solutions for the
process of growth
Growth is a major goal of most founders and owners. Growth may be defined as clear improvement of performance as much as it is in sales volume, number of staff or sites in operation. However you define growth, it’s a grand challenge in itself! From our experience, effective Growth is an outcome of successfully dealing with most if not ALL the challenges you’ve likely faced, and we’ve listed on our web site.
From day one of our work with you, growth is front of mind. Our founder and leading business growth coach, Rudy Miick, learned early on to build unit one as if it was already a successful chain. Our approach, the questions asked, the systems we put in place with you support effective growth from day one.
Our track record with our clients getting ready for growth, and during growth, is resolute, proven and taken deep to heart in every project. Our strategies for small business growth are all tailored according to your needs, schedules, and goals. Your success is our success. At Miick we never forget this mantra.
At Miick, our confidence is not to be confused with arrogance. We’re at your service!
Do you want to grow your company? Most founders want “bigger.” For some, “better” is bigger, “evolved” is bigger. “Better” or “Evolved” may be more sales per foot, more sales per person or per minute, more unit production an hour, less inventory on hand. For others “bigger” translates to unit growth. In any definition of “growth.,” Miick is on your wing. When you call us to support growth, our brand promise is to function from day one, as a trusted partner with you and your team. Your experience of us is driven by our Purpose and our Values and the consistent experience that we do what we say we’ll do, with passion on Purpose!
Growth with intention involves change. Regardless of industry or pace of production, you have a brand. In your company, you’ve made a brand promise and have a brand experience for both your customers AND your staff.
Likely you’re happy with some of what you’re doing, call this performance; just as likely there’s action or behavior or habits you’d like to change. Welcome to growth! Welcome to change management! And business culture is what drives brand performance. Talk’s cheap. You, the marketing department, or HR, can make promises all day. When the brand promise does not match the brand experience, there’s little to no engagement in staff or customers! There’s little to no loyalty because loyalty is a result, an OUTCOME of brand experience.
GOT THE TOOLS FOR GROWTH? WE DO.
Take your business to new heights. Send us a message and let’s have a discussion.
Let’s Start A Conversation
Take your business to new heights. Send us a message to schedule a complementary consultation with our culture and growth experts.growth with the miick companies
Trusted Growth Strategy Consulting
Take a moment, look at the litany of issues you’ve listed for yourself prior to visiting our web site. Take a moment to look at the litany of issues we solve systemically, time and again. Our job, our goal, and every action we take is to support you to build your Business Culture by choice, not by chance. We know the “how to” of engagement for both staff and customers. We turn staff and employs into team members that share your vision, your Purpose and your Values to drive performance. Every time. Any system you’re missing we’ll step into.
In any scenario where your answer is, “George does that”, or “Helen takes care of that” is turned into a system that functions with ownership attitude and action, with intention, trackable and data based, regardless of who does the “that.”
Fiscal acuity is part of our process for obvious reasons. Waiting for numbers, ball parking or speaking in generalities is not an effective way to grow. 2020 as a year has painfully taught us all this. 2020 has been a year of growth based on nimble, values based decision making for the great majority of Miick clients. How? Miick works as a partner with you to effect fiscal health, values-based decision making and ownership attitude, read engagement of team members regardless of department or role.
Yes, effective growth is active, focused, and driven. Growth rarely occurs by accident. The thought of growth is lovely. The act of growing is a choice. Miick is on your wing. Let’s review.
At Miick we approach growth in many ways like we manage change. The pace may be different with growth, faster or slower, however the work is much the same. There is pre-work, the work of “start-up” into “new” whether “new” is a system, a production line, new concept, new behaviors, or a whole new building or venue. Regardless, Miick’s been there and we’re adept at building culture by choice, strategy that evolves structure into high performance.
Gaining efficiency is growth. Evolving innovation on purpose, building team engagement is growth. After decades of success growing brands in a myriad of industries, we know growing top line sales through unit growth is not enough, profit and ROI have to be part of the equation for your success. That said, Miick is adept at measurement and data capture even with soft skills like communication and coaching.
There are certainly a few questions to be asked when we start talking about growth: Where are we headed? Next door? Next county? Different state, different country, Bigger city, resort town, college town? We’ve been there and done that. Let us be your partner in growth!
Growth may be driven, OR hindered, by the habits of managers or leaders anywhere from top to bottom in the company. In any sort of growth issue we step into with you, our commitment and track record is based on three (3) actions:
MIICK TAKES A “WHOLE
SYSTEMS APPROACH™”
Imagine your company as a water balloon. If you or we push on one side, it blobs out on the other. Regardless of the initial area of impact, hiring, retention, production, ergonomics, fiscal management, whatever the issue defined, from our whole systems approach™ we look at the impact to and results of one movement into another. Instead of a blob (unintended consequence) showing up somewhere else in your organization because a change in another, we anticipate the whole of the company, the impact to each department or team, to top line and bottom-line impacts of any and all actions taken. We’ve also done this work long enough to be REALLY good at anticipating where impacts will show up based on actions taken. Our Whole Systems Approach™ is at the core of our Methodology, our tools, and all we do with you along the way. Want growth, its smart money to look at the company as a whole, all the more when the first response is, “If we just shift that…”
the Miick Tool Box
Miick tools work: Imagine having a business Culture driven by choice not chance. Imagine having clear Communication, behaviors, attitude and actions based on Accountability. Imagine not having to waste your time with drama, bullying, or folks working with a victim mentality. Imagine, all things “numbered” being guided with fiscal acuity and anticipation, people being inspired and more, engaged.
Talk about growth… imagine, working in a drama free work environment. What percentage of your day are you putting out fires, watching spinning wheels of name calling and finger pointing, even at best, listening to reasons, stories and excuses, time and again. Miick tools stop drama and finger pointing in its tracks!
Miick is adept at supporting you to define excellence in every role and in evert department instead of depending on common sense. Most consultants and coaches talk about what to do or why to do it, Miick knows the “How To” of getting change done well, all on Purpose, guided by Values, to Vision accomplished ahead of schedule and on, or below, budget.
“The miick Method™”
The Miick Method™ guides performance and results that are exponential to industry norms, time after time, regardless of industry, company size, state or nation. Our methodology addresses the long list of business challenges by giving leaders and team members tools, systems and decision-making skills to function with high engagement and an ownership attitude time and again. Result? We’ve seen our clients grow personally and professionally. How? Innovation, and ownership attitude becomes the norm. Staff engagement is typical instead of rare.
Think of our six-step method as the bone structure that supports high performance. The tools and systems you learn with each step of the Miick Method builds both muscle and alignment. Like disciplined, well coached practice, performance keeps evolving. Records keep getting set, exceeded, and set again at new heights. Performance in each department, with each team member and all systems in place spirals upward with stronger results monthly, quarterly annually, year after year. No theory here, just data time and again. The six (6) steps in our method are:
step 1: we know who we are
In knowing who we are, first and foremost its paramount to all stakeholders that Profit (and positive cash flow) are a must. Equally clear, is this: driving profit is a core value and an outcome of all other systems in place, an outcome of our behaviors daily, and at the heart of high performance.
The essence of knowing who we are is the answer to one simple question, “What is it we actually provide through our products, through our brand experience?” This higher or deeper purpose of work allows each individual in every role within a company to have true pride in their participation. A great carry over from the world of restaurants is the very word itself: restaurant. The root translation of the word means, a place one goes to be restored; restaurateur literally translates to, “restorer of soul.”
As a manufacturer, as a retailer, in the service industry, IT, medicine/healthcare or anywhere else your company may actually provide trust, safety, efficiency, value; a fitness or martial arts company may provide wellbeing, confidence and leadership skills along with fitness. The list goes on. I look like a barista, but I am a restorer of soul… I look like a trainer or janitor, but my work is to have you feel different when you depart than when you arrived. This sense of purpose, this feeling of what work actually accomplishes is contagious and connected. It is inspired and becomes soul at work. Team members have an answer immediately at hand when asked, “How do I make a difference?”
To really define who we are, building on Purpose, is have clearly defined Values and Vision. Values are used with Purpose to make decisions on a daily basis. Purpose and Values align in decision making to achieve one’s definitive Vision.
Another component of knowing who we are is to define performance excellence in terms of behaviors and actions; that is, performance in action. From experience we’re committed to not count on common sense. There are too many life experiences, too many socio-economic groups, too many variations in education. Frankly even in work performance, there are too many variations on what’s acceptable performance and what’s not. What is A+ to one, is C- to another. What’s the alternative? Core at Miick is to invest the time with our clients to define excellence in each role of any given department, then the interplay of the whole. What you’ll find is that “definitions of excellence”™ provide exponential results, far beyond relying on commonsense which is more often than not, the norm.
There are other elements of Knowing who we are that we will share with you when we begin our work together. In the interim, know that what we’ve shared with you here is the foundation of excellence and inspired performance in all facets of your company!
Knowing who we are supports inspired performance driven by choice. Outcome? Consistent results on Purpose.
Step 2: Fiscal Acuity
Most companies wait for a financial statement to make decisions. One of my clients calls this, “managing by autopsy.” From this autopsy perspective you end up behind and too late with information to do anything but react. Autopsy makes solid decisions impossible. There is an alternative.
We take whatever you’re doing in your accounting department and shift actions to present tense. Even traditional financial statements can close within 2 days post period. More potent are the action steps and systems Miick calls “Miick Operations Accounting™.”
Miick clients are supported with fiscal systems that are both simple and which look ahead. Anticipatory systems are ones that let us know the cost of doing business today, accrued to tomorrow, week to date, then period to date, quarter to date and annually to date ALWAYS against budget.
Imagine having an ideal budget for inventory and purchasing? You will. Imagine stable prime costs regardless of sales up or down, regardless of economy up or down. Imagine stable performance week in and week out, period and quarter to date.
We know how to create and run profitable, fiscally healthy companies, regardless of industry, thanks to all we learned from the fast-paced business management of restaurants. In 40+ years we’ve not had one project that did not achieve the fiscal goals defined at the outset on purpose, and using company values to make those fiscal decisions.
Step 3: “Conscious Communication™”
Integrated into the development of Steps 1 and 2, our third step is to create Safe Space© for tough conversations that come up in the world of business and life.
Through our Conscious Communication™ tools team members learn to have data-based conversations on purpose. Leaders and team members learn to be choiceful in language that connects rather than disconnects, behaviors that build trust instead of diminishing it, and in ways that build accountability that supports both fiscal and physical health.
As mentioned in our list of business challenges, people and our communication with each other is likely the driving challenge of most companies. There’s also little doubt that ongoing communication is the “primary how” of creating a dynamic business culture.
From Miick you’ll enjoy the bonus of seeing and feeling the communication skills learned be applied at home and in community, as life tools, as well as the way we communicate at work. We consistently hear about relationships improving thanks to the communication “tools”, and reasons for the “tools”, being shared. For you and Miick adding communication skills to our toolbox is just good business.
With clear communication comes the ability for leaders in the company to actually define excellence and support it on purpose and in values driven ways. We Support You to Implement: Miick is on your wing here. We serve as your guide. You are not left to your own to “figure communication “stuff” out.” As mentioned, drama is cut exponentially; positive engagement shows up, performance ramps. Through our implementation communication effectiveness, soft skills performance can actually be measured. Yes, really, tracked and measured.
STEP 4: “hiring on purpose™”
A major bonus from clearly knowing who we are and how we choose to perform is this: When an A+ applicant is searching for a new position we are able to define in advance and share with that candidate our culture and brand experience. On arrival, instead of being caught by surprise, or finding out some time down the road in my work experience what a company is really about, our Purpose, our Values, our expected performance, our brand execution is actually consistent with what we advertised in advance. We know who we are, we commit to being that. To you as our applicant, we ask, “Do you?” “Join us, or don’t.” Retention, engagement, production, sales and bottom line all go up exponentially! This is not theory. Rather, what you get is consistent outcome by Miick from all we share with you AND how we share it.
STEP 5: “training on purpose™”
Miick is expert in experiential training. More so, our client learn how to integrate our “tool box”, Purpose and Values into daily performance. A big step in change management, building new habits that replace old habits is ongoing feedback as a system in itself. More so, we teach trainers, managers and leaders to coach to the positive. Instead of catching people doing “stuff” wrong, we catch people doing right things right and build on what’s working to take performance farther than you can imagine possible. Time and again, regardless of industry, size or location.
Step 6: ongoing learning and applying
There’s no such thing as change being “one and done.” Going forward transformation, innovation and change will happen faster and faster. In all we’ve shared here, what you get from Miick is systems, method and tools that support team members from top to bottom, from entry level to C-suite to keep learning and applying.
ACCELERATE BUSINESS GROWTH TODAY
Whole systems guide conscious, mindful behavior and provide your company emotionally intelligent, values driven leaders and team members that are adept, decisive and anticipatory… read: engaged, tools active in mind, emotion and spirit.
Want growth? There’s no doubt, every project, every company, each leader, is unique. Our approach is consistent in offering solutions and systems that function for you and your unique application. This has been our track record and continues to be every time. Recent Pandemic, and economic downturn proves the point all the more. Call us.
