2x Your Profits: What You Need to Know
By: Professor Schwartz
Tags: Employee Engagement, Organizational Change, Consulting, Board Of Directors, Business Strategy

Business in 2020 was horrendous, but if you own or manage a multi-million dollar business, you already knew that!

What you might not know is how did Google and future-proof companies like them jump ahead prior to 2020 and continue to make profits moving into 2021.

Before we jump in, let me just explain that I am a former Teacher, Principal and Superintendent and I have spent the last 20 years researching and studying every aspect of American life, including business, education, politics and culture.

This article hopefully sheds some light on some of my research in a more actionable way for you to jumpstart your business and make a full recovery in 2021.

The sobering reality is that many businesses will shut its doors in 2021. But some of those business owners and high-level employees will see 2021 as opportunity to start new ventures. These tips will also help those entrepreneurs.

There are three areas that the Google Case Study supports. This is part of my 22nd Century Business Strategy that I developed over the last five years and began implementing at the start of 2020.

At the macro level, the three areas are Resources, Value and Mission (R.V.M.)

First “R” (Resources): The single biggest asset that a company has is its employees. If you do not have good employees, making money in 2021 is going to feel like trying to walk through molasses. You may have the best business plan in the world, but it won’t get very far.

Here’s where Google treats its employees different than you. In the early 2000s, before Google gained 90% marketshare, they chose to only interview the best and brightest. If you did not graduate from an Ivy-League School or a Top-20 University, it was highly unlikely you were getting an interview.

Next, if you were selected to interview with them — all candidates were required to bring ONE business idea to the interview. Yes, you heard me. The interview was a pitch session to work at Google. If they liked your idea, you were hired. If they didn’t. Better luck somewhere else.

What Google was doing well before “Shark Tank” was collecting the best and brightest with the most “out-of-the-box” creative ideas and funding them through employment. Google owned the idea, funded and supported the idea, and then made millions off the idea.

Look at your business. Do you leverage your employees like this? Are you extracting their best? Do they feed the profit model or do they just drain it?

Fortune 500 companies spend millions of dollars on Human Resources and business consultants and strategists to come up with employee engagement and motivation strategies and campaigns. They are all a waste of money, but more importantly they do not feed the bottom line.

Under my 22nd Century Business Strategy “R.V.M.”, employee engagement isn’t a problem. Look in the mirror, do you lack motivation to go to work? The answer is probably not. But Why?

The reason is because you have one thing that the people you supervise and manage do not — control over their career path. The key to employee motivation and engagement is providing employees with a clear path for future growth. Stifle their growth — turn the cash register off — because profits will suffer.

Businesses need to re-think how they organize and structure their business. Not the business model, but how employees help the company make money.

Normally this would take 30 days of consulting, but to try and simplify this “Big Idea” — think of your employees in two categories: the “creators” and the “grinders.”

What the “Creators” do is what those Ivy-League graduates did for Google. They came to the business with new ideas. And the C-Suite needs to decide which ideas they like and which ideas they don’t.

The “Creators” then project manage those new ideas, but they need a team to help them fulfill their vision. That’s where the “grinders” come into the equation.

Not every worker likes to take on responsibility. There are people who work for your company who like order, to-do lists, project work. They don’t want to brainstorm, they don’t want to strategize. They just want to do work.

You need “grinders” just as much as you need “Creators.”

Together they build and develop the products and services you will sell in 2021 and beyond.

Any business that can organize to this model — will double profits in 2021.

Let’s look at the other thing Google did well; they brought the “V” (Value) to the table: And “V” was given to both employees and customers.

Did you ever wonder why Google grew so rapidly? Do you wonder why your business can’t grow in today’s economic climate? It’s not the conditions, it’s not your employees, it’s the “V” (Value) your business brings to employees and customers.

Most Fortune 500 companies neglect their employees with the theory that the customer is the only metric. But this is a short-sighted idea. In fact, any business that wants to compete with Amazon, should be seriously thinking about R.V.M. because this 22nd Century Business Strategy can expose Amazon’s weaknesses.

If R.V.M. could help a business compete with Amazon, what do you think it would do for your business in your sector?

The main message is don’t forget about bringing “V” (Value) to your employees. It’s not a competition between employees and customers, they just need to be treated equally. Whatever customers receive, so should your employees.

Now think again about your business. What “V” do your employees receive?

If your only answer is a salary or compensation, then unless you are ready and willing to double their compensation — then you need something else to add to the “V.” And I’m not advocating for doubling employees salaries, but I’m making it very clear that money is not the reason people enjoy their work.

“Money is not the reason people enjoy their work.”

In order to double profits in 2021, businesses need their employees to be invested in the long term profitability of the company.

Lastly, let’s look at the “M” (Mission): What was Google’s mission? It was really simple. Be the go-to for internet search.

What’s your company’s mission? What is your “M”?

Because Google had a clear “M” and they understood how to bring “V” to the employee and customer at the same time — it was easy for them to grow exponentially year over year. Google literally started as an invite-only email program. It had thousands of users in the beginning.

It is now the most dominant internet company in the world.

Over the last 20 years, some companies have tried to create a mission with employees — this is a huge mistake. Your “M” is not a democracy. It needs to be clear and it needs to be created by the small group of Founders or the C-Suite. The “M” has everything to do with strategy and vision. Do you think Steve Jobs asked other people what Apple’s Mission was?

The “M” is the only aspect of the business that has a STAMP from the top, everything else is driven from the employees.

I hope this article helped business owners and CEO’s with strategy for 2021. Obviously, understanding R.V.M. in more depth and implementing R.V.M in real-time takes hands-on consulting and support, but hopefully you get the idea and can re-think, re-imagine and re-organize your business to double profits in 2021.