A ChallengingMetaphor of Business performance

A ChallengingMetaphor of Business performanceAli Anani, PhDAli Anani, PhD

I dedicate this presentation to professor Rod King.I hope the presentation has the proper “Fitness Level” to be worthy of my dedication.

Gems are sometimes in front of our eyes; yet we don’t see them

One gem is the scale we use to measure the Brix level of produces.

Is this extensible to measure the quality of employees? And how?

The Brix Scale helps us figure out the nutrient and flavor value of produces:The higher the value, the better the produce is

Brix values higher than 12 tell us that we have a good to excellent quality produce

For instance, a poor, sour tasting grape from poor soil can test less than 8 BRIX.In contrast; same grape, grown on rich, fertile soil can test 24 or better BRIX

It is amazing that quality of produces and in spite of their complexity may be revealed from one number and is easily measured

Brixing measures the solids in the sap of produces Just squeeze a drop and by using a hand-held refractometer you may instantly get the Brix value

See linked videohttp://www.youtube.com/user/RealFoodCampaign

Can we do the same for measuring the quality of businesses?

What is equivalent to that juicy drop of produces to businesses to reveal their quality?

Juicy creative ideas are indicative of the quality of a business

The Brix value of a produce results from planting the seeds in good soil, good environment and in quality management.

Likewise; businesses will only give juicy ideas (sap of minds) if the work environment is healthy, seeds of ideas are planted in a good soil and managerial quality is highly fit and fresh

We want dense and quality sap from produce and so are the desired juice of minds (ideas)

The soil must be balanced in fertilizers and never be void of micronutrients

Similarly, organizations must never be depleted of micronutrients - the talents that ensure the finished product (ideas) will be of excellent quality

The use of chemical fertilizers may cause more pain than delight - flavor may be depleted and quality of finished produce may deteriorate considerably

Business that depends on manufactured incentives may actually deplete the business from talents and the quality of ideas may drop significantly

produces from poor soil have a low Brix level.Poor produces invite insects and we compound the problem further by using insecticides

Poor ideas result from poor business attention to keeping talents and using natural incentives and motives.The result: the business becomes attractive to non-performing employees

If we eat poor quality produces our bodies suffer

Business that eat their own poor quality ideas will weaken the body of the businesses and the deterioration cycle escalates.

Good produces shall not deteriorate rapidly on storageExcellent business ideas shall not rot and eventually they shall be ready for yielding their long-awaited value

Each fruit has its own Brix level or number.Each employee must have his Brix number- in keeping with what is required from him/her.

The business may be producing

Turbid ideasClear ideasViscous ideasGloomy ideasFoggy ideas

Different produce require adaptations, why not extend the idea to business ideas?Not all trees are the same and not all divisions are the same. So, strengthen each business units while keeping overall integrity.Establish a performance chart for the business like we do for produces- each has its own Brix numeber

The Brix number for business reflects the quality of its produce - the total useful and solid material in the sap of its fruity ideas

The form of organization = Freshness + Fitness

This idea is borrowed from sports in which, for example, a rider can be fit at the end of the Tour De France, but he is very tired, so not 'fresh' enough to have form. On the other side of the coin, you might have ridden your bike for 2 months, and are very 'fresh', but not very 'fit'. So, the correct balance of fitness and freshness will create 'form'

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/what-is-the-performance-management-chart

'Fitness' is a response to training stress. Businesses must have the fitness to learn and develop and re-learn

Organizations need to be fresh as well to progress

Like the Brix number is different for fruits than for leaves of the same tree, so are the Brix numbers for business units

To insure that the organization is “fit” and performing at the right level is a difficult job for leaders of organizations. There are so many parts to an organization’s fitness and performance; i.e. financial, sales, customer service, production and/or services offered and then of course, the processes and the right people to make it all come together.

http://sixdnwo.com/_blog/Our_Blog/post/Organizational_Fitness_-_How_Healthy_is_your_Organization/

Trees are complex systems; still we have a single number to measure their performance. That is their Brix number

Organizations need to have their Brix number for the whole organization and for each unit of it

The Brix number alerts us to where the problems could arise from. We go back and analyze to learn with fresh minds and fitness to learn

This is the formulae for success

In conclusion, I believe we need to establish charts for the Brix number for businesses and their units. The higher the Brix number is, the sweeter are the ideas generated from each unit. This, in turn, reflects, much improved form of businesses.

I hope theBrix score of this presentation is above 12