to survive bad decisions or unforeseen circumstances.
• Gateway versus Hewlett
Packard;
• Allow for gross margin of error in projections for new
ventures.
6. Fierce drive to consistently
improve.
• Marriott versus Howard
Johnsons;
• Constant question – how do we get better;
• Key is taking it down the line.
5. Antenna always out seeking
to identify/adapt others’ best practices
• Expectation to visit
other clubs;
• Read & Network;
• Outcomes – new member integration ; community
newsletter.
4. Technology, infrastructure,
systems, policies, and marketing enhances company growth
and employee pride.
• Do employees feel
they have what they need to do their job;
• Do we regularly consider and adapt new technology when
it will make us better at what we want to accomplish.
3. The organization’s
core personnel approach is to have people working in ways
that allow them to maximize use of their natural talents
as individuals and as members of teams.
• Kim Bogia, Sales
Manager, rare WOO quality
• Angie Craft, Dance Director, Entrepreneuring instinct
• French McGee, Facilities Manager, - I’ll
figure it out but will read manual first
• John People’s, General Manager – unique
appreciation for both numbers and importance of fun for
members & staff
2. The organization must foster
self and team performance accountability and leadership
must we willing to terminate for the good of the overall
unit/organization.
• Establish environment
where candor and conflict move the ball ahead and foster
creative pragmatic solutions;
• Strive for a company where every employee is proud
to work for the organization and acts in a way that elevates
themselves and others consistently.
1. As in life, success in
business is all about relationships. Your success as a
leader, manager, supervisor, or employee is almost always
about the quality of your relationships with others and
the respect you’ve earned.
*Roger Ralph was the founder
of the Bel Air Athletic Club and is a Principal with Bob
Carpenter in the Hockessin Athletic Club
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