If you’ve ever read the books The E-Myth, Traction, or Built to Sell, you are already aware that creating systems in your company is essential for growth, long-term success, and building value.
When David Jenyns contacted me to review his book, SYSTEMology: Create Time, Reduce Errors and Scale Your Profits with Proven Business Systems, I enthusiastically said yes.
In my heart, I’m an ‘operations gal’, and am passionate about implementing systems to streamline business activities and improve flow in operations.
Every business has systems, which is apparent because tasks and work are getting done every day.
Yet, simply having systems in a business does not mean that those systems are efficient, add value to customers, or are helping to add profits for the business. Inefficient systems have lots of waste inherently built into them, which are cash flow and profit drains in the company.
Questions business owners can ask to determine if their systems need improvement are:
Have I built a business that is 100% reliant on my personal involvement in its daily operations?
Are tasks being completed as efficiently as they could be?
Is the system standardized to produce consistent, high-quality, expected outcomes?
Is there waste in the system (i.e., time, motion, waiting, defects) or redundancies in the system?
Are critical-to-success systems in the business identified?
Are systems optimized for efficiency and productivity or “broken?”
The book, SYSTEMology, addresses this real challenge that almost every business struggles with: a shortage of effective systems.
As a business performance improvement and leadership consultant and trainer, one of the first places that I look where to make improvements in a business to improve performances is its systems.
This is where David Jenyns comes in. He introduces an approach to how to create and document effective business systems and processes that free up time and help businesses become more profitable.
David Jenyns is an Australian entrepreneur, writer, speaker, podcast producer, and author of SYSTEMology. His mission for writing this book is “..to free business owner worldwide from the day-to-day operations of running their business.”
Who is this book for?
The target readers of this book are business owners who are feeling drowned and trapped by their business, as well as managers, front-line supervisors, and team members whose jobs are to get the daily work of the business done.
Important Aspects of the Book
Everyone enjoys the insight that self-assessments provide. Implementing the SYSTEMology framework begins with an assessment of the stage of ‘systems growth’ of where it finds itself currently:
Survival
Stationary
Scalable
Saleable
In the Survival stage, Davide Jenyns writes, “The business owner is in an endless loop of chasing the work, getting the work, and doing the work. This creates up and down performance with lumpy results.”
Most of the time, a business owner is solving problems, is taking charge, and trying to manage everything themselves, and it’s not clear to others who is doing what. In short, there are few or no systems in place.
In the Stationary stage, David Jenyns writes, “In the stationary stage, the ups and downs have been smoothed out and you’re starting to see a little more consistency in the business.”
A few systems are loosely documented, yet systems primarily are comprised of scattered sticky notes everywhere about. At this stage, others still depend on the business owner to obtain guidance about what and how to do an activity; employees are not empowered to make decisions on their own.
In the Scalable stage, David Jenyns continues, “You have now proven your core business model works. You still need to extract and organize systems from all business departments, but you’re well on your way.”
In this stage, some systems are in place and the culture of the business systems has gotten over any resistance they had to do things a “new way.”
Yet, there is more work to be done.
Process and systems need to be optimized, and any missing or “broken” systems that are performing to expectations must be addressed. There is still room for improvement to increase the flow of information and work in the business.
Having a company be Saleable is the coup de grȃs, and the supreme goal for a business owner to achieve: to have built a company that someone else wants to buy.
At this stage, the people implement the systems and are in a cycle of continual improvement and optimization of systems. This builds the company’s ability to scale growth by increasing its company’s competitive strength in the market, and ultimately, its value.
Even if a business owner is thinking that selling the company is not their goal, it is a friendly reminder that every owner needs an exit plan from the business because there always is one — for a variety of reasons.
David Jenyns writes, “SYSTEMology is a seven-stage process that is designed to identify and create the critical systems within your business.”
The seven steps are:
Define
Assign
Extract
Organize
Integrate
Scale
Optimize
Each of the seven steps is explained and is supported by real-life case studies and resources to aid with implementation. The book provides a clear and useful path to implement the SYSTEMology system.
SYSTEMology presents a viable solution to business owners trapped in their business’ day-to-day operations.
Managers who spend all day putting out fires will also benefit from implementing the SYSTEMology framework. I am confident the book will provide enough inspiration to tweak your business processes to give you time to breathe.
Conclusion
I am a “systems champion” and absolutely loved this book.
If having more efficient business systems could make your business operate more smoothly, or you are ready to yourself out of the day-to-day grind — perhaps chaos — of running your business and you want to experience freedom and peace of mind. I highly recommend this book and enthusiastically give it five stars!
You can buy the book on Amazon here.