From Howard Shore’s new book Your Business is a Leaky Bucket, there are many ways that businesses lose revenue and profit such as the following:
- Mediocre hiring practices:
- Hiring and Keeping B and C players in critical positions
- Leaving critical positions vacant
- Lacking a standard interview process
- Excessive turnover/Regrettable turnover
- Lack of alignment
- The leadership team lacks trust and accountability
- Goals and expectations are ineffectively communicated
- Actions without purpose
- Meetings have devolved to activity speeches versus productivity discussions (sample meeting agendas; Bus. Resources section nos.13 &14)
- Chasing revenue anywhere and everywhere
- Lack of targeted, differentiating strategy
- No or ineffective Sales playbook and process
- Inability to say “No” to the wrong customers/deals
- Lack of financial transparency
- Create a system to find and evaluate all the leaks. I recommend the CFO be in charge of this effort and part of his/her job description. You can start with the aforementioned list. Your P&L and B/S are also excellent places to look for leaks.
- Institute an action plan to plug the leaks you find. President/COO is the best likely candidate to lead this process. Every leak should have an owner that comes up with a plan and date for completion.
- Create a weekly meeting to hold everyone accountable and offer assistance to anyone who needs it. I recommend that the CFO run this meeting. Spend time celebrating progress but spend most of the time completing the action plan on time. This is a team effort with everyone pitching in when others ask for help.

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“Like many good coaches, Bill knows that buy-in, follow through and confidence are enhanced when ideas and priorities are generated from within the organization. Bill will motivate and guide you to do the work and make progress producing alignment and results” – Global Educators Office of the President
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