From Michael Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited”
You Business Needs Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration:
“Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration are the backbone of every extraordinary business.” (p. 127)
Innovation:
Innovation is finding ways to improve sales from the customer’s point of view. “Innovation simplifies your business to its critical essentials. It should make things easier for you and your people in the operation of your business; otherwise it’s not Innovation but complication.” (p. 118)
“How the business interacts with the consumer is more important than what it sells.” (p. 118)
- Experiments were done and it was found Salesman could increase sales by changing the questions they asked.
- Experiments were done and it was found Salesman could increase sales by the clothes they wear. Example: McDonald’s Disney, Federal Express.
- Experiments were done and it was found Salesman could increase sales by touching a customer’s arm or back.
Quantification:
Everything needs to be quantified, otherwise you won’t know if Innovation is working.
- “few small business owners do quantify these things, even those who believe in Quantification. Because few small business owners believe that such apparently insignificant Innovations are really that important!” (p. 122)
- Quantify everything related to your business. How many customers do you see each day? How many people call each day? How many call to ask for a price? What time of the day are they sold? Which days are busiest?
- “Because without the numbers you can’t possibly know where you are, let alone where you’re going. With the numbers, your business will take on a totally new meaning.
Orchestration:
“Orchestration is the elimination of discretion, or choice, at the operating level of your business.
- Without Orchestration, nothing could be planned, and nothing anticipated- by you or your customer. If your’re doing everything differently each time you do it, if everyone in your company is doing it by their own discretion, their own choice, rather than creating order, you’re creating chaos. (p. 124)
- “unless your unique way of doing business can be replicated every single time, you don’t own it. You have lost it. And once you’ve lost it, you’re out of business!” (p. 125)
- “give your customer what he wants every single time.” (p. 126)
- “Orchestration is a simple as doing what you do, saying what you say, looking like you look- being how and who you are- for as long as it works. For as long as it produces the results you want. And when it doesn’t work any longer, change it!” (p. 126)
- “that’s all that Orchestration really is, Sarah: a habit. A way of doing something habitually.” (p. 127)
Other Good Quotes:
“there needs to be Orchestration, Sarah. There needs to be a way we do something. There needs to be a set routine. Because without it, there would be nothing to improve upon. And without improvement, there would be no reason to be… There would be monotony and the boredom you so eloquently describe.” (p. 128)