robert lavery

Presented by Orchid SystemsRobert Lavery & Associates Inc.

Building Margin into your Business & Life

Capacity Utilization1) Revenue2) Production3) ServiceCost of Increasing Capacity1) Mktg & Sales2) Capital Investment Sales3) Salaries & Wages (Hire People)

Building Margin Into Your Business

Presented by Robert Lavery, Robert Lavery and Associates

Increasing Business Value• Value = Capacity Contribution• Capacity Contribution - Cost of Capacity =

Contribution Margin

• Productivity Goal is to increase capacity at a little or no cost OR at least lower than cost of capacity.

• 2 Drivers: Ideas and Technology



Influence of Ideas & Technology• The 3 P’s of Business: Principles, Processes

and People.• All 3 must be in harmony.• Technology is a tool to support business

objectives.• The goal is to aggregate data into intelligence• The outcome is ……?



Outcome of Ideas & Technology

1) Gain Competitive Advantage

2) Improved Customer Service

3) Increased Productivity

4) Reduced Costs





Increasing Margin = Business Value

• Key is Execution

• Cost of doing nothing = Opportunity Cost

• Cost of doing something = time and money

Lack of Focus = Confusion

• "I have always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific." Comedienne Lily Tomlin

Understand What Drives Margin

• Identify Key/Critical Success Factors- What drives good performance in our organization?

• Focus on activities that bring greatest margin to the business

“Focus on the Few”

• Measure Price Sensitivity• Measure Cost to deliver product or service

Seeking Customer Feedback With Provocative Questions

• What attracted you to us originally?Shows how you are viewed in the market

• What would you do if we weren’t here?Provides insight into the value of your offering.

• Can you name one person in our organization who has impressed you?

Speaks to the relationships you have with your customers.

Seeking Customer Feedback With Provocative Questions

• What one thing could we do better?Delves into their priorities.

• Why do you buy from us?Highlights your strengths.

• Name one thing we do or don’t do that irritates you? (AND one thing we should never stop doing.)

Speaks for itself. Must do something about it.(This is your opportunity to shine!!)

Customer Segmentation

ClientsWe Want


ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ProfitMargin

Increases

PriceSensitivityIncreases

ClientsWe Want


ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ProfitMargin

Increases


ClientsWe Want


ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ClientsWho

Want You

ClientsWho Don’tWant You

ProfitMargin

Increases


ClientsWe Want


Who Has The Power?

ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ClientsWho

Want You


ProfitMargin

Increases


InvestClientsWe Want


Who Has The Power?

ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ClientsWho

Want You


ProfitMargin

Increases




Who Has The Power?

Be Easy ToDeal With

ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ClientsWho

Want You


ProfitMargin

Increases




Coach

Who Has The Power?

Be Easy ToDeal With

ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ClientsWho

Want You


ProfitMargin

Increases




Coach

Who Has The Power?

Monitor

Be Easy ToDeal With

ClientsWe Don’t

Want

ClientsWho

Want You


Increasing Value of Data for Decisions



Data Information

(Formatted)

Knowledge

(Trends)

Wisdom

(Relevant)

A Few Questions

• How many Managers/Executives do you help to manage the future?

• Do your Managers/Executives appreciate what you do for them?

• What can you leverage to monitor & build positive margins in your business?

• OLAP!

• Online distribution of Data/Reports OLAP – Online Analytical Processing

• Save time (personal margin) and money (business margin)

• Avoid creating multiple custom reports

Key Technology Solution• Orchid’s NEW Info Explorer



Info Explorer Addresses Pain Points Like:

• Lack of accurate and timely reporting resulting in guesswork and poor decision making

• Key operational data not available for reporting• Time consuming & inefficient report preparation• Over reliance on spreadsheets for reporting• Business and productivity monitored using

intuition and not operational metrics



The Problem with Custom Crystal Reports:

• Hard/costly to implement • Hard to modify (static)• Not scalable• No process for upgrading• Out of an accountant’s comfort zone• Managers have to ask for them



Accountant’s Need OLAP

Equal Needs—Unequal Resources Big Business

Small Business

SalesOrdersInventoryExpensesCRM

Reporting Needs

Resources

Web Site Accounting

Warehouse

End-To-End Integration

WAP /PDA’s

CRM

Browser

ERM

Becoming an Online Business• Electronic File Transfer (EFT)• Electronic Data Interchange• Electronic Workflow • Web Self Service• Electronic Commerce• Web Procurement

• & OLAP!



Is This OLAP Thing Real?

Who Needs OLAP?

• Any company struggling to manage margin with the changes in business

Typical Objections

• Creates a process for consistent, high quality delivery of value-added data.

• Effectively communicates an understanding of trends / value in your organization.

• Very small investment of time and money to create additional insights into the margin possibilities in your business.

• Decision Makers love it!!

• It’s true OLAP

Building Margin Into Your BusinessKey Benefits of Utilizing Orchid’s Info Explorer


Info Explorer

• Users define data format & report layouts= Improved Customer Service

• Eliminate multiple Crystal Reports with 1 Data Cube = Reduced Costs

• Schedule & Distribute multiple Data Cubes = Increased Productivity

Streamlining and Automating Processes in Sage Accpac ERP


Let’s Take A Look!

Demonstration

NEW Info Explorer – Allows you to:

• Focus on what is important to measure• Empower your people with the right information

at the right time• Cater for individual reporting needs• Automate generation and distribution of data• Build Margin in your Business & your Life!• How?



Info Explorer Lite (FREE Version)

• Download & Install for 30 Day Trial Period• After 30 Days request a FREE Activation Code• Comes with 5 pre-configured “Data Cubes”• 3 Limitations for “Lite” Version of Info Explorer

1) Can’t print the cubes2) Can’t modify or create queries3) Can’t export data to Excel



• Based on a book by Richard A. Swenson, a medical doctor. “Margin: How to Create the Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves You Need.

• Margin is "the space that once existed between ourselves and our limits." When we reach the limits of our resources and abilities, we are out of margin. Limit – Load = Personal Margin“Capacity to handle unplanned events in life.”

• The pace of modern life has increased because the rate of change is exponential not linear.

• Progress and margin are often opposing forces.

Building Margin Into Your Life


• Progress provides positive gains in medicine, technology, our standard of living and material well being. Intellectual and educational opportunities have expanded enormously, and knowledge and information are increasing.

• At the same time progress can consume us: More choices, Internet, business layoffs, indebtedness, vulnerability to terrorism, media, spiraling medical costs, divorce, AIDS, pollution.

• We live in a 7 X 24 world where boundaries between work & play and home & the office are blurred. Increases productivity, but at what cost?



• As a result, we encounter limits in our finances, time, energy, health, ability to concentrate, to care & to feel. Creates stress & burnout.

• Puts pressure on all relationships: family, friendships, neighborhoods & community spirit.

• There are physical limits. Man has performance limits, emotional limits, and mental limits.

• Having adequate emotional energy is the most important because with emotional margin one can work to gain the other margins.

• Emotional energy is finite and must not be squandered.



• Restoring emotional margin is aided by cultivating our social and family support network. Serving others or doing volunteer work is proven to enhance and lengthen life.

• Extending forgiveness and reconciling relationships can stop the negative drain on our emotional stores. Cultivate a spirit of gratitude.

• Physical Margin requires rest and sleep. Aerobic exercise for the heart "will do more to establish margin in physical energy" than anything else.



• Creating time margin requires saying "No," turning off the television, practicing simplicity, and getting less done but doing the right things. Many of us need to make some thoughtful and hard choices.

• Time is meant for Investing in people and relationships.

• Must have balance in all areas of life. Avoid striving for “Excellence” in just one area.

• Envy is the enemy of contentment and form of self-inflicted torture. The practice of contentment brings margin into our lives.



• The road to health and blessing is the path of relationship. Love and relationships are hard work, and sometimes costly because superfluous, unimportant things may need to be put aside, but the payoff is happiness, contentment, peace, and personal margin.

• Applying some of these things can turn you from the path of overload and start you down the path of margin.



Learn to leverage technology

Create Margin & Value in your business

Invest in your “A” clients

CREATE MARGIN IN YOUR LIFE

Takes Time, Effort, Focus, Patience & Discipline

Conclusion


robert lavery - building margin into your business & life

Business

seeking customer

profit margin

profit margin

olap thing

price clientssensitivity

building margin

personal margin