Capabilities

Business Definition and Purpose

What does it really mean to start a business?

Surprisingly, ALL businesses operate on the same principle - acquire raw material, add value to the material, turn it into a product, then sell the product. This is easier said than done, about 60% of new businesses fail within the first 3 years of operation. Startups and Small Businesses are busy with day to day operations and delivering product to their customers, there is little time to plan for the future. Larger organizations have similar problems but on a much larger scale, they can also afford to hire a large staff to focus on business development. What is the same for all successful companies is they have leaders that embrace planning and analysis to ensure sustainability for the future.

Without a plan, there is no future for a company. Most businesses focus on the short term revenue generation and believe that increased sales will solve all of their issues. As a company grows, so do the issues and every company needs guidance through each phase of growth. By hiring a consult to provide the knowledge, guidance and leadership; a company will be better prepared for emerging issues and poised for future success.

What is the purpose of your business?

Defining corporate purpose is not about singular aspirations or following the latests business trends. Simply put, how does your business make the world a better place, no matter how large or small the impact. Not only does your business make a great product or service, but does it generate a positive energy that unlocks growth and profits, along with attracting, retaining and motivating employees; achieving social impact; and inspiring customers.

Regardless of the size, every company has an effect on society. Understanding the purpose of your business will help define the company's true success and impact on generations to come. At FUNEL, we believe that developing a great product is fantastic, but helping your customers do great things with your product is even better.

Business Fundamentals

The fundamentals of business are the same no matter the product/service or industry you're serving; an organization or entity that sells goods or services for a profit. We believe that an idea becomes a business when someone purchases the first product or service; someone is willing to trust your business enough to hand over their hard earned dollar. Whether your business becomes successful and makes a profit is another story. FUNEL focuses on 5 key capabilities that we believe can help your business reach it full potential and exceed its goals.

5 Key FUNEL Capabilities

1. Business Plans

Business plans help you run your business

A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You’ll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business. It’s a way to think through the key elements of your business. Business plans can help you get funding or bring on new business partners. Investors want to feel confident they’ll see a return on their investment. Your business plan is the tool you’ll use to convince people that working with you — or investing in your company — is a smart choice.

Pick a business plan format that works for you. There’s no right or wrong way to write a business plan. What’s important is that your plan meets your needs.
Most business plans fall into one of two common categories: traditional or lean startup.

Traditional business plans are more common, use a standard structure, and encourage you to go into detail in each section. They tend to require more work upfront and can be dozens of pages long.
Lean startup business plans are less common but still use a standard structure. They focus on summarizing only the most important points of the key elements of your plan. They can take as little as one hour to make and are typically only one page.

Whichever format you chose, FUNEL can help get your business plan moving forward. We can provide you templates and explain the requirements for each section or help you write the business plan entirely. We are here to help.

2. Business Development

In the simplest terms, business development can be summarized as the ideas, initiatives, and activities that help make a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships and making strategic business decisions.

Business development encompasses a wide scope of ideas, activities, and initiatives that a business owner and management implement with the goal of making the business better.
Business development can include many objectives, such as sales growth, business expansion, the formation of strategic partnerships, and increased profitability.
Successful business development impacts every department within a company, including sales, marketing, manufacturing, human resources, accounting, finance, product development, and vendor management.
Business developers should be aware of new market opportunities, possibilities for expansion, competitor developments, and the current sources of the company's revenue.

In essence, business development involves high-level decision-making based on a realistic assessment of all potential changes and their impact. Through new ideas and initiatives, it aims to improve the overall business prospects, which drive the functioning of the different business units. It is not sales; it is not marketing; it is not partnering. Instead, it is the structure encompassing the entire business and its various divisions, driving overall growth.

FUNEL can help you develop the right business development plan to make your business better and more successful.

3. Digital Transformation

Whether you are a small business owner or an executive of multiple international corporations, there will always be a number of activities going on at the same time. It could be a challenge to handle too many things at once and not let work become chaotic. This is why it makes sense for businesses to start using a business management software to stay on top of things.

These days more and more organizations or companies are investing in business management software to get things done, predict risks, and improve overall efficiency. Thus, it won’t be wrong to say that business management tools have come a long way and are constantly making things better for anyone involved in some form of business.

Webpage- not a traditional business management software, but it maybe the most critical management software tool a business can have in today's business environment. A company webpage is the first place a customer goes to learn about a business: story, products, service, purchase, promotions and customer feedback.

ERP-enterprise resource planning software is use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations. A complete ERP suite also includes enterprise performance management, software that helps plan, budget, predict, and report on an organization’s financial results.
CRM- customer relationship management software systems helps business owners nurture their relationships with their clientele. A CRM also assists with organization, efficiency, time management, and helps to deeply understand the clients' purchasing trends, cycles and future plans.
PMP-project management software provides project managers a solution for maintaining control and visibility of all aspects of their projects. Project managers can view project information at a single source point enabling them to track and manage a project through the project lifecycle, from creating and planning, through to completion.
Predictive AI-modern predictive analytics software is about using machine-generated predictions with human insight to drive business forward. In business, foresight is everything. If a company can predict what will happen next, they can make smarter decisions, go faster to market and be the leader in their industry. Predictive analytics is a key milestone, where classical statistical analysis techniques meet the new world of artificial intelligence (AI).

FUNEL has partnered with some of the world's leading developers of business management software to offer our clients the best tools to make their business run more efficiently and be ready for what is next.

4. Program Management

Many people interchange “program management” with “project management,” assuming, perhaps, that their meanings are basically the same. While the two terms are interrelated, they are vastly different in how they are approached and by whom. The company program management office (PMO) often leads program management for outcomes aligned with achieving corporate objectives. One of its primary charters is to orchestrate coordination and interdependencies of cross-enterprise projects comprising the program that together realize strategic goals.

Program management is the coordinated planning, management, and execution of multiple related projects that are directed toward the same strategic, business, or organizational objectives. Effective program management ensures people and teams are focused and collaborating across departments who are working together to achieve a shared strategic vision.

Provide organization and discipline to run multiple programs concurrently.
Create change in the organization for overall corporate improvement.
Foster growth through innovation and market expansion, digital transformation, and efficiencies.
Assist in executing on new business strategy by providing structure and organization.
Focus on ensuring alignment to priorities and shifting as priorities change.

Because projects often compete for resources in terms of people and dollars, program management must also balance those resources across projects. Program management enables the organization to fund, prioritize, optimize resource capacity, and manage interdependencies and conflicts. Program managers are viewed as strategy execution leaders and have deep knowledge about current organizational capabilities. Program management thrives in organizations that embrace uncertainty, leveraging continuous planning as a part of their strategic roadmap and portfolio funding process. From idea to delivery, programs are vital to successfully integrating strategy with delivery.

FUNEL specializes in teaching companies the real principles of Program Management. We can help your organization to develop a PMO to improve the overall operations of company by resolving today's issues and being prepared success in the future.

5. Operations Management

Every company either has a service they provide or a product they sell. They need to make sure that their product/service is of high-quality and beneficial enough for their customers to purchase. This is why the process of creating a product or service is vital to the company. High-quality products or services attract customers, give you a competitive edge in the market, increase revenue, and make them a leader in their industry.

Operations management takes charge of the production process entirely and ensures that every step is efficiently carried out to ensure maximum productivity.
It is managing the planning, organizing, and supervising of the production of goods and services. It ensures that your organization successfully converts inputs (labor, materials, technology, etc.) into outputs (products) in an efficient manner. It involves managing information, human resources (such as staff), equipment, technology, and other resources needed to produce goods and services.

Simply put, it involves getting the most out of a company’s resources.

The goal of operations management is to help maximize efficiency within an organization, increase the organization’s productivity, increase profits while reducing costs, and ensure the production and delivery of high-quality products or services that suit consumers’ needs. More importantly, operations management ensures that every single day-to-day operation in an organization supports and helps to achieve that organization’s unique goals.

Operations management is focused on converting resources into quality products and services.
It involves overseeing the organization’s production processes to create the highest level of efficiency.
It helps your organization increase profits while reducing costs and ensures maximum productivity.

The role of operations management is essential in every organization. It serves as the “control room” of an organization. The success of an organization solely depends on its operations and how they are effectively managed. For organizations to compete in a constantly changing market, their operations managers have to maximize productivity, efficiency, and profit—these three are essential to a company’s survival.

FUNEL believes in continuous improvement; a process that worked a few years ago, may not be efficient today. Change naturally occurs in every process, we can help identify these inefficiencies and develop a new strategy for improved performance that will increase overall profits.