“SATISFICING”

“ACCEPTING WHAT IS MINIMALLY ADEQUATE INSTEAD OF WHAT IS OPTIMAL”

The word satisfice was coined by Herbert Simon in 1956

In business, “satisficing” is common, insidious and destructive.

RESULTS: Chronic Business Problems

ALL DAY LONG, PUTTING OUT FIRES!: You are having difficulty distinguishing between when to focus on leading and when to focus on managing – you feel unproductive at the end of the day.

PROBLEMS WITH VENDORS: Your interactions with vendors are full of conflict, disorganization and/or distrust – you worry about vendor’s performance and or if you are being taken advantage of / charged too much. Can’t rely on them to make things better.

ESTIMATING / COST CONTROL/ PROCUREMENT IS DISORGANIZED OR INEFFECTIVE – you are not confident that you have the systems in place to be a well oiled machine – isn’t that what you wanted when you set out to build your business? Disappointed?

…in order to react and adapt to the new economy you need to maintain excellence in operations.  Devising change by itself does not guarantee results.  You must plan and control for intended outcomes.

LENGTHY PUNCH LISTS, QUALITY INCONSISTENT, LITTLE OR NO ACCOUNTABILITY – frustrated, embarrassed in front of customers and colleagues; spending your money to fix mistakes by others?

INFORMAL OR INADEQUATE SCHEDULING PROCESS: Overwhelmed!

POOR FINANCIAL TOOLS: Inaccurate reports, bad data, or worse, no reports.  Are the gauges of your dashboard turned off?  Driving blind?

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT PROCESS NOT PRODUCING THE RIGHT RESULTS: Contract documents from Architect / Engineering Team causing difficulties / cost overruns in the field.  Frustrated!

PROJECT MANAGERS PERFORM LIKE “CLERKS OF THE WORKS” – paying them good money and this is what you get? Angry!!

EMPLOYEES ARE UNHAPPY AND UNDERPERFORM – feel like you are babysitting? Drained…

What if you got rid of even ONE of these chronic business problems and made lasting measurable improvements in your company? Would you:

• Enjoy your day more?
• Feel more confidence when speaking with colleagues and vendors?
• Be more relaxed in your family life?
• Increase profits through higher margins or doing more business?
• Feel excited about the prospect of growing your company?
• Be at ease when spending your hard won time away from the company you built?

Most business owners and executives are very busy working at their business. Change and improvement come from working on your business. How do you find the time and energy to do that? Change takes time and planning!

“But I should be able to solve these problems – it’s my business.  I can do it all by myself.”

Owning your own business, or ascending to the top executive level is not by itself a guarantee you have all of the knowledge, skills, abilities and attributes to have the success you envision for yourself.

• How do you acquire the skills you don’t have? Go back to school?
• Sit in a seminar with 50 other people and listen to a speaker?
• Might sound good at the time, but how long does your motivation stick? Do you really know how to execute the concept you just learned about?
• What if you aren’t surrounded by staff who are passionate about making change to create peak performance, profitability and productivity?

Strategies fall apart in the execution phase. Managing requires measuring inorder to know you are improving. Change takes man hours and requires planning for the intended outcome.  Too often attempts by management to improve become the initiative flavor of the week and gets cast into the dumpster.

“The definition of insanity – Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Albert Einstein

“We’ve tried to solve this problem before – just doesn’t seem to go away. We’ve used a consultant who understood what to do but left us to our one devices when we asked how”.

“Successful business leaders know when to seek help, are humbled by the admission, yet are daring enough to act with dispatch.”

Ron Lewis

Often the right advise and coach can make all of the difference - improvement anchored in the foundation of your business.

SOLUTION: A CONSULTING APPROACH THAT WORKS

For General Contractors, Builders, Sub-Contractors, Specialty Contractors, Material Suppliers, Professional Services Firms:

• What are your goals for value added improvement for 2011 and beyond?

• What is your plan to achieve measurable improvements?

• If your plan does not include measuring, how will you know where you are going or if you got there?

“If you don’t know where you are going you will end up somewhere else.”

Yogi Berra

R B Lewis & Associates exists because of the life long passion of Ron Lewis to keep business alive and well.

When you hire R B Lewis & Associates you have a partner, coach and adviser for change and growth. At your disposal is that life long passion combined with decades of educating, coaching and real life executive value adding expertise in the construction industry.

You already know ‘why’ you want to improve. When ready, we will work side by side with you on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’. Our expertise, refined coaching and advising approach, coupled with extensive experience producing the right results, will get you where you want to be. Together we target opportunities for lasting improvement in the areas of:

• Leadership & Management
• Project Management
• Vendor Relations
• Human Resource Management
• Cost Controls & Procurement
• Planning & Scheduling
• Quality Assurance
• Financial Performance

Anchoring excellence in the foundation of your company is the ultimate goal. Setting measurable goals and being ready willing and able to make lasting change is how you get rid of the chronic business problems.

Using discipline and staying power,  we produce “Rapid Results” in the areas important to you so as to  build confidence and sustain momentum towards the goal of anchoring improvement in the foundation of your business.

Consultation, Problem Focused Diagnostic Evaluations™ and Results Oriented Action Plans™. The right tools for right transfer of skills. From our firm to yours.

NO MORE SATISFICING

You make decisions all day long. Make the decision to get rid of one or more chronic problems and improve your company’s performance.

Call R B Lewis & Associates

No commitments, just give our office a call and ask to speak with Ron directly. He can always find 15 minutes to listen. Get a sense of what R B Lewis & Associates can do for you.

R B Lewis & Associates
Anchoring Excellence the Foundation of Your Business

Home | About us | Mission & Values | Words From My Peers | Our Core Values | Our Mission | Solutions that work | Why Hire A Consultant | Our Services | Contact Us|Vote For This Site!