Four Critical Business Roles

It never ceases to amaze me that people continue to establish new businesses or struggle on in established businesses, without a clear understanding that there are four critical business roles which must be performed at an optimum level in any business if it is to grow and be successful in the longer term.

Too many business people are not aware that there are very distinct roles which must be performed daily and consistently in any business, and that each of these distinct roles requires people with differing personalities operating in each respective role to ensure that optimal outcomes are achieved for the business.

It is also not well recognised that very few people are actually suited to effectively, and more importantly consistently over time, perform all of the required roles. Many will do their best when assigned one of the four critical roles but inevitably they will eventually drift away from the elements of any role that they personally get limited or no satisfaction from, and focus attention elsewhere to the detriment of the overall business.

Often the limitations of one or two people trying to perform all of the critical roles do not become apparent until the business starts to expand as a result of unplanned for organic growth or external pressures being brought to bear on the business.

In my experience the four critical and quite distinct roles (role groupings) required to be effectively performed in any business aspiring to be successful and sustainable are;

• leadership, strategy development, and new customer/client acquisition,
• budget management, cash flow management, competitor/market research management, business plan management, and demand management,
• customer relationship management/customer retention management/up selling and cross selling to existing customers, and
• administration, sales support and operations management.

In my view each of these critical roles (role groupings) are best suited to people from different personality types, and care taken in matching a particular person with the critical role (role group) which best suits their particular personality, will pay high dividends to the businesses who take this approach.

My own experience indicates that a high level of passion for performing any particular role comes from that role being closely aligned to the type of work activities a person prefers to regularly perform, those preferences generally being aligned to their individual personality type.

Initially, when first establishing a business, it may not be possible to create and fill four separate roles however, if any business is to grow and have long term success, each of these roles will need to be performed by individuals, or groups of individuals, with the specific aptitude and real passion for performing the distinctly different types of daily activities which need to be performed effectively, and consistently for a business to prosper.

If your business has reached the stage of its business cycle where you are ready to grow your business, have a very close look to see if you have all the bases covered in ensuring that each of these critical roles, or role groupings, are effectively covered and the full-time attention of at least one passionate individual, is being applied in each area.

Should you not be satisfied that this is the case, I would suggest that you put any growth plans on hold until you are satisfied, as this will avoid the inevitable problems that will potentially implode your plans, and set your business back for as long as it takes to right the situation.

It may be that your business has stagnated and appears to be going nowhere at present, and if that is the case, have a good look at these critical roles to see if you have them all covered. If not action to rectify this situation may be the change you need to make to get your business firing again.

If you have all bases covered, look closely at the people performing the roles to determine if they are passionate about the type of work involved in the relevant role, and if not place them elsewhere in your business where their passion may be re-ignited, and find the right person for the relevant role.

For those operating smaller businesses with less people than the number of critical roles which need to be covered, I would suggest that each roles is as important as any other and time needs to be applied each day to the performance of all these four critical roles.

In this less than ideal situation it is critical that each of those involved has some affinity with the nature of the work involved in whichever role(s) they are required to perform, and some form of ongoing accountability is introduced to ensure equal treatment of all roles assigned is occurring.

Understanding of these four critical roles and the linkages between them is a vital skill for all business owners to develop. A lack of understanding of same is usually clearly evident to a consultant called in to address issues standing in the way of any business growing to achieve its full potential.