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The M&M’s Of Business

Remember the old ad slogan about M&M’s?

With that delicious hard candy shell, they melt in your mouth but not in your hands?

So, are your management initiatives and overall company direction something you put hands (and feet) and resources to, or are they just words?

Are you talking the talk or walking the walk with your sleeves rolled up?

Consider what I call the M&M’s of business:

Masters = Who are our current masters? Who are our stakeholders? Customers? Owners? Our bank?

Management =The managers who manage. So what kind of job are they doing? As a team? As individuals?

Middle management = The middle which minds the margin and the money. Is the middle too thick or too thin?

Margin Makers/Moneymakers = The direct labor who do the work and make margin. Do we have enough of them? What is the SOC (Span of Control) — ratio of how many senior managers to middle managers, or how many SG&A people to COGS (COS) cost of sales or “direct” people?

Make?= What do we make? Do we make a product, a service, an encounter? Do we make or create value? Do we make an impact on society as a whole, or just a small dent or ding in a little corner of a little industry?

Model = What business are we in? How do we make money? Can we grow, scale, adapt? Can we do it quickly?

Markets, Messages, Media = Who do we say we are? How do we market and sell? Is our message clear? Is our message true? Do we capitalize on the media?

Matrix = How does the mix of products and services we sell to the market overlay with the people responsible for delivering them? How reliant are we on the matrix of suppliers and vendors?

Measurement and Monitoring = Are we measuring and reporting on all of the KPI’s for the business? Do we have KPI’s? How well are our reports providing information we can use to adapt and change quickly?

Money = How do we use operating and capital budgets? What are the dollar sources (where the money comes from) and what are the dollar uses? (where the money goes?)

Misalignment = Are our goals and practices misaligned? Are our resources misaligned with our capacity? Are our expenses misaligned with our top line revenues? Are our people misaligned with their roles and responsibilities?