Fire your Accountant & Hire a Partner

Can an Old Football Tactic Cut Your Business Cost?

Posted on 12 August 2010

Vince Schembri

There are three things we can all agree on:

1.Turnover is caused by many outside factors you may not be able to control.

2.Turnover costs your business money in lost profit and training costs.

3.Versatility can save you in times of turnover.

What you can control is the relationship with your staff and managers. The most common controllable cause of turnover is management employee relationships.  So how do you increase team play?

As I write this, I think back to the 1970’s and the great Dutch national soccer teams and the club team called Ajax. They adopted and played a system called “Total Football”. In this system, a player who moves out of position is replaced by another member of the team, thus retaining the team’s intended organizational structure. In this fluid system, no player is fixed in a nominal role; anyone can be successively an attacker, a midfielder and a defender. The only player fixed in a nominal position is the goalkeeper.

What does team play look like?

Total Football’s tactical success depends largely on the adaptability of each footballer within the team, in particular the ability to quickly switch positions depending on the on-field situation. The theory requires players to be comfortable in multiple positions; hence, it places high technical and physical demands on them.

I say all of the above and wonder how this type of theory could be applied to your organizations and the results it would have. In other words, who can interchange with whom and how effective would that be? Do they have the know how and skills to execute should something happen to someone else? Would they be willing to step in at any given time and play another position?

Also, as you perform your review, the thing that may standout the most is that your business is based on key people. If something were to happen to any of them, what would that do to the ongoing operating of the business? Who could step in and if there is no one right now, how can that be resolved? I believe this area needs to be addressed now!   There are  key individuals and no amount of insurance can recover their creativity and/or knowledge.

To overcome this issue, you will need a structure that does the following should anything happen:

1. Systematize your processes

2. Standardize your reporting

3. Delegate, delegate, delegate

What does this have to do with Accounting? I’m glad you asked. The most critical person holding information is you – bookkeeper, controller or office manager.  Start with them in the above 3 steps and purpose to ensure they are replaceable.

On your Team,

Vince Schembri